Lamentations, A Beautiful Kernel of Hope

The older I get, the more the Old Testament of the Bible is opening up to me.

I’ve just finished reading the book of Lamentations. Such a writing of sorrow.

It’s a short book, just five chapters written mostly in poetic verse.

I’ve always been glad to find Psalms with David’s cries of pain and anger. It reminds me that I can take anything I’m feeling to god.

But when I started reading Lamentations last week, I was so brought down. So much pain and horror. Because of their sin, Israel had been crushed by their enemies. They’d been crushed by God.

Lamentations 1: 4-5: 

The roads to Zion mourn,

    for no one comes to her appointed festivals.

All her gateways are desolate,

    her priests groan,

her young women grieve,

    and she is in bitter anguish.

Her foes have become her masters;

    her enemies are at ease.

The Lord has brought her grief

    because of her many sins.

Her children have gone into exile,

    captive before the foe.

Lamentations 4:13:

But it happened because of the sins of her prophets

    and the iniquities of her priests,

who shed within her

    the blood of the righteous.

Yet, in the middle of this writing of desolation, are some of my favorite verses of hope.

Lamentations 3:21-23:

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.

As I understand better God’s hatred for sin, I am filled with more wonder at his amazing love.

John 3:16-17:

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.