LAMENTATIONS
1:1-22
- Jerusalem had fallen into hard times - ‘she who once was great among
the nations... has now become a slave’ (1). The explanation for this
sad situation was not hard to find - ‘Jerusalem has sinned greatly and
so has become unclean...’ (8-9). Could things be turned around? Could
there once again be blessing? There was a way back to God - the way of
being honest before Him. They needed to look seriously at their way of
life and think seriously about their attitude towards the Lord. They
were not to adopt an arrogant attitude - ‘There’s really nothing wrong
with us. We’re doing all right’. They were to come to God with a real
confession of sin: ‘The Lord is righteous, yet I rebelled against His
command... O Lord,... I have been most rebellious’ (18,20). God’s
blessing will begin again when we confess our sin.
2:1-22
- Jerusalem’s fall into hard times was not ‘just one of those things
that happens’. God’s people brought it on themselves. They did not take
God seriously - but God continued to take them seriously. They ignored
God - but God did not ignore their disobedience to Him. They sinned
against God - and He was angry with them: ‘How the Lord in His anger has
set the daughter of Zion under a cloud!’ (1). This was not just a case
of glibly saying, ‘The good times will come again’. They needed to
recognize why the bad times had come: ‘The Lord has... carried out His
threat’ (17). The Lord had warned His sinful people. Judgment was on its
way - if they refused to listen to Him. Now, in the time of His
judgment, God is still calling us back to Himself: ‘Cry aloud to the
Lord!...’ (18-19). Will we return to Him?
3:1-24
- There are times when it seems nothing is going right for us: ‘I am
the man who has seen affliction...’ (1-3). In such times, we must
remember this: ‘The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases. His mercies
never come to an end’. When we find ourselves in circumstances of great
distress, we must learn to look beyond the things that are happening to
us. We must learn to look to the Lord and say, ‘Great is Your
faithfulness’. It will not be easy to see God at work in our lives when
everything seems to be going wrong. We must be patient as we wait for
the blessing of the Lord to return to our lives. We must put all our
hope in the Lord, trusting in His precious promise: ‘The Lord is good to
those who wait for Him, to the soul that seeks Him. It is good that one
should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord’ (22-26).
3:25-42
- In our ‘grief’, we must not forget the ‘compassion’ of God (32). He
understands us. He cares for us. How do we know that God loves us?
‘Christ died for us’ (Romans 5:8). This is the greatest demonstration of
God’s love for us. How can we doubt God’s love for us when we think of
His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, dying on the Cross for us as our
Saviour? When we think of God’s love for us, we must remember that He
calls us to love Him. We are not to take God’s love for granted - ‘God
loves me. I can do what I like’. We are to appreciate God’s love - ‘God
loves me. I will love Him’. God loves us. Christ died for us. How can we
say, ‘I’ll do what I like’? How can we refuse to be changed by His
love? ‘Let us examine our ways and turn back to the Lord. Let us open
our hearts to God’ (40-41).
3:43-66
- ‘You came near when I called You... O Lord... You redeemed my life’
(57-58). We wonder, ‘Will God answer my prayer for salvation?’. Yes! At
the Cross of Christ, we learn that God loves us and answers our prayer.
‘You did not wait for me to draw near to You, but You clothed yourself
in frail humanity. You did not wait for me to cry out to You, but You
let me hear Your voice calling me. And I’m forever grateful to You, I’m
forever grateful for the Cross; I’m forever grateful to You that You
came to seek and save the lost’. ‘Thank You for the Cross, the price You
paid for us, how You gave Yourself so completely, precious Lord,
precious Lord. Now our sins are gone, all forgiven, covered by Your
blood, all forgotten, thank You Lord, thank You Lord’ (Songs of Fellowship, 631; Mission Praise, 632).
4:1-22
- No human king can even begin to compare with our Lord Jesus Christ,
‘the King of kings’ (Revelation 19:16). The people of Jerusalem were
full of confidence. They ‘trusted their king to protect them from every
invader’. They thought Jerusalem was invincible: ‘No one anywhere, not
even rulers of foreign nations, believed that any invader could enter
Jerusalem’s gates’. They were wrong. They thought it would never happen -
but it did! The unthinkable happened! ‘They captured the source of our
life, the king the Lord had chosen’. Why did it happen? God’s Word gives
us the reason: ‘It happened because of the sins of her prophets and...
priests’. The king - ‘the Lord’s anointed’ - was unable to prevent
Jerusalem’s defeat (12-13,20). Praise God - We have a greater King: our
Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ!
5:1-22
- ‘You, O Lord, reign for ever; Your throne endures from generation to
generation’. We must remember this when we feel like we have been
‘forgotten’ by God. When we feel like God has ‘abandoned’ us, we must
remember this: ‘You, O Lord, are King for ever, and will rule to the end
of time’ (19-20). We are not only to pay lip-service to the Lord our
King. We are to crown Him as King of our heart and life. How are we to
do this? We must pray, ‘Bring us back to You, Lord!’ (21). God is
looking for a real return to Him and a real difference in our lives. ‘In
your hearts enthrone Him. There let Him subdue all that is not holy,
all that is not true...’; ‘So let us learn how to serve and in our lives
enthrone Him, each other’s needs to prefer, for it is Christ we’re
serving’ (Church Hymnary, 300; Mission Praise, 162).
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