“For the Lord will not cast off forever,
But, though he causes grief, he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love;
For he does not afflict from his heart or grieve the children of men.
To crush underfoot all the prisoners of the earth,
To deny a man justice in the presence of the Most High,
To subvert a man in his lawsuit, the Lord does not approve.”
- Lamentations 3:31-36
The third chapter of Lamentations changes the pace and structure quite a bit. One stanza does not equal one verse, and no longer has the alphabetical layout. Instead, as I looked at it I noticed three sections:
Verses 1-21 – The Bitterness and Brokenness of the author.
Verses 22-39 – Hope in who God is.
Verses 40-66 – Crying out to God for Forgiveness and Vengeance.
Bitterness:
Similar to the previous two chapters, the poet of Lamentations uses graphic and visceral descriptions of their pains and hardships, and emotions. A keyword during this first section is bitterness, or as some translations put it, “wormwood.” This communicates not only an emotional bitterness about everything but also goes a step further. Wormwood is a herb native to regions of Eurasia and North Africa. It’s an incredibly bitter and even poisonous plant when consumed, but was often still used for treating some illnesses and used in the production of certain alcoholic beverages. It was a bitterness that was far worse than just a bad taste in your mouth though, it was a bitterness reaching down into your stomach and making you feel deathly sick. This is the kind of dreaded emotional turmoil that the author is experiencing from all this.
Hope:
Despite the depths of that bitterness, the author turned his perspective to consider the character of God. Repeatedly the author turns to God’s mