Lamentations Chapter 3 – A Cry, A Hope, and a Wrestle With Pain
okay so, this one chapter... oh wow, this is different, like wayy more personal, like you can feel the weight in every single line like the words too heavy with sorrow but also tiny shimmer of hope like a little candle when all lights go off. if you’ve ever felt abandoned or crushed or just absolutely broken up by life or loss or guilt or jus everything kinda piled up on you like bricks—then Lamentations chapter 3 gonna speak, like real speak, you know?
so the chapter starts different from first two. it ain’t just a city cryin anymore or a people hurtin, now it’s “I am the man” who seen affliction. like boom right in the heart. this is personal now. not a group weepin but a soul just layed out flat from pain. the writer, most people think it’s Jeremiah still (maybe), but whoever, he feels like us. or maybe like me on my worst days when I feel God gone quiet or life beatin me down.
I seen affliction under God’s rod...
man, this opening tho. “I am the man that hath seen affliction by the rod of his wrath.” that line hit me. it’s not just bad luck or mistake. he say God brought this, or at least let it happen. he lead me in darkness, not light. He turned His hand against me again and again all day long. it's like he say, "God... you doing this to me?" i mean that’s real. that's raw. how many times we scared to say that or even think it cause it sound disrespectful or somethin... but here it's in the Bible. Like God ain't afraid of our truth.
and then he goes in harder. bones broke. flesh wasted. bitterness. hardship. he made my path crooked. it’s like everywhere he turn, it’s blocked, twisted, ruined. like a bear lie in waitin to tear him apart or a lion waitin to pounce. that image stuck with me, you know? sometimes we wake up already tired and just expect something to go wrong, like the world set up against us.
and he say God shut out his prayer. like, imagine prayin and feelin like your prayers just echoin off the ceiling. i been there. and you too maybe, huh?
All hope drained out...
by verse 17, he say "my soul is far removed from peace," and "I forgot prosperity." man... when you're so low, you can’t even remember what happy felt like. like peace is not even a memory anymore, it’s just... blank. and he say his strength and his hope perished from the Lord. even hope seem gone, and not just in life, but hope in God... that's serious pain. not regular sadness. that’s like spiritual collapse. deep down grief where even your beliefs shake and wobble.
he remember the affliction and bitterness, the gall and wormwood (that’s like poison mixed with misery). he say, "my soul still remembers and is humbled in me." and yet, somehow... somehow...
A strange turn... HOPE creeps in
then the weirdest, unexpected turn happen. like he in the deepest pit of black and then say, “This I recall to mind, therefore I have hope.” like... wait what?? how. you just said you forgot peace, and now you got hope?
and he say them famous verses next – “It is of the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.”
now, if you read fast you might miss how wild this is. nothing changed. the suffering still there. pain still sitting heavy. but in the middle of all that, he CHOOSES to remember God’s mercy. not because he see mercy, but because he knows it still gotta be there. that's faith right there. real gritty faith, not pretty faith with bows on it, but bruised faith that say, "I still believe you're good even when it feel like you ain't."
he say God’s mercy new every morning. every morning. not once a month. not just on birthdays or Sundays. Every day, like sunrise, mercy show up again. even when we messed up. even when we don't feel nothin. even when we're angry and bitter and barely holding on.
God is good... even when He’s silent
verse 24, he says “The Lord is my portion,” and I gotta pause right there. you ever had to tell yourself something like 10 times before you even halfway believe it? that’s how this feel. like he preaching to himself, reminding his soul “God is still my portion.” not the city, not riches, not peace, not perfect health... just God. if all else gone, if even hope feels thin, he saying: “God, You still enough. You’re all I got and still You’re everything.”
and he say, “It is good that one should hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord.” and I just love that he put “quietly wait,” cause let’s be honest... waitin is hard. but waitin quietly? with patience?? whew. that’s next level. but sometimes you wait loud. you wait angry. you cry while waiting. but still... you wait. and that matters.
