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Lamentations 3:1-24 Complete Jewish Bible
3 I am the man who has seen affliction
under the rod of his fury,
2 He has led me and made me walk
in darkness and not in light.
3 Against me alone he turns his hand
again and again, all day.
4 He has worn away my skin and flesh,
he has broken my bones.
5 He has besieged and surrounded me
with bitterness and hardship.
6 He has made me live in darkness,
like those who are long dead.
7 He has walled me in, so I can’t escape;
he has weighed me down with chains.
8 Even when I cry out, pleading for help,
he shuts out my prayer.
9 He has barred my way with blocks of stone,
he has made my paths crooked.
10 He lies in wait for me like a bear,
like a lion in hiding.
11 He has forced me aside and torn me to pieces,
leaving me stunned.
12 He has bent his bow and used me
as a target for his arrows.
13 He has pierced my vital organs
with shafts from his quiver.
14 I’m a laughingstock to all my people,
the butt of their taunts all day long.
15 He has filled me with bitterness,
sated me with wormwood.
16 He has broken my teeth with gravel
and pressed me down into ashes.
17 I have been so deprived of peace,
I have so forgotten what happiness is,
18 that I think, “My strength is gone,
and so is my hope in Adonai.”
19 Remember my utter misery,
the wormwood and the gall.
20 They are always on my mind;
this is why I am so depressed.
21 But in my mind I keep returning to something,
something that gives me hope —
22 that the grace of Adonai is not exhausted,
that his compassion has not ended.
23 [On the contrary,] they are new every morning!
How great your faithfulness!
24 “Adonai is all I have,” I say;
“therefore I will put my hope in him.
Word of God for the Children of God
Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.
How much good news, bad news, worse news can any human being take before they just launch up every single white flag within a fifty thousand mile radius?
The book of Lamentations is situated in a most disquieting and uncomfortable setting, for it is the reflections of the prophet Jeremiah upon the circumstances of God’s people when Jerusalem was taken by Babylon and carried off into exile.
Lamentations is exactly what its title suggests: a long hard series of poems that explicitly express those people’s most intimate sorrow for what’s taken place.
Lamentations begins in absolute desolation: “How lonely sits the city that was full of people!” (Lamentations 1:1).
In the face of such prolonged hardcore catastrophe, it’s common to think that evil has defeated good or that God has washed His hands, given up on sinners.
But in the case of Jerusalem’s fall, nothing could be further from the truth.
God was still in charge.
It was He who allowed the powers of Babylon to rise up that His people would become aware their sinfulness and neediness and cry out to God in repentance.
The Lord afflicted His people “on the day of his fierce anger” (Lamentations 1:12).
Yet in the midst of their deep sorrow, He also brought a deeply comforting word. His people may have been brought low, but they had not been forsaken.
Psalm 56:8-9 English Standard Version
8 You have kept count of my tossing’s;[a]
put my tears in your bottle.
Are they not in your book?
9 Then my enemies will turn back
in the day when I call.
This I know, that[b] God is for me.
They had experienced the ending of many things: the end of peace, the end of security, and the end of home. But two things they would never experience the end of: God’s always abundant, steadfast love and God’s undeserved mercies.
Those were always new, and always sufficient, every single morning.
The people would learn far, experience far more, about their God’s faithfulness in their place of exile than they ever had acknowledged in the comfort of home.
Jeremiah 29:4-7 Amplified Bible
4 “So says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the captives whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon, 5 ‘Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their fruit. 6 Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there and do not decrease [in number]. 7 Seek peace and well-being for the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf; for in its peace (well-being) you will have peace.’
Indeed, it is often in our darkest moments that the faithful character of God shines most brightly to us. When things are going well, we’re tempted to think we’re sufficient on our own. But in moments of despair, we can always cling to God’s faithfulness, and in times of failure, we can always appreciate His mercy.
You may someday find yourself in a similar situation to that of the citizens of the ransacked Jerusalem—a situation in which all the wheels have come off and you feel bereft of joy. Perhaps, with scripture we find our place of Shalom today.
In moments like these, when our life is set in a badly out of tune minor key, you will always need this deeply comforting reminder: the faithful steadfast love of the Lord never ceases. His mercy will never run dry. Psalms 23, 121 are forever!
His faithfulness toward you will never fail.
In those hard harsh moments when we have lost much, we can always rely on this: we’ll never be forsaken, lose His love, and we will never lose His mercy.
In the name of God, the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit ….
Praying ….
Psalm 29 AKJV
A Psalm of David.
1 Give unto the Lord, O ye mighty,
give unto the Lord glory and strength.
2 Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name;
worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.
3 The voice of the Lord is upon the waters:
the God of glory thundereth: the Lord is upon many waters.
4 The voice of the Lord is powerful;
the voice of the Lord is full of majesty.
5 The voice of the Lord breaketh the cedars;
yea, the Lord breaketh the cedars of Lebanon.
6 He maketh them also to skip like a calf;
Lebanon and Sirion like a young unicorn.
7 The voice of the Lord divideth the flames of fire.
8 The voice of the Lord shaketh the wilderness;
the Lord shaketh the wilderness of Kadesh.
9 The voice of the Lord maketh the hinds to calve,
and discovereth the forests:
and in his temple doth every one speak of his glory.
10 The Lord sitteth upon the flood;
yea, the Lord sitteth King for ever.
11 The Lord will give strength unto his people;
the Lord will bless his people with peace.
Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.
Loving God, Living God, Loving Hope, Living Hope, Loving Living Life His Way! "Many things are possible for the person who has hope. Even more is possible for the person who has faith. And still more is possible for the person who knows how to love. But everything is possible for the person who practices all three virtues." - Brother Lawrence (1605-1691), Practicing the Presence of God (1692). 