Sermon for HCBC (10 May 2020). To listen use the audio player below or click here. Also available on your favorite podcast app (“Hunting Creek Baptist Church”).
Introduction
The coronavirus pandemic has reminded us that life is fragile and uncertain, and there is real suffering in the world. It has exposed the inability of money, modernity, or medicine to protect us completely. While these are hard lessons for us to learn, I’m convinced if we are to live well, they are lessons we must learn. Lamentations 3 teaches us what to do in moments of suffering—even moments of great suffering. Our tendency in the modern world is to try to fix the problem as quickly as possible and to get out of the suffering, and, to be sure, we would be dishonest if any of us pretended to enjoy the suffering. Even the author of Lamentations recognizes that. Lamentations 3 teaches us that what we depend on in moments of suffering is the critical key. We can state it this way: In moments of suffering, cling to God’s character. That is the lesson of Lamentations 3.
A World of Sorrow
Some people want to minimize the reality of suffering. Buddhists argue that the key to freedom is abandoning the distinction between good and bad. Stoicism, which is experiencing a revival, also does this to an extent. Even some Christians, especially those of the prosperity persuasion, will downplay suffering, acting as though it is merely a choice. By contrast, the Bible faces up to suffering directly. The whole witness of Scripture reminds us that suffering is real. In the Bible, we find no existence of a fairy in the sky who makes bad things go away. Instead, we find a description of the world that makes sense in reality—it is a world full of real suffering. This is exactly what we see in Lamentations 3:1–18. The poet doesn’t pretend the suffering is all mental. He doesn’t simply accept it. He’s willing to recognize it.
One of the shocking realities of biblical prayer is that so much of it consists of expressing our pain and suffering. Take the Psalms for example. The title of the book means “praises,” but the largest single category of psalms are the laments. More than a third of the book is lament—crying out to God in pain, frustration, fear, grief, sorrow.
Why is there suffering? We can answer the question simply: Suffering is a result of Sin. But we have to quickly clarify what that means. Suffering is a result of Sin (capital “S”). But all suffering is not necessarily a result of personal sin. You may suffer due to a personal sin, but you might also suffer when you have not personally sinned.
Take, for example, the husband who has an affair. He will likely suffer the consequences of his own sinful action—shame, guilt, the possible destruction of his family. But his wife also suffers doesn’t she? In this case, she has only been sinned against, but she suffers as a result of sin. Lamentations has already shown that sin affects the innocent. In chapter two, there are several references to children who suffer.
But what about other types of suffering like plagues and natural disasters? Whose sin caused those? It’s somewhat common for American Christians to identify some social sin as the reason for a natural disaster. I think this is an incredibly dangerous practice. I encourage you not to do that. When sin enters creation in Genesis 3, God curses the created order. In Romans 8, Paul speaks of creation being subjected to the curse of sin by God. Viruses and cancers, tornadoes and earthquakes, are the by-product of the curses in Genesis 3. So, we can say that all suffering is the by-product of Sin. Because we live in a world cursed by sin, things are not the way they were created to be.
Reading the first section in Lamentations 3 should remind us that things are not the way they are supposed to be. Suffering is a product of a world cursed by sin. Suffering is a product of sinful choices. That is the bad news, but there is good news.
God’s Character
Our hope is not in circumstances, it is in God’s character. After the poet has described his suffering in vv. 1–16, he concludes with these words in vv. 17–18: “My soul is bereft of peace; I have forgotten what happiness is; so I say, ‘My endurance has perished; so has my hope from the LORD.’”
Note that word “hope” because we are going to see it again in just a moment. Notice what he has said. I don’t have any hope. When he looks at his circumstances, he has no reason to hope. His country has been destroyed. People have died. Others have been taken into captivity. A few have been left in the ruins. These are bleak circumstances, and if hope relies on circumstances, then he has no reason to hope. What about you? When you look at your life are your circumstances overwhelming? Do they leave you with little or no hope?
But the lesson Lamentations 3 is teaching is that our hope is not in circumstances, it is in God’s character. God’s character is our hope in suffering. Look what the poet says in vv. 19–21:
Remember my affliction and my wanderings, the wormwood and gall! My soul continually remembers it and is bowed down within me. But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope.
He is well aware of the bitterness of his circumstances, but he has something in mind that gives him hope. What is it? It’s in vv. 22–24:
The steadfast love (chesed) of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. “The LORD is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.”
Here’s the reason for his hope: God’s character. His steadfast love never ceases. His mercies never come to an end. Great is your faithfulness. The LORD is my portion. Therefore, I will hope in him. I will not hope in my circumstances. I will hope in him because his character ensures that he is worth hoping in. The first question in the New City Catechism puts it this way.
What is our only hope in life and death?
~New City Catechism Q. 1
That we are not our own but belong to God.
