Lamentations 3:1-66
The Lamentations of Jeremiah
1 I am the man who has seen affliction
by the rod of the Lord’s wrath.
2 He has driven me away and made me walk
in darkness rather than light;
3 indeed, he has turned his hand against me
again and again, all day long.
4 He has made my skin and my flesh grow old
and has broken my bones.
5 He has besieged me and surrounded me
with bitterness and hardship.
6 He has made me dwell in darkness
like those long dead.
7 He has walled me in so I cannot escape;
he has weighed me down with chains.
8 Even when I call out or cry for help,
he shuts out my prayer.
9 He has barred my way with blocks of stone;
he has made my paths crooked.
10 Like a bear lying in wait,
like a lion in hiding,
11 he dragged me from the path and mangled me
and left me without help.
12 He drew his bow
and made me the target for his arrows.
13 He pierced my heart
with arrows from his quiver.
14 I became the laughingstock of all my people;
they mock me in song all day long.
15 He has filled me with bitter herbs
and given me gall to drink.
16 He has broken my teeth with gravel;
he has trampled me in the dust.
17 I have been deprived of peace;
I have forgotten what prosperity is.
18 So I say, “My splendor is gone
and all that I had hoped from the Lord.”
19 I remember my affliction and my wandering,
the bitterness and the gall.
20 I well remember them,
and my soul is downcast within me.
21 Yet this I call to mind
and therefore I have hope:
22 Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed,
for his compassions never fail.
23 They are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
24 I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion;
therefore I will wait for him.”
25 The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him,
to the one who seeks him;
26 it is good to wait quietly
for the salvation of the Lord.
27 It is good for a man to bear the yoke
while he is young.
28 Let him sit alone in silence,
for the Lord has laid it on him.
29 Let him bury his face in the dust—
there may yet be hope.
30 Let him offer his cheek to one who would strike him,
and let him be filled with disgrace.
31 For no one is cast off
by the Lord forever.
32 Though he brings grief, he will show compassion,
so great is his unfailing love.
33 For he does not willingly bring affliction
or grief to anyone.
34 To crush underfoot
all prisoners in the land,
35 to deny people their rights
before the Most High,
36 to deprive them of justice—
would not the Lord see such things?
37 Who can speak and have it happen
if the Lord has not decreed it?
38 Is it not from the mouth of the Most High
that both calamities and good things come?
39 Why should the living complain
when punished for their sins?
40 Let us examine our ways and test them,
and let us return to the Lord.
41 Let us lift up our hearts and our hands
to God in heaven, and say:
42 “We have sinned and rebelled
and you have not forgiven.
43 “You have covered yourself with anger and pursued us;
you have slain without pity.
44 You have covered yourself with a cloud
so that no prayer can get through.
45 You have made us scum and refuse
among the nations.
46 “All our enemies have opened their mouths
wide against us.
47 We have suffered terror and pitfalls,
ruin and destruction.”
48 Streams of tears flow from my eyes
because my people are destroyed.
49 My eyes will flow unceasingly,
without relief,
50 until the Lord looks down
from heaven and sees.
51 What I see brings grief to my soul
because of all the women of my city.
52 Those who were my enemies without cause
hunted me like a bird.
53 They tried to end my life in a pit
and threw stones at me;
54 the waters closed over my head,
and I thought I was about to perish.
55 I called on your name, Lord,
from the depths of the pit.
56 You heard my plea: “Do not close your ears
to my cry for relief.”
57 You came near when I called you,
and you said, “Do not fear.”
58 You, Lord, took up my case;
you redeemed my life.
59 Lord, you have seen the wrong done to me.
Uphold my cause!
60 You have seen the depth of their vengeance,
all their plots against me.
61 Lord, you have heard their insults,
all their plots against me—
62 what my enemies whisper and mutter
against me all day long.
63 Look at them! Sitting or standing,
they mock me in their songs.
64 Pay them back what they deserve, Lord,
for what their hands have done.
65 Put a veil over their hearts,
and may your curse be on them!
66 Pursue them in anger and destroy them
from under the heavens of the Lord.
The Great Prophet, Jeremiah, lamented, grieved and sorrowed over his nation and his God...Jeremiah loved his people and he loved his God...In Jeremiah's lamentations he seems torn between his love for God and his love for his people...Jeremiah cried out to God for forgiveness for his nation...He wanted his country to be restored, after the fall of Jerusalem in 586 b.c....The Babylonians had destroyed the city and of Jerusalem and many of the Jews were exiled to Babylon...Jeremiah, the weeping prophet, told God how the exiled nation of Israel felt...We see by all his lamenting and sadness that sin has its consequences...Jerusalem has been destroyed by the Babylonians...The news was bad for the exiled Jews, now exiled off to Babylon...Jeremiah mourned for his people to be allowed back and rebuild their city and their nation...And the Prophet Jeremiah appealed to God for help, even after He had allowed this destruction to happen...The people of Israel, were undoubtedly stressed and anxious finding themselves taken off to anther city and county of Babylon, and not knowing when God would answer their prayers...
And Jeremiah was not the only prophet to lament about things...Other prophets had cries to God to help the people of Israel...
Today when we read the newspaper or watch the news we do not have to look far to find something pessimistic or to lament about...As our early morning paper arrives, there is bad news on our doorsteps even before we have gotten out of bed...This grief seems to be growing...Or at least, I do not see this slowing down or stopping...Mood disorders and anxiety are becoming more prevalent...According to the National Institute of Mental Health stress and mood-related ailments affect eighteen million Americans alone and cost the nation (I have read) around $300 billion every year in medical bills and lost productivity...
And this anxious strain hits us well before we reach college...This is baffling, because we as Americans are the furthest thing from being exiled...But something is causing our grief and out mood changes...The World Health Organization says the United States, Colombia, the Netherlands and Ukraine tended to have higher prevalence estimates across most classes of disorder, while Nigeria, Shanghai and Italy were consistently low, and prevalence was lower in Asian countries in general...United States being high and Nigeria being low is interesting...I would have thought the country of Nigeria with its own situations would be consistently high, and the United States would be lower...But that is not the case...People tend to worry and stress for different reasons, and these differing nations show us that right now we don't have all the answers to the sadness and lamenting around the world...
Some psychologists believe that we need more fellowship with people, and that is fading as we become closer to our work, our phones and our gadgets and our computers...But when we run into a real problem, the first thing we do is run to a real person...But regardless the reason the trend for anxiousness is increasing...
Maybe Jeremiah crying out is a more common thing than we might think...We are somehow divided, and apart from things as the exiled people of Israel were...They were not home or with their old friends...We have a divided mind, with a divided heart, waiting to rest in our true home, our home in heaven, with the One who created us...