Suffering as school…
then in verse 27 and on, he start talking like suffering is like school. like we supposed to learn through affliction. “It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.” like it build somethin in you. character? endurance? trust? maybe all of it.
he say sit alone and be silent. offer your cheek to the one who strike you. be humble. don’t fight the pain like it’s all bad. not cause pain is fun or good—nah, pain sucks—but cause maybe it’s shaping us, carving us, making us more like what we’re meant to be. he say, “the Lord will not cast off forever.” even if He cause grief, he will have compassion, cause His mercies are great. like the pain ain’t forever. even if it feel like it.
God don’t enjoy punishing
verse 33 got me... “He does not afflict willingly.” like, God don’t wake up excited to punish or make us suffer. He ain’t cruel. He don’t hurt people just to hurt them. That ain’t His heart. He only allow pain when it’s part of somethin bigger. somethin with purpose. and sometimes we don’t see it, maybe never see it in this life, but still we trust.
he go on talkin about injustice... how God sees it all, hears it all. “Who is he who speaks and it comes to pass, when the Lord has not commanded it?” he saying nobody got power unless God allows. and every sin, every wrong, every cruel act... it don’t go unnoticed. even our own sins. and maybe... maybe that’s why all this happenin.
Owning up... even when it’s hard
in verse 40, he shift again: “Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the Lord.” like, okay, maybe part of our pain is us. maybe our sin, our choices, our pride... maybe we need to confess and return. cause we drifted. and the people of Judah had drifted far. they worshipped idols, ignored warnings, did injustice, and now they feelin the weight of it. and yet still, God want them back. still, he say return.
they cry out. they weep. “we have transgressed and rebelled.” they say God covered Himself with anger and didn’t even hear their prayer. and man, that’s a scary feeling, huh? like when your guilt feel too big to even talk to God.
but then again, even this chapter is a prayer. even if they feel unheard, they still cry out. and that’s faith too.
Enemies laughing...
then he switch again and talk about the people laughin at him. mocking. hunting him down. tossing him in a pit like trash. that’s how enemies treatin him. he cry so much, it say “tears run down like a river.” i mean, who among us ain’t cried like that before?
he say he called on God from the lowest pit, and God heard him. he say, “You drew near in the day I called on You and said, Do not fear.” and that moment right there? it change the whole mood.
even after all the pain. all the doubt. all the feelin like prayers blocked... still, God came close and said: don’t fear.
Final cry for justice...
then he wrap up the chapter with a cry for God to bring justice on those who hurt him. he ain’t sugarcoatin nothin. he ask God to repay his enemies, to deal with them, to see the evil they done. he ends not with a perfect bow but with honesty. with truth. with deep emotion. and that’s real. cause sometimes healing ain't clean. it messy. it’s loud. and sometimes it still waiting.
so what do we take from this chapter...?
what do I take from it? well... a lot.
that it’s okay to feel pain. to feel like God is far. to say it out loud. that you can be crushed and faithful at the same time. you can doubt and still cry out to Him. that suffering ain’t the end. and that God’s mercy—somehow—is new every morning even when we don’t see it yet.
that sometimes we gotta remind ourselves who God is even when everything in us want to give up. sometimes hope isn’t a light, but a whisper. a flicker. sometimes faith is holding on with one hand and a tired heart.
but most of all? it tells me God is still listening. even in the pit. even when we don’t hear Him, He still draw close and say “Don’t fear.” and that... that right there is enough to keep goin.
So maybe... you hurting right now?
maybe you in that place like the writer of this chapter. maybe you feelin shut out or punished or just empty inside. maybe your hope feels like dust.
can I tell you somethin? you not alone.
Lamentations chapter 3 show us a voice, cryin in the darkness... but still hopin. still fightin to believe. still reachin out for mercy.
and if he can do that... maybe we can too.
even just for today.
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