DEEP MERCY IN DARK CLOUDS

made with Proclaim

Jason Grissom

Eureka Baptist Church

THE 52 GREATEST STORIES OF THE BIBLE • Sermon • Submitted 6 years ago • Presented 5 years ago • 47:58

Lamentations 3:1–66

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One of life’s most puzzling problems has been the enigma of the presence, persistence, and power of the evil, pain, and suffering experienced by mortals. ‘Why’, we all seem to ask, ‘is this happening to me? Why is all of this necessary? Will there never be an end to the mental distress which comes from suffering?’

The difficulty is only sharpened all the more for the believer who attempts to explain how a good God can permit hardship and suffering that weigh so heavily on even the most faithful of His children. What can be done to avoid suffering, if anything? What is one to do when he or she is in the midst of such anguish? Can anything be said to comfort and aid a friend or loved one who is deep in the throes of suffering?

The Old Testament contains one of the most comprehensive surveys of the problem of suffering found anywhere. However, the emphasis of those writers fell on the purpose and result of suffering rather than on the definition, origin, or even rationale for suffering. They were fully persuaded that ours is a moral order guided by a merciful, benevolent, and gracious Lord who is actively involved with the current plight and daily affairs of all men, nations, and events. Although believing men and women might have grown impatient and perplexed over what appeared to them to be disparities and inequities between the prosperity of the wicked and the grief of the righteous, still the Old Testament was firmly convinced that God’s moral order in the governing of the universe would be vindicated.

In the book of Lamentations, more than perhaps anywhere else except for its individualistic expression in the book of Job, we are led into an experience of suffering and communal pain on a scale seldom endured by many individuals or nations. All too frequently the subject of suffering is avoided, or the realities of human sadness and divine involvement are minimized. Lamentations will not yield to any of these cheap ‘cures’. Instead of cure-all’s, it will direct us to the faithfulness and gracious character of our God.

No book of the Bible is more of an orphan book than Lamentations. The results of this neglect is a church that is weak and shallow. A church membership that is ripe for the enemy of our souls to plant seeds of heresies or doubts.

Kaiser, W. C., Jr. (2004). Grief and pain in the plan of God: christian assurance and the message of Lamentations (pp. 7–8). Fearn, UK: Christian Focus Publications.Depression begins with discouragement. Discouragement altars the way we look at life. Many people look into the future and all they feel is a suffocating darkness. This feeling keeps them from even wanting to get out of bed. Their feelings tell them that life is bad now and it’s not going to get better.

The Lord created us with emotions, and He has given us the book of Lamentations to teach us how to handle our emotions.

The book of Lamentations is a book of 5 laments from the prophet Jeremiah. These laments are poems about how bad everything is.

Though the book is dark it is a work of art. There are 5 chapters with 4 having 22 verses (1,2,4,5) and 1 having 66 verses (3). Each of the poems is an acrostic of the Hebrew alphabet where every verse corresponds with a letter of the 22 letter Hebrew alphabet. The exception to this is chapter 3. It is a triple-acrostic with each letter has 3 verses associated with it thus the reason for its 66 verses.

Jeremiah uses this method to show us that he is describing suffering from A-Z.

Jeremiah communicates another emotion in his structure of chapter 5. While it contains 22-verses it is void of the acrostic scheme of the previous four chapters. Why has he changed his form of writing? I believe his abandonment of structure shows us that his life has totally come off the rails. He has lost all sense of rhyme and reason.

Eugene H. Peterson has captured this truth most poignantly:

