Great is your Faithfulness – Lamentations 3: 1-66

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All right, welcome to Red Village Church. If I have not met you, my name is Aaron, and I’m the preaching pastor here. I’m glad you’re with us. I know a lot of us are gone this week and probably again next week over spring break, so I’m glad that you’re here.

If you have a Bible with you, please open it to the Book of Lamentations, chapter three. If you don’t have a Bible with you, fear not—there are Bibles scattered throughout the pews, and it’s on page 401.

For first-timers here, I’m just going to read verses 21 through 26. If you are familiar with the Book of Lamentations—maybe a little bit familiar from when we started this study a couple of weeks back—these are probably the verses you’re most familiar with. As you listen, please take note of the context as we work through them and as we get to the sermon today. Sometimes there are these famous verses scattered throughout the Bible; they’re great on their own, but when you see the context, they mean so much more. I think you’re going to see that this morning as we work through these famous verses in our study.

So, let me read verses 21 through 26, and then I’m going to pray, ask our Lord’s blessing on this time, and then we’ll get to work.

The Bible says in verse 21:
“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.”

Okay, so that’s God’s word for us this morning.

Would you please pray with me?

“Lord, it is good to be here—not just to be around each other, but to be around Your word. Lord, I pray that, for the glory of Christ, You would speak today through Your word, through the preaching of Your word. Please help me to be a good communicator, and please give the congregation good listening ears to hear what Your Spirit is saying. Please use this time to encourage us and give us hope. I pray this in Jesus’ name, Amen.”

If you’ve been around Red Village for a little while, you know that every good story I like to tell starts with the words, “So there we were.” In this story, “where we were” is actually right here in this very room. A few years ago, one of our missionary families from our church was back on an extended break. This was a much-needed extended break for them because so many things were hard for the family—they had some real, hard, challenging health issues; they had increasing financial uncertainty; and things were even a little uneven with the team they were ministering to. Ministry itself was just hard—a lot of hard things for the family as they came back to the States to visit with us. They were coming back riding on fumes, emotionally, mentally, and physically exhausted.

One of the things we like to do when our missionaries are back home is to give them an opportunity to share any updates they want to share, with the hope that they can be very honest with us. So, if things are going well, they’re in a season of encouragement—they have the freedom to share that. But if things are not going well and they’re in a season of discouragement, they have the freedom to share that as well. We don’t want missionaries, or any of us, to feel that we can’t be honest about how we’re really doing.

Because of all the hard things this family was facing, my assumption was that their time of sharing would revolve around how difficult life has been. So there we were—the couple goes up to the mic, and they start to share. They did share a number of the hard things they were going through, which, as I assumed, they would do—and I was actually glad that they did. It’s good for us as a church to hear the struggles that missionaries have as they seek to proclaim Christ in difficult areas.

But then what I did not expect, although I probably should have because of how godly this family is and how strong their faith is, was that after sharing the hard things, the wife then began to testify how, even in all the hardships, they stood before us with hope—much hope. And the reason they have so much hope is because Jesus Christ died and rose again from the dead. She further testified that no matter how hard life may be—which for them was really hard in that moment—as Christian people, we live as people of hope. In Jesus Christ, we always have hope, no matter how hopeless things might feel. We are people of hope.

I tell you that story to set us up for our text today, which is the third of the five poems that make up the Book of Lamentations. If you’ve been with us the past couple of weeks, you know that the first two poems we went through are really heavy—poems that may have been hard for us to see and think through. In those, the poet of Lamentations (likely the prophet Jeremiah) shared the raw human emotion he wrestled with as the holy city of Jerusalem was destroyed by the evil nation of Babylon. Jerusalem was, I mean, absolutely devastated. This destruction was brought on mainly because the sins of God’s people—who for generations rejected the Lord, rejected His rule, and even rejected His warning that this would happen if they did not turn from their sin and return to Him.

So, we’re through the first two poems. You could feel the weight that the poet carried as he tried to find answers to all the hurt and pain he was wrestling with. It seemed that all his strength was in crying out in lament over everything that had taken place—lamenting not only helped him process his feelings but also served as a catharsis, enabling him to trust the Lord through it all. The situation in Jerusalem was far from hopeful; for the poet, it looked bleak and felt hopeless.

Now, today, as we gather together and come to the third poem, we encounter something we might not expect from the poet—a declaration of hope. Even in the midst of all the really hard things, the poet declares hope. Before we get back into the text, I want to mention a couple of things up front about this poem and how we’re going to work through it.

First, if you let your eyes run through the poem, you’ll see that it is 66 verses long. I mentioned in the first sermon of this series—and I’ll mention again here—that the first four poems of Lamentations are structured as acrostics, where every verse starts with the next letter of the Hebrew alphabet. There are 22 letters in the Hebrew alphabet, and this poem comprises three acrostics (22 letters × 3 = 66). Because this poem is 66 verses long, we won’t have time to work through each line in as much detail as in the first two poems. In this sermon, I’ll work through each verse but more quickly, with the hope that later today or sometime early this week you will read through this third poem more slowly on your own. My hope is that this flyby approach will give you some handles to help you understand what you’re reading.

Also, as we work through this poem, you’ll see there are clear sections—movements within the poem that show how the poet was processing things. In the first two poems, the mood and tone were pretty consistent. But in this third poem, you’ll notice that the emotions and tone change as the poet begins to trust in the Lord and finds hope. I’ll try to break the sections of the poem into these movements in my sermon, and I hope that helps you as you read it more slowly later, so you can feel and see the change in the poet’s tone.

