God's Steadfastness in Love

Introduction and Background

This small little poetic book of Lamentations was written during some of the worst of circumstances. The armies of the Babylonian empire had invaded and Jerusalem, the capital, had fallen. All hopes that the Babylonians could somehow be held off had failed.

Jewish tradition remembers this history by also reading this little book of Lamentations on another day of horrible circumstance — the day on which the Roman Empire destroyed the Temple in Jerusalem in the year 70.

In each day, it is a day when hopes seem completely dashed, when there seems to be no hope for the future, and perhaps most frighteningly — when God seems the most distant and silent.

And in the middle of this little book of Lamentations, a reminder of hope.

Hope in God’s Love

That is not to say that the hope ignored the current feelings. It is quite easy when we find someone who is a bit down in the dumps to simply say, “It’s okay. Things will get better. You just have to have hope!” Yet just a few verses back in the beginning of the third chapter of Lamentations, the writer begins, “I am one who has seen affliction under the rod of God’s wrath; he has driven and brought me into darkness without any light; against me alone he turns his hand, again and again, all day long.”

These are the words of someone who not only has seen horrible devastation, but also may not have hope that God is going to work things out. In fact, while the Babylonian exile may have been a part of God’s larger plan, and while the writers of the time may have recognized their deserving of some of the things that had happened — still it is difficult to find hope in God given everything that has occurred. The beginning of the third chapter of Lamentations begins like many of the Psalms that we often, appropriately, call the Lament Psalms. A recognition that things stink. Bad circumstances happen. Heartbreak and destruction happens. And what is a single man or woman, let alone a whole nation, to do when the walls come crumbling down around us? These are the words of the Lament Psalms. These are the words of Lamentations. Chaos always threatens the way of life. And at the door it seems is death itself.

While much can be said about the cause of agony and suffering in the world, this text from Lamentations helps us to reflect on what it is that we can do to face those issues and how to live in the reality of it all. Where do we turn when, like the writer here says in Lamentations 3:18 — “Gone is my glory, and all that I had hoped for from the Lord”?

Last week, we heard about Job and his friends. When they spoke wrongly about the Lord, God came in a whirlwind to impart wisdom and knowledge about the nature of God. Here, once again, God breaks in to the conversation through the words of that same lamenter who calls to mind some important words:

“The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases.” The word we deal with here is the Hebrew word “hesed.” It is a word often used of God to speak of His faithfulness, His love, His kindness, His loyalty. It shows up here in Lamentations in the plural, likely pointing to the fact that it is not just some verbal expression of love, but a reminder of God’s deeds of love. You may well translate the verse: “The great and loving deeds of the Lord! We shall never be cut off!” These are words the writer of Lamentations pulls from the Psalms, the song book of Israel. Chesed does not mean just to like someone. It means it is a willing and determined love, a love that sticks through thick and thin. The closest we get in our human understanding of hesed is the old marriage vows: for better or for worse, in sickness and in health, for richer or for poorer — it is a love that steadfastly and stubbornly supports through all circumstances. And even that isn’t enough to describe the steadfast love — the hesed — of God.

There is nothing that is going to drag the lamenter out of such devastation — I dare say that there is nothing that is going to drag us out of the darkest places of our own personal devastations — and that nothing will pull this nation and this world out of its devastation except the steadfast love of God.

And the writer of Lamentations reminds us of another word: His mercy never comes to an end. When the Hebrew language called for a word for mercy, they based it on another word — the word for womb. When the poets of Scripture were looking for a term to describe, in the best human way possible, what God’s mercy looked like, they imagined God’s love and care to be as a mother to her child.

Conclusion and Encouragement

And so, in the midst of the darkness of life, our hearts and minds must turn to the only place they can and the only place they will truly find rest — in the steadfast love and mercy of God. There we will find peace. Let us trust in the words of today’s writer, who reminds us in verse 24: “The Lord is my portion, therefore I will hope in him.” Because when all hope is lost and when there’s nothing left to lean on, there’s that one steadfast thing that will never go away — God’s love for you. Amen.