One of the commonest ways to deal with another’s suffering is to make light of it, to gloss it over, to attempt shortcuts through it. Because it is so painful, we try to get to the other side quickly . Lamentations provides a structure to guarantee against that happening. The structure is from aleph to tau or, as we would say, from A to Z. It contains the alphabet of suffering. Lamentations is being attentive to suffering. It is important to pay attention to everything that God says; but it is also important to pay attention to everything that men and women feel, especially when that feeling is as full of pain and puzzlement as suffering. The acrostic is a structure for taking suffering seriously … (Lamentations) repeats the acrostic form. It goes over the story again and again and again and again and again—five times. The first three chapters have the same grouping-patterns that involve three lines to a stanza. In chapters 1 and 2, each three-line stanza begins with the next letter of the alphabet. A crescendo (an increase in loudness and intensity) is signaled in chapter 3 when each of the three lines begins with the same letter of the alphabet and is given separate verse numbers. The fourth poem only contains two lines to each stanza and thus indicates a decrescendo (a gradual decrease in loudness or intensity). The last chapter is the only poem that is not an acrostic even though it simulates the shape and form of an acrostic in that it has twenty-two. The lament moves to a high pitch of excitement and intensity in chapter 3 and then decreases in strength until the case is laid at God’s feet in prayer—but only after the fullness of the people’s grief has been gone over from a to z. Likewise, the expression of what would otherwise be boundless grief finds containment and bounds in the device of the acrostic. When the final letter is reached, the lament should have spent itself. There will come a moment when it can be written, ‘Enough.’ Evil is not inexhaustible. It is not infinite. It is not worthy of a lifetime of attention. Timing is important. If an ending is proposed too soon, people know that their suffering has not been taken seriously and conclude that it is therefore without significance. But if it goes on too long … it can become a crippling.

Lamentations provides a structure to guarantee against that happening. The structure is from aleph to tau or, as we would say, from A to Z. It contains the alphabet of suffering.

Lamentations is being attentive to suffering. It is important to pay attention to everything that God says; but it is also important to pay attention to everything that men and women feel, especially when that feeling is as full of pain and puzzlement as suffering.

The acrostic is a structure for taking suffering seriously … (Lamentations) repeats the acrostic form. It goes over the story again and again and again and again and again—five times.

The first three chapters have the same grouping-patterns that involve three lines to a stanza. In chapters 1 and 2, each three-line stanza begins with the next letter of the alphabet.

A crescendo (an increase in loudness and intensity) is signaled in chapter 3 when each of the three lines begins with the same letter of the alphabet and is given separate verse numbers.

The acrostic is a structure for taking suffering seriously … (Lamentations) repeats the acrostic form. It goes over the story again and again and again and again and again—five times.4

The fourth poem only contains two lines to each stanza and thus indicates a decrescendo (a gradual decrease in loudness or intensity). The last chapter is the only poem that is not an acrostic even though it simulates the shape and form of an acrostic in that it has twenty-two .

Likewise, the expression of what would otherwise be boundless grief finds containment and bounds in the device of the acrostic. When the final letter is reached, the lament should have spent itself. There will come a moment when it can be written, ‘Enough.’

Evil is not inexhaustible. It is not infinite. It is not worthy of a lifetime of attention. Timing is important.

The first three chapters have the same grouping-patterns that involve three lines to a stanza. In chapters 1 and 2, each three-line stanza begins with the next letter of the alphabet. But a crescendo (an increase in loudness and intensity) is signalled in chapter 3 when each of the three lines begins with the same letter of the alphabet and is given separate verse numbers. The fourth poem only contains two lines to each stanza and thus indicates a decrescendo (a gradual decrease in loudness or intensity). The last chapter is the only poem that is not an acrostic even though it simulates the shape and form of an acrostic in that it has twenty-two verses and resembles certain prayers of corporate lament such as and 80.

If an ending is proposed too soon, people know that their suffering has not been taken seriously and conclude that it is therefore without significance. But if it goes on too long … it can become a crippling.

The lament moves to a high pitch of excitement and intensity in chapter 3 and then decreases in strength until the case is laid at God’s feet in prayer—but only after the fullness of the people’s grief has been gone over from a to z. Likewise, the expression of what would otherwise be boundless grief finds containment and bounds in the device of the acrostic. When the final letter is reached, the lament should have spent itself. There will come a moment when it can be written, ‘Enough.’

Peterson’s observations once again prove to be most helpful: ‘Evil is not inexhaustible. It is not infinite. It is not worthy of a lifetime of attention. Timing is important. If an ending is proposed too soon, people know that their suffering has not been taken seriously and conclude that it is therefore without significance. But if it goes on too long … it can become a crippling.

