My Week in Lamentations
This past week, my Bible reading had me in Lamentations. If you’re not familiar with that particular book of the Bible, let me tell you, it’s not sunshine and roses. It’s full of agony and destruction and pain. Turns out, it was the perfect book to read for two reasons. First, the book of Lamentations is apropos for a time of global pandemics. Second, learning about what a lament is, was helpful for me during this season of my life.
The Bible Project describes a lament like this: it is a poem that is a form of protest against the sorrow of the world, it helps us process our emotions and voice our confusions.
The book of Lamentations covers the lament of the destruction of Jerusalem. Most of Lamentations is composed of acrostic poems which help create order out of the chaos of the time. The poems cover the grief and shame of Jerusalem, the fall of the city and God’s wrath, the siege of the city and then chapters 3 and 5 are a little different focusing on this mysterious “suffering one” who likely represents the city of Jerusalem and then a communal prayer for God’s mercy.
If it sounds like a heavy book, it is. But lamenting, prayer, and grief are all parts of living in a broken world. And I don’t know about you guys, but my world feels really broken right now. Not only are we in the midst of a global pandemic but hatred, anger, and division are running rampant. Politics have divided this country to a seeming point of no return and what could unite us in its own horrifying way, like other tragedies in our nation’s history, has only worsened those divisions. On a smaller scale, marriages seem to be under attack, sickness in my church community is intense and widespread, and there are a number of personal things that are causing great pain. I am feeling the weight of this broken world in new ways this season, especially last week. Which is why it was wonderful to have this beautiful book as a guide.
There were three things that really spoke to me this past week from Lamentations and they are the idea of weeping over our sin and repenting, pouring out our emotions before God, and having confident hope in the future.
Because chapter 1 covers the grief and shame of Israel, it’s not surprising that the first theme I encountered was repentance and weeping over sin. Verse 16 starts like this, “For all these things I weep; tears flow down my cheeks.” The “all these things” refers to prior verses which outline the ways Israel sinned against God. Weeping over sin wasn’t necessarily a new concept to me. As someone who leans more passionate and justice driven, I’m often brought to tears by certain sins (specifically injustice against others). I’m also prone to weeping. I feel my emotions to the fullest extents. But the idea of weeping over my own sin, was new. The idea that my sin and subsequent consequences should cause me to weep in repentance was not something I had ever contemplated. I weep over my sin a lot. But not because I’ve done wrong but because the consequences of the sin tends to end up in painful repercussions for me. For example, I once made Adrian cry with my unkind words and I have never felt more horrible. The emotional pain I felt after hurting my best friend was intense. But it was also me centered. I wasn’t necessarily crying because I had hurt Adrian, I was crying because I felt bad. But Lamentations is challenging us to weep over sin, not because of how it makes us feel, but because we’ve done wrong to God. We’re being asked to consider Him first and our lives in light of His perfect holiness. This isn’t to say to ignore grace and fall into a deep legalistic hole. But to pause, consider your sin, and repent. Because we also see in Lamentations that God is gracious and compassionate even while we live in the consequences of sin. “He will show compassion, so great is His unfailing love.” Lamentations 3:32.
Like I said before, laments help us process our emotion and voice our confusion and pain and express them to our living God who is always there to listen. As Christians we live in this tension of revering the holiness of God and remembering the difference between us and Him but He also sent His son to bridge that gap. God can be simultaneously the all-powerful, creator of the universe and also our loving father. Not only that, but if David, a man after God’s own heart, and the author of Lamentations have the ability to pour out themselves before God in a time where Jesus hadn’t come, how much more do we, today have that opportunity? I don’t know about you but this is an area that is challenging for me. To pour my heart out to God requires a willingness to be vulnerable and raw and that’s hard. I think so often we can be like Adam and Eve and try to hide ourselves from God, keeping the parts of us that we’re not proud of hidden from Him. But it’s a lie. We can’t hide from Him. He knows our innermost thoughts and loves us just the same. So let’s be people who embrace authenticity before our creator and give Him all of ourselves. “Arise, cry out in the night, as the watches of the night begin; pour out your heart like water in the presence of the Lord.” Lamentations 2:19. When we’ve lamented and poured it all out, there in the stillness and silence His peace comes to us. He wraps our vulnerable and exposed hearts in the warmth and comfort of His loving embrace. Feel your feelings. Express your pain. Let it all out there. And then rest in stillness and embrace His loving grace and mercy. I called on your name, Lord, from the depths of the pit. You heard my plea: “Do not close your ears to my cry for relief.”You came near when I called you, and you said, “Do not fear.” Lamentations 4:55-57
Finally, we get to have confident hope in His promises. “Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” - Lamentations 3:22-23. Recently, this song from Maverick City Worship has been circling my Facebook feed and the premise is resting in God’s faithful promises. This is such a necessary step of lamenting because otherwise we can be left confused and empty. After pouring out our sin, confusion, pain, hurt, etc.to God, we are left raw and as He ministers us in that rawness - we recall His promises and remember truth.And as we remember truth, we then turn our hearts towards praise. It’s no coincidence that Lamentations ends in a communal prayer towards God with declarations of truth that don’t diminish Israel’s current situation but instead put the focus on Him and His promises. “You, Lord, reign forever; your throne endures from generation to generation...restore us to yourself, Lord, that we may return; renew our days as of old.” Lamentations 5:19, 21. Friends, as we learn to repent and lament, may we not forget to rest in God’s faithfulness. May we never forget to praise Him for His goodness regardless of our circumstances.
My life may not be externally any better this week than it was last week and in some ways, it’s worse. But, my heart is much more free having gone through the process of lament. I will need to continue to lament as I walk through this broken world, especially in this season. I will need to continue to repent my sin and receive grace and forgiveness. And I will need to continue to praise God for His wonderful goodness, grace, and faithfulness.