That being said, if you look back with me starting at verse one through 20, I am labeling this as the first section of the poem—others have described it as the poet’s dark night of the soul, which I think is a very good description for this section. Let’s work through this section.

A couple of things to note: first, observe how the poet describes his dark night of the soul. If you’ve experienced such a night, you know how hard it is to communicate your thoughts. I think the poet gives you language that you might identify with. Second, notice how personal this section is for him. Later, the poem becomes more communal, but here it is very personal—his own dark night of the soul, where he is very honest, vulnerable, and raw with us.

Verse one:
“I am a man who has seen affliction under the rod of His wrath”—this refers to the destruction of Jerusalem brought on by the justice of God.

Verse two:
“He, the Lord, has driven me and brought me into darkness without light.” This is why it is labeled the dark night of the soul. The poet felt complete darkness in his soul—a thick, heavy fog that affects every area of life, making it hard to sleep, eat, or speak, and leaving only depression.

Verse three:
“Surely He, the Lord, is against me. He turns His hand again and again the whole day long against me,” as if the Lord is standing before him to prevent him from moving forward.

Verses four through seven:
“He has made my flesh and my skin waste away. He had broken my bones. He 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 I cannot escape. He, the Lord, has made my chains heavy.” The poet feels trapped, as if imprisoned in darkness with chains too heavy to break free.

Verse eight:
The poet cried out for help to the Lord, feeling utterly trapped.

Verses nine and ten:
Even though he shouted out with prayers, the Lord has blocked his way with blocks of stones, made his paths crooked, and is like a bear or a lion lying in wait, ready to attack if he could break free.

Verse eleven:
“The Lord turned aside my steps and tore me to pieces. He has made me desolated, isolated from others.”

Verse twelve:
“The Lord has bent His bow and set me as a target for His arrows,” as if the Lord has made the poet a sport to be shot at.

Verse thirteen:
“As the Lord shot His arrows, He drove into my kidneys the arrows of His quiver,” emphasizing the intense pain the poet feels.

Verse fourteen:
The poet feels that because the Lord has trapped him in the dark night of the soul, he has become a laughingstock of all peoples, subject to taunts and mockery—others even questioning, “Where is your God now?”

Verses fifteen and sixteen:
The poet expresses that his heart is filled with bitterness, that he is seated with wormwood, his teeth grind on gravel, and he is made to cower in ashes. Here, his raw anger builds from deep depression into intense frustration.

Finally, in this first section, Lamentations 3, verses 17 through 20:
He testifies that his soul is bereft of peace, that he has forgotten what happiness is—his endurance has perished, and his hope from the Lord is gone. In verse nineteen, he recalls his affliction, his wanderings, the wormwood and the gall. In verse twenty, his soul continually remembers these things and is bowed down within him.

Do you feel what the poet is feeling in this first section of chapter three? He has collapsed into himself, as if sentenced to an endless, hopeless darkness.

But then there is a drastic change in the poet—a shift in tone. The fog begins to lift as he recalls the Lord and how the Lord was present in his life in the past. That remembrance brings him hope that the Lord will be present again in the future.

So verse 21, which I read earlier, says, “But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope.” Even though his situation seemed hopeless, as he recalled the past, he found hope. In verse 22, he continues: “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness.” (These are the verses behind the hymn “Great Is Your Faithfulness.”) The poet doesn’t specify exactly what he remembered, but it gave him hope. For us, this is our hope—the steadfast love of God never ceases, His mercies never run dry, and every morning they are new, because our God is great in His faithfulness.

Verse 24:
The poet proclaims, “The Lord is my portion, says my soul; therefore I will hope in Him.” And verse 25 declares, “The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul who seeks Him.” These are hard things to do when you’re in the pit, but even in the dark night of the soul, we must wait for the Lord and seek Him.

In verse 26, the poet concludes this section by saying, “It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.” In other words, we must patiently wait upon the Lord, trusting that His salvation will come.

Now, let me give you three quick takeaways from this poem:

Be Honest in the Dark Night of the Soul:
You can and should be honest about your situation. When you feel trapped in a dark night of the soul, do not shy away from expressing your true feelings. The poet’s honesty in his lament is a model for us to be honest with ourselves, with others, and before the Lord about our struggles.

Hold on to Hope:
Even when it feels impossible, remember that if you are in Christ Jesus, you have hope. Hope in the steadfast love of the Lord, in His unfailing mercy that is new every morning, and in His great faithfulness. Sometimes hope is found only when we recall God’s past faithfulness. Even if you’re at the end of your rope, turn your eyes to Jesus and trust in His timing.

Serve God and Others Even in Despair:
Despite the darkness, you should seek to love God and serve others. The poet, even in his despair, sought to share hope with his community. Even when you are struggling, let your hope in the Lord compel you to reach out and serve, so that you may help others and not become consumed by self-pity.

I’ll close our time with these words from Romans:
“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.”

Let’s pray:

“Lord, I pray that You give us hope—especially for those who may have walked in this morning feeling as if they are in a dark night of the soul. Fill us with Your hope and comfort today. Thank You that in Jesus we live as people of hope, no matter how dark or hopeless things may seem around us. Help us to remember that Your steadfast love never ends, Your mercy is new every morning, and You are great in Your faithfulness. In Jesus’ name, Amen.”