Thus the acrostic form contributes to the meaning and significance of all serious discomfort, each hurt, loss, disease, or tragedy. It patiently goes over each step in the process. It systematically organizes each detail so as to identify, objectify, and pacify each and every pain. It also sets boundaries to suffering so that mortals are not left forever numb and mute in the horrid face of jumbled confusion that evil has introduced into their lives. The final letter will come and so will the end of this sorrow. Nothing troubles the sufferer more than the feeling of the endlessness of one’s misery. Therefore the acrostic will help to itemize, organize, and finalize grief.

Kaiser, W. C., Jr. (2004). Grief and pain in the plan of God: christian assurance and the message of Lamentations (p. 14). Fearn, UK: Christian Focus Publications.

In chapter 1 Jeremiah shows up how to cope with grief. In chapter two we learn how to deal with personal suffering. In chapter 4 he teaches us how to put a name to our pain and in chapter 5 we are instructed to remember that God still reigns. Today’s text Lamentations teaches us that we can find “Deep Mercy in Dark Clouds”.

Jeremiah lived during a time when Israel was being delivered over to exile for their sin. Israel had hardened their hearts to God so many times that God was finally exiling them from the land he had promised to them.

During his life, Jeremiah witnessed multiple, violent deportations of friends and family from his beloved Jerusalem to Babylon. He watched as Solomon’s Temple, the symbol of Israel’s faith and pinnacle of her cultural life, was torn down.

Jeremiah was one of the remaining survivors in Jerusalem, and everybody that was left kept telling themselves that the worst was over. Yet this belief was not true. God told Jeremiah that the worst was yet to come and tasked him with telling everyone that the armies of Babylon would keep coming until nobody was left.

What a terrible job to be given but there was more. Jeremiah would tell the people what the Lord had told him, but no one would believe. They called him a traitor and put him in a dungeon where

Jeremiah 38:6 ESV

So they took Jeremiah and cast him into the cistern of Malchiah, the king’s son, which was in the court of the guard, letting Jeremiah down by ropes. And there was no water in the cistern, but only mud, and Jeremiah sank in the mud.

says he sunk up to his armpits in mud.

It was from this hellhole that Jeremiah composed these poems. No wonder they were so dark.

I said all of that to say, whatever your situation is Jeremiah gets it. No else may not understand but Jeremiah does.

So, let’s dive down into the middle of this mud pit with him:

Lamentations 3:1–33 ESV

I am the man who has seen affliction under the rod of his wrath; he has driven and brought me into darkness without any light; surely against me he turns his hand again and again the whole day long. He has made my flesh and my skin waste away; he has broken my bones; he has besieged and enveloped me with bitterness and tribulation; he has made me dwell in darkness like the dead of long ago. He has walled me about so that I cannot escape; he has made my chains heavy; though I call and cry for help, he shuts out my prayer; he has blocked my ways with blocks of stones; he has made my paths crooked. He is a bear lying in wait for me, a lion in hiding; he turned aside my steps and tore me to pieces; he has made me desolate; he bent his bow and set me as a target for his arrow. He drove into my kidneys the arrows of his quiver; I have become the laughingstock of all peoples, the object of their taunts all day long. He has filled me with bitterness; he has sated me with wormwood. He has made my teeth grind on gravel, and made me cower in ashes; 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. But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.” The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord. It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth. Let him sit alone in silence when it is laid on him; let him put his mouth in the dust— there may yet be hope; let him give his cheek to the one who strikes, and let him be filled with insults. For the Lord will not cast off forever, but, though he cause grief, he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love; for he does not afflict from his heart or grieve the children of men.

Lamentations 3:1–2 ESV

I am the man who has seen affliction under the rod of his wrath; he has driven and brought me into darkness without any light;

Lamentations 3:1 ESV

I am the man who has seen affliction under the rod of his wrath;

1 I am the man who has seen affliction under the rod of his wrath; 2he has driven and brought me into darkness without any light;

The word “driven” in Hebrew means driven like an animal, as in with whip. He’s probably recalling how he’s seen his people—family members and friends—driven away into captivity.

