Lamentations 3:19-24

Sisters and brothers in Christ,

This evening’s Bible passage is Lamentations 3:19-24:

¹⁹ Remember my affliction and my wanderings,
the wormwood and the gall!
²⁰ My soul continually remembers it
and is bowed down within me.
²¹ But this I call to mind,
and therefore I have hope:

²² The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;
his mercies never come to an end;
²³ they are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
²⁴ “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul,
“therefore I will hope in him …

³¹ For the Lord will not
cast off forever,
³² but, though he cause grief, he will have compassion
according to the abundance of his steadfast love;
³³ for he does not afflict from his heart
or grieve the children of men.

This remarkable cry of trust in God’s steadfast love comes almost exactly halfway through Jeremiah’s lamentations over the destruction of Jerusalem by the army of Babylon in 586 BC (see 2 Kings 24:10-25:21). The whole cry of trust, of which—in the interests of space—I’ve quoted only the first two and final paragraphs, ends in v. 33, which is not only the central verse of the central chapter, but the central verse of the whole book. Jeremiah’s cry of faith thus lies at the very heart of his extended cry of anguish over the devastation that surrounds him.

Jeremiah’s situation, while not global, was on a local scale far worse than anything we now face with COVID-19. Jerusalem was in ruins, its people taken in captivity to Babylon, and there were few rational grounds for hope. And, yet he was able to say, “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” His faith was not based on the circumstances that surrounded him. It wasn’t based on God giving Jeremiah everything (or even much at all) that he wanted in the way of physical comfort, security, well-being, or even good friends. He was very much alone. His faith was based instead on what the Spirit, the word of God, and his long personal relationship with God had taught him about God’s steadfast love, ever fresh mercies, and great faithfulness.

Frightening as COVID-19 may be, we are still so much better off than Jeremiah was. Not only are our physical circumstances preferable, but we live this side of God’s full revelation of himself in Christ. We know God to be the one who was willing to become human, one of us, our brother, and to die for us on the cross, thereby reassuring us that God’s love and mercy override and remove any condemnation that we might otherwise have faced for our sin. “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 8:1). God has shown his steadfast love to us in ways that even Jeremiah could not fully understand.

And, yes, I know that Jeremiah only perked up briefly, and that the rest of Lamentations remains pretty gloomy. But we’re not called—anymore than he was—to shut our eyes to the seriousness of our circumstances or to pretend that all is well right now. What we are called to do is to reaffirm, at the very heart of all our sober reality about the dangers of COVID-19, an unyielding faith in the steadfast love of the God who has made himself known to us in Christ and by his Holy Spirit.

Ann and I have, in past times of discouragement, claimed the comfort of Jeremiah’s faith by first abbreviating the whole first half of Lamentations (1:1-3:21) to “Waaah!” and then continuing, “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.” In that form, we’re able to remember and to speak to one another the cry of faith that sustained Jeremiah amidst the devastation of his city. Would you join us in affirming our belief in the love, mercy, and faithfulness of our God? 

Grace, mercy, and peace,

Max