When the world falls apart around us, what will we hope in? When our final days of life are upon us, what will we hope in? Hoping in our circumstances will lead us to despair. But hoping in the Lord will give us refuge.
The poet goes on to mention three aspects of God’s character that give him hope. In vv. 22–33, he says the Lord is faithful and merciful. He is abundant in steadfast love. In vv. 34–66, he says the Lord is just and righteous. Suffering will have an answer. Crimes will be paid for because God is holy. In vv. 37–39, he says the Lord is sovereign. He is in control.
The remedy for our despair is to hope in the Lord. At our wedding, Chelsey and I asked the minister to read Habakkuk 3:17–19.
The LORD is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD. It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth. Let him sit alone in silence when it is laid on him; let him put his mouth in the dust—there may yet be hope.
Notice that first line in v. 25 again: “The LORD is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him.” That points us to two basic principles we see constantly in Scripture: Repent and Trust. Repent: turn from the course you are on, from depending on yourself, from being independent from God, from rebelling. Trust: wait for him, turn to him, seek him. Verse 26 says, “It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD.” That is the posture of trust, and it’s possible when we see the character of the Lord. If we don’t recognize God’s character, we will not trust him. We will resent him. But if we see that he is sovereign and able, righteous and just, faithful and kind, we will be more likely to turn to him.
This chapter also tells us something about suffering as a group. Verses 40–47 are a community lament. Notice the language shifts from “me” to “us” in v. 40. Sometimes suffering is not an individual issue. Sometimes entire groups suffer. The principles are the same. Verse 40: “Let us test and examine our ways, and return to the LORD.” Repent and trust. When a church suffers, they should not pray as individuals only, they should pray as a congregation. Corporate suffering requires corporate repentance.
Christ Has Won the Battle
In true lament fashion, Lamentations 3 ends with an expression of confidence. Notice vv. 55–57:
I called on your name, O LORD, from the depths of the pit; you heard my plea, “Do not close your ear to my cry for help!” You came near when I called on you; you said, “Do not fear.”
Like most laments, this is a reminder of God’s past faithfulness. Think for a moment about how God has been faithful to you? Has he ever let you down?
Then in vv. 58–66, the poet declares his confidence that God will put things right. Some of this language might shock us as the poet cries out for justice, but if we recognize the broken world we live in, it’s quite natural to pray this way. Whatever injustices have occurred in the world will be set right. That is the declaration of Scripture. And that is what the poet declares here.
How can that be so? Because in these verses, we ultimately hear Christ, the righteous one. He suffered under the weight of injustice. The evil of the world was laid upon him. His enemies surrounded him on the cross. The powers of Hell warred against him. Notice v. 59: “You have seen the wrong done to me, O LORD; judge my cause.” In the resurrection, the Lord has judged, and he has rendered his verdict. Christ is victorious. He is righteous. He is vindicated in the resurrection. His enemies have been exposed. He has been declared the righteous king.
And it is here that our hope lies. Those who are in Christ share his victory. Do you know what it means to be in Christ? It means to be associated with him, to be united with him. The weight of this life might threaten to crush us, injustices may rage around us, the sin of someone else my harm us, sickness may fall upon us, but the Lord will see and he will judge and he will put all things right. In Christ you will be vindicated. What was Christ’s vindication? His resurrection. Those who are in Christ will be raised with him. In other words, we, too, will be vindicated. The enemies of sin, Satan, and death have threatened to destroy us, and they surely would if we confided in our own strength. But in Christ, we have the victory. In Christ, we are more than conquerors.
Conclusion
I shared with you question one from the New City Catechism. The New City Catechism is a modern catechism. It’s often based on a much older catechism called the Heidelberg Catechism. Question one makes the connections I’ve been making through this sermon. Our hope is rooted in God’s character, which is most clearly demonstrated in Jesus’s work on our behalf, and the outpouring of the Spirit who seals us for the day of redemption. Here’s Heidelberg question one:
Q. What is your only comfort in life and death?
A. That I am not my own, but belong with body and soul, both in life and in death, to my faithful Saviour Jesus Christ. He has fully paid for all my sins with his precious blood and has set me free from all the power of the devil. He also preserves me in such a way that without the will of my heavenly Father not a hair can fall from my head; indeed, all things must work together for my salvation. Therefore, by his Holy Spirit he also assures me of eternal life and makes me heartily willing and ready from now on to live for him.
~Heidelberg Catechism Q. 1
Our hope is rooted in God’s character, which is most clearly demonstrated in Jesus’s work. The 1923 hymn “Great Is Thy Faithfulness” takes its title directly from Lamentations 3. The first verse of the hymn is a fitting conclusion for us.
Great is thy faithfulness, O God my Father;
there is no shadow of turning with thee;
thou changest not, thy compassions, they fail not;
as thou hast been thou forever wilt be.