Lamentations 3: Weariness

Weariness plagues us all

This is why rest is one of the first questions in counseling

What causes weariness?

Most do not become weary of success

Loss, betrayal, hardship, and sin

Lamentations 1:1–5 (ESV)

How lonely sits the city

that was full of people!

How like a widow has she become,

she who was great among the nations!

She who was a princess among the provinces

has become a slave.

She weeps bitterly in the night,

with tears on her cheeks;

among all her lovers

she has none to comfort her;

all her friends have dealt treacherously with her;

they have become her enemies.

Judah has gone into exile because of affliction

and hard servitude;

she dwells now among the nations,

but finds no resting place;

her pursuers have all overtaken her

in the midst of her distress.

The roads to Zion mourn,

for none come to the festival;

all her gates are desolate;

her priests groan;

her virgins have been afflicted,

and she herself suffers bitterly.

Her foes have become the head;

her enemies prosper,

because the Lord has afflicted her

for the multitude of her transgressions;

her children have gone away,

captives before the foe.

Jerusalem’s spiritual state is reflected by her physical state

And Lamentations ends with the hopelessness that weariness breeds

Lamentations 5:20–22 (ESV)

Why do you forget us forever,

why do you forsake us for so many days?

Restore us to yourself, O Lord, that we may be restored!

Renew our days as of old—

unless you have utterly rejected us,

and you remain exceedingly angry with us.

Our life begins to reflect weariness

Lamentations 3:17–20 (ESV)

my soul is bereft of peace;

I have forgotten what happiness is;

so I say, “My endurance has perished;

so has my hope from the Lord.”

Remember my affliction and my wanderings,

the wormwood and the gall!

My soul continually remembers it

and is bowed down within me.

Isolation, despair, and questioning creep in with despair

We often think these things bring us peace

And we can begin to blame our weariness on worship

Malachi 1:13 ESV

But you say, ‘What a weariness this is,’ and you snort at it, says the Lord of hosts. You bring what has been taken by violence or is lame or sick, and this you bring as your offering! Shall I accept that from your hand? says the Lord.

This is very dangerous ground

Malachi 1:14 ESV

Cursed be the cheat who has a male in his flock, and vows it, and yet sacrifices to the Lord what is blemished. For I am a great King, says the Lord of hosts, and my name will be feared among the nations.

So what do we do?

Simplify our thinking

Simplify our actions

Lean on the church

Hebrews 10:24–25 ESV

And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.

The relief from weariness is found in the Lord