Lamentations 3:19-39--Great Is Your Faithfulness (Part 2)

Lamentations 3:19-39
English Standard Version

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.”

25 The LORD is good to those who wait for him,
    to the soul who seeks him.
26 It is good that one should wait quietly
    for the salvation of the LORD.
27 It is good for a man that he bear
    the yoke in his youth.

28 Let him sit alone in silence
    when it is laid on him;
29 let him put his mouth in the dust--
    there may yet be hope;
30 let him give his cheek to the one who strikes,
    and let him be filled with insults.

31 For the Lord will not
    cast off forever,
32 for, 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.

34 To crush underfoot
    all the prisoners of the earth,
35 to deny a man justice
    in the presence of the Most High,
36 to subvert a man in his lawsuit,
    the Lord does not approve.

37 Who has spoken and it came to pass,
    unless the Lord has commanded it?
38 Is it not from the mouth of the Most High
    that good and bad come?
39 Why should a living man complain,
    a man, about the punishment of his sins?

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In this part of this passage, Jeremiah is confronted with the contrast in the nature of God and the nature of Man.  God is holy, loving, and good, and therefore, even His wrath is holy, loving and good.  Nothing that God does can violate His nature.  However, we are not good.  We are sinful, and therefore, we have no place to complain about our just punishment when we receive it.

Jeremiah still asks though for the LORD to see and hear him, much like David does in the Psalms.  He needs to know know that hid suffering has not gone unnoticed, for he feels the LORD has turned His face away and no longer even notices the suffering of His people.  He feels that if the LORD just looked towards them, He would have compassion on them once again as has always happened in the past.

Jeremiah then rehearses for himself the song of the steadfast love of the LORD--His covenant love.  Its mercies are new every morning and makes Jeremiah sing, "Great is They Faithfulness!" (See Psalm 57 and Psalm 108).  There is something familiar and yet something new about these words that Jeremiah is singing.  They are based in the Psalms, but the Spirit is giving him just the right words for this moment.

Though Jeremiah is hungry and hopeless, the Sprit responds with, "The LORD is my portion, therefore, I will hope in Him."  There is a gentle rebuke when the Spirit tells Jeremiah and all of Judah, "It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD."  The people are making much noise as if the LORD is one of the pagan gods that needs a show to attract His attention.  The LORD's response is "Be still" and "Wait, and see."  They are to trust in the nature of the LORD and the fact that He is the Savior of His people, though only a remnant may be saved, and they may have to pass through the fire to be saved.

The one who has been raging at the LORD should sit in silence and stop hurling his insults.  The LORD is good to those who wait on Him, to the soul that seeks Him.  That is the real problem here--the heart of the people is in rebellion.  They want to complain that God will not save them, but do they really want God to save them?  Not really, because they do not want a covenant relationship with God where He gives them commandments and statutes and precepts (see Psalm 119).  I am glad we are no longer waiting for the salvation that came from Jesus dying on the cross, yet there is still a kind of "salvation" that we are waiting for when He will return as the Conquering King and will defeat sin and death 

We now have the change in focus in Jeremiah from the "right now" to the "yet to come" and that sometimes the LORD's salvation is something that will be ultimately provided in eternity.  One day, He will gather all His people together.  he will no longer cast them away.  His steadfast love will cause Him to once again have compassion on His people and save them.  It is not in His nature to be malevolent, but He desires good things for His children whom He loves.

In order to bless His children though, there will be a day when all of the enemies of God must be crushed.  Right now, everything seems backwards as it seems like Babylon should be an enemy and Judah should protected as part of His family.  In the end it will be clear who is friend and who is foe.  The LORD will also deal with all the false prophets that spoke presumptuously thinking they knew the future and that they could divine His will apart from His Word and His Spirit.  Jeremiah, like Job long before him, learns that we must accept the "good" and "bad" that comes from the hand of the LORD and that the LORD gives and the LORD takes away.  Blessed be the Name of the LORD! Jeremiah realizes He is in position to challenge the LORD because he is sinful and deserving of everything that he is receiving, and so much more.