He’s driven me into a place of “darkness without any light.”

A few years ago, I read a book about Ernest Shackleton’s failed mission to be the first explorer to cross Antarctica. His plan was to sail as far South as he could, and then walk a hundred or so miles across the South Pole. But there was an early freeze and the ship got caught in polar ice several hundred miles from their destination and crushed. They were too far in to walk back but not far enough to make it to the other side. For over a year, they fought to just stay alive in subzero temperatures. But the book said that the worst thing for these men was not the temperature but the darkness. At the South Pole, you see, the sun goes down in Mid-May and doesn’t come back up until August. Those who have experienced this say that there is no desolation so devastating as the polar night. Darkness all the time. Days upon days of no light at all.

Jeremiah is literally in a dark place physically, emotionally, and spiritually.

Lamentations 3:3 ESV

surely against me he turns his hand again and again the whole day long.

Lamentations

Now, important question: who is the “he” that Jeremiah is talking about? God.

3 surely against me he turns his hand again and again the whole day long.

Lamentations 3:4–8 ESV

He has made my flesh and my skin waste away; he has broken my bones; he has besieged and enveloped me with bitterness and tribulation; he has made me dwell in darkness like the dead of long ago. He has walled me about so that I cannot escape; he has made my chains heavy; though I call and cry for help, he shuts out my prayer;

Now, important question: who is the “he” that Jeremiah is talking about? God.

You ever feel like that? Like God is not listening? Even more, you wonder, “God, are you behind this? At the very least, you’re not doing anything to stop it.”

4he has made my flesh and my skin waste away; he has broken my bones 5he has besieged and enveloped me with bitterness and tribulation,6he has made me dwell in darkness like the dead of long ago.7He has walled me about so that I cannot escape; he has made my chains heavy;8though I call and cry for help, he shuts out my prayer;

You ever feel like that? Like God is not listening? Even more, you wonder, “God, are you behind this? At the very least, you’re not doing anything to stop it.”

Here’s the thing: Jeremiah knows that this feeling is not true. He’ll show us that in a minute but regardless, this is how he feels.

Some of you have gone through dark chapters and thought these same things but you’ve suppressed those emotions telling yourself, “Real Christians don’t ever feel like this.” The prophet Jeremiah was a real Christian and he felt that way.

Charles Spurgeon was a real Christian and he told his 15K-member congregation: “I have spent more days shut up in depression than probably anybody else here.” He was said by many to be the greatest preacher ever to live and he frequently considering quitting the ministry he was so depressed.

Martin Luther was a real Christian and he went through times so dark that his wife would remove all the knives from their home for fear he’d kill himself: “For more than a week I was close to the gates of death and hell. “I trembled constantly. I could find no thoughts of Christ, only of desperation and blasphemy of God.”

Can you see you are not alone in your thoughts?

Lamentations 3:9 ESV

he has blocked my ways with blocks of stones; he has made my paths crooked.

Every time I see a way out and start to make headway GOD crushes it.

9he has blocked my ways with blocks of stones; he has made my paths crooked.

Lamentations 3:10 ESV

He is a bear lying in wait for me, a lion in hiding;

Every time I see a way out and start to make headway GOD crushes it.

What’s your favorite image of God? Is it this one? A bear waiting o maul you; a lion waiting to devour you?

10He is a bear lying in wait for me, a lion in hiding;

Lamentations 3:11–14 ESV

he turned aside my steps and tore me to pieces; he has made me desolate; he bent his bow and set me as a target for his arrow. He drove into my kidneys the arrows of his quiver; I have become the laughingstock of all peoples, the object of their taunts all day long.

What’s your favorite image of God? Is it this one? A bear waiting o maul you; a lion waiting to devour you?

This has all driven me to self-doubt. Maybe there is something wrong with me!

Lamentations 3:15 ESV

He has filled me with bitterness; he has sated me with wormwood.

This has all driven me to self-doubt. Maybe there is something wrong with me!

Wormwood is a bitter herb that to Jews represented the judgment of God.

15 He has filled me with bitterness; he has sated me with wormwood.

Lamentations 3:16–18 ESV

He has made my teeth grind on gravel, and made me cower in ashes; 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.”

Wormwood is a bitter herb that to Jews represented the judgment of God.

Lamentations 3:20 HCSB

I continually remember them and have become depressed.

16He has made my teeth grind on gravel, and made me cower in ashes 17my soul is bereft ofpeace; I have forgotten what happiness is; 18 so I say, “My endurance has perished; so, has my hope from the Lord… 20My soul remembers (all of this) and is depressed within me.”

Lamentations 3:1616He has made my teeth grind on gravel, and made me cower in ashes 17my soul is bereft of peace; I have forgotten what happiness is; 18 so I say, “My endurance has perished; so, has my hope from the Lord… 20My soul remembers (all of this) and is depressed within me.”

Jeremiah, the prophet of God, shows us life in the raw. God put this book in our Bible because he wants suffers to know that he knows how you feel and that it’s ok for you to express these emotions to God.

You see, this lament is honest even if it is not accurate. It is an honest reflection of how Jeremiah feels even if it doesn’t fully account for everything that God was doing. I point that out because I want you to see that it’s ok to be honest, deeply honest with God.

The greatest Christians in history were not those that God delivered from all pain and misery but those he delivered through pain and misery.

Faith starts with honesty before God. But it doesn’t stop there:

Lamentations 3:21 ESV

But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope:

This might be one of the most profound transitions in the Bible. I want you to see Jeremiah, in his dungeon, sunk up to his armpits in mud saying DEFIANTLY “But this I call to mind.” and therefore I (choose to) have hope:

21 But this I call to mind, (This might be one of the most profound transitions in the Bible. I want you to see Jeremiah, in his dungeon, sunk up to his armpits in mud, thinking about a child he lost, or a wife, wrestling with the prospect that he might never see them again, and saying DEFIANTLY “But this I call to mind.” and therefore I (choose to) have hope: 22The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases his mercies never come to an end,23they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.

Lamentations 3:22–23 ESV

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.

Lamentations 3:22–26 ESV

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.” The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.

22The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases his mercies never come to an end,23they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.

Lamentations 3:2222The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases his mercies never come to an end,23they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.

22The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases his mercies never come to an end,23they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.

Lamentations 3:31–33 ESV

For the Lord will not cast off forever, but, though he cause grief, he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love; for he does not afflict from his heart or grieve the children of men.

24The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.”25the Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. 26It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.

Keep in mind, these are the middle verses of the middle chapter in a book that is otherwise filled with despair. This is the anchor point for the whole book of misery. This is Jeremiah’s answer to the spiritual dimensions of depression. He shows us what to do amid despair.

Call to mind the goodness of God (vs. 21)

This I call to mind, says Jeremiah, steadfast love of the Lord never ceases… 25 the Lord is good to those who wait for him… 33 for he does not afflict from his heart or grieve the children of men.”

What does Jeremiah call to mind? That God’s steadfast love never ceases, and he does not afflict from his heart. What this means is that like any good father God allows his child to go through some pain but he never enjoys and he only allows it because he knows that the pain will ultimately produce greater joy later.

Jeremiah said, “In my pain, I cling to the goodness of God.” And how do I know God is good?

Because of what his word reveals about his character.

How we saw him save the children of Israel from slavery when he didn’t have to.

He sent Jesus, his one and only Son, to die for our sins when he didn’t have to. In the life of Jesus, we see his heart break over every lost sinner and healing and compassion flow to all who approached him.

How he sent Jesus to die for our sins when he didn’t have to.

In the life of Jesus, we saw his heart break over every lost sinner and healing and compassion flow to all who approached him.

We know from these things that he’s a good, good Father, and we CHOOSE to believe that even when we can’t see or feel it right now in our circumstances.

“Call to mind” means this thought is not naturally in there—we have to put it in there. It’s what D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones called preaching to yourselves. He said, “there is a sense in which the primary task of the Scriptures is to teach us how to talk to ourselves.”

Your emotions, you see, don’t have brains. They can’t think. They can’t show faith. You must think for them; you must show faith; and then you tell them how to feel. Here’s a phrase I want you to remember:

We must never feel your way into our beliefs; you must believe our way into our feelings.

A lot of Christians get that we walk by faith, not by sight, but they don’t get that we walk by faith and not by feeling. For many Christians, what they feel is their most reliable indicator of what is true. I feel like God has forgotten me. I feel distant from him. Jeremiah says, “I feel all those things but God’s word tells me they not true” and I choose to believe him even though I can’t feel it.”

Luther used to call this drowning out the voices of despair with the louder word of the gospel. At times he would physically shout at the devil: NO! I have not been abandoned. I have not been forsaken. God’s word tells me, and Jesus’s death proves it! Maybe you should do that. Go somewhere it is quiet, so people don’t think you are crazy and shout, “God is good! And call to mind his many acts of faithfulness.”

If you can’t recall them, have someone do it for you. This is why Christian community is so important. Because, inevitably, there will be times where I lose my way and I’ll need someone else to call to mind the promises of God and remind me of them!

Learn any lessons God is trying to teach you (26–28)

I want to be careful with this one because I don’t want to imply that in whatever suffering you are going through God has you in it because he has some grand lesson for you to learn and he won’t let you out of it before you learn it.

There are many times that is not true. There is nothing, in fact, that indicates that Jeremiah’s suffering was any kind of response to what he’d done. Jeremiah had been a faithful prophet of God since he was a young man.

But still, look at what he says:

Lamentations 3:26–28 ESV

It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord. It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth. Let him sit alone in silence when it is laid on him;

It is good because God often does his best work in us when we suffer even when we don’t know why we suffer.

26It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord. 27It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth. 28Let him sit alone in silence when it is laid on him. . .

It is good because God often does his best work in us when we suffer even when we don’t know why we suffer.

Here are a few things he might be doing:

Sometimes in our suffering God is trying to take out some idol from our lives.

Psalm 119:71 ESV

It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn your statutes.

, “My suffering was good for me, because it taught me to pay attention to your decrees.” Sometimes God uses suffering to get our attention. (When this happens, you usually know exactly what it is, because the Holy Spirit lets you know what he’s doing.)

Sometimes God uses suffering to get our attention. (When this happens, you usually know exactly what it is, because the Holy Spirit lets you know what he’s doing.)

Sometimes God might be trying to humble you:

2 Samuel 16:5–14 ESV

When King David came to Bahurim, there came out a man of the family of the house of Saul, whose name was Shimei, the son of Gera, and as he came he cursed continually. And he threw stones at David and at all the servants of King David, and all the people and all the mighty men were on his right hand and on his left. And Shimei said as he cursed, “Get out, get out, you man of blood, you worthless man! The Lord has avenged on you all the blood of the house of Saul, in whose place you have reigned, and the Lord has given the kingdom into the hand of your son Absalom. See, your evil is on you, for you are a man of blood.” Then Abishai the son of Zeruiah said to the king, “Why should this dead dog curse my lord the king? Let me go over and take off his head.” But the king said, “What have I to do with you, you sons of Zeruiah? If he is cursing because the Lord has said to him, ‘Curse David,’ who then shall say, ‘Why have you done so?’ ” And David said to Abishai and to all his servants, “Behold, my own son seeks my life; how much more now may this Benjaminite! Leave him alone, and let him curse, for the Lord has told him to. It may be that the Lord will look on the wrong done to me, and that the Lord will repay me with good for his cursing today.” So David and his men went on the road, while Shimei went along on the hillside opposite him and cursed as he went and threw stones at him and flung dust. And the king, and all the people who were with him, arrived weary at the Jordan. And there he refreshed himself.

Do you hear what David is saying? Look at the end of verse 11 and the entirety of verse 12. David doesn’t believe he deserves this. He believes the Lord has told Shimei to do this to humble him and teach him that God is his vindicator.

Lamentations 3:26 ESV

It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.

Sometimes through pain God is giving you the ability to relate to others in ways you couldn’t without the pain!

Spurgeon said, “I would gladly go into the depths of depression a hundred times in order to learn how to cheer a downcast spirit, that I might better know how to speak a word in season to the weary.” Charles Spurgeon

This is what Paul said, God broke me so I could learn to comfort other with the comfort wherewith I have been comforted.

It reminds me of the statement by A. W. Tozer, “For God to use you greatly he must first wound you deeply.”

God allows us go through some painful chapter so that you can identify with and minister to someone else. You see, sometimes the good lesson God wants to teach is not even in you! A few months ago, I told you about the cardboard testimony… Jeremiah is telling us that there is coming a day

when we all flip over our cards and say “worth it!”

Realize that God’s plans are ultimately for good and for blessing (24, 32)

There are 2 different extremes different kinds of Christians gravitate toward during suffering:

Some amid suffering will say, “Well, Jesus told us in the world we’ll have tribulation and that we would carry his cross—which means there is no use praying for things to get better. We should expect only pain and misery and disappointment, but God will help us get through it.

Others of you say, “No, God has appointed us to walk in blessing. It’s like the story of Joseph. You might be in prison now, but that’s just temporary. He’s just using the prison to prepare you for the palace. The blessing is right around the corner so hang on—in just a few days I’ll be appointed the king of Egypt.” Those of you who lean charismatic tend to gravitate toward these answers.

Both answers are partially correct; and both are incomplete by themselves.

Notice what Jeremiah says.

Lamentations 3:24 ESV

“The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.”

Portion is a word that the Jews used to refer to their allotment of land, the inheritance passed down in a family from generation to generation. Jeremiah is saying, “I don’t have any land left. The Babylonians stole it all but God himself is my portion.” He’s my inheritance and he’s better than land.

There’s nothing wrong with praying for the blessing of friendship, or marriage, or a better job but you know what? God is better than any of those blessings.

Let’s be clear: Jeremiah wanted deliverance from prison. He wanted vindication in the eyes of the people. He wanted reunion with his loved ones and restoration and salvation for the people. And he says, I’m convinced God will change things in the days to come.

Why does he think that? Because God is a God of goodness and blessing.

In the account of the creation one of the most predominant words is the word “bless.” God created the world to bless it—which means to make it flourish and prosper.

When God gave Abraham his promise to bring salvation to the earth, he expressed that promise in terms of restored blessing. He told Abraham, “I will bless you and make your name great and you will be a blessing to all the families on the earth!”

So, we have every reason to look for bless and restoration in our lives now.

Psalm 27:13 ESV

I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living!

It’s not just at death I’ll experience God’s goodness. It’s while I am living on the earth!

David said, “I shall look upon the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.” It’s not just at death I’ll experience God’s goodness. It’s while I am living on the earth!

Psalm 88:10 ESV

Do you work wonders for the dead? Do the departed rise up to praise you? Selah

says that God doesn’t just work wonders for the dead, and it’s not in the sweet by and by that we experience God’s goodness. We experience it now!

God doesn’t just work wonders for the dead, and it’s not in the sweet by and by that we experience God’s goodness. We experience it now!

In fact, in rather boldly charges God, “Can the dead praise you? I want to praise you now—I want to be a testimony to my generation today of the strength of your right hand, so let me experience that deliverance now!

Don’t get so spiritual that you overlook that God’s intentions for the world are good. Don’t just say, “Well, Jesus is enough.” Yes, he is enough but Jesus came to do something on earth, and I want to see his goodness and restoration at work in the world now! In my life. In my family. In our community.

Don’t try to be more spiritual than the Bible. Though he causes grief sometimes, I know, ultimately, he plans to show compassion.

So…

Get up tomorrow and look for the goodness of God (22-23)

Don’t you love this image of the new morning? God’s mercies and faithfulness are like the sun coming up new every morning, washing away the shadows and the darkness of the night!

Today may feel like a terribly dark, never-ending night of mistakes and despair but God’s mercies rise new and fresh every morning.

The sun of God’s mercy is going come up, full of heat and light, as if it were the first day of our life, unaffected by the darkness of the previous day. And God will be ready to begin a new gracious work in us that very morning!

Some of you may think you have messed up so bad there’s no more plan for you. Let me tell you: If you’re not dead, God’s not done! His mercies are brand new this morning—and they will be again tomorrow morning.

For those whose depression has a primarily spiritual root cause, this is the hope that drives depression away.

Your emotions may be telling you that there is nothing ahead but darkness and despair, but you must call to mind that Jesus got out of the grave which means he has good plans for you and your family, and ultimately your story will end in victory and not defeat.

Preach this glorious gospel to yourself. The most influential person in your life is you because you talk to yourself the most.

Call to mind that it is by grace you have been saved through faith, it was the gift of God, and because of that we know God has preordained good works that you should go and walk with them.

Call to mind that we were saved for a purpose—to bless us and make us a blessing.

The fact that you came to know him was not accidental. God has a plan for your life—to use you for blessing and not for pain. Before you born, , he knit you together in your mother’s womb, and laid out all his plans for you in a book before you had lived even a single day.

You may feel, like Jeremiah, like you have been forsaken. But this you must call to mind: “the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness, o God!

Hesed appears about 250 times in the Old Testament. It is extremely difficult to get any one or even two English words that completely encompass the whole idea. Based on the nouns that hesed is often linked with we may say it includes ideas of love or compassion grace , truth and faithfulness , goodness , and forgiveness.

We need to understand an important truth concerning Hesed. God’s Hesed is not a product of the covenant. Hesed is the very genesis of the covenant without it there would be no covenant. Hesed created the covenant and it keeps the covenant.

Kaiser, W. C., Jr. (2004). Grief and pain in the plan of God: christian assurance and the message of Lamentations (p. 82). Fearn, UK: Christian Focus Publications.

Don’t let your emotions dictate reality to you. Your emotions don’t have brains; they can’t show faith. Let’s God word dictate reality.

Use the Watchman Nee illustration of fact, faith, and feelings.

Don’t feel your way into your beliefs; believe your way into your feelings.

Jeremiah did not make his declaration after their deliverance. He made it in the midst of their despair. He made when nothing looked possible, hopeful, worthwhile or comforting.

In the face of the direst of adversities, Israel and we are offered hope. It is a word not about answers to the problem of evil; not a word about circumstances or men and movements. It is not a word about systems of political or even theological belief; it is simply a word about our Lord. He is faithful, He is love, He is gracious, He is full of compassion, He is our inheritance.

Kaiser, W. C., Jr. (2004). Grief and pain in the plan of God: christian assurance and the message of Lamentations (p. 83). Fearn, UK: Christian Focus Publications.

So, again, get up and look for the goodness of God!

Which brings up one, final question: How do you know God has steadfast love for you?

Wasn’t Jesus the one who experienced real exile? Wasn’t he the one driven from Jerusalem with a whip, from God’s people, and from the presence of the Father he loved as he carried the cross?

Wasn’t the one whose body God tore, like a bear, the one into whom God shot his arrows of wrath?

Wasn’t the one who literally drank wormwood (remember vs. 19?). says they gave him vinegar mixed with “gall.” Gall is the Greek word for ‘wormwood.’ Jesus drank the full cup of God’s wrath, so that all that is left for us is the overflowing cup of steadfast love.

Jesus lived in the darkness of so I could live in the beauty and light of vs. 21–33

Jesus went into depression so I could get out of it.

He went through the pain so I could get the joy.

So, now, when darkness seems to hide his face, I rest on his unchanging grace. In every high and stormy gale, my anchor holds within the vail. On Christ the solid rock I stand…!

So, once again: Get up again tomorrow. Get up and look for God’s mercy. God is not dead… The wrong shall fail, the right prevail, with peace on earth, good will to men!

Spurgeon, one last time: “I find no better cure for my depression than to trust in the Lord with all my heart, and seek to realize afresh the power of the peace-speaking blood of Jesus, and his infinite love in dying upon the cross to put away all my transgressions.”

This I call to mind—the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning, new every morning. Great is your faithfulness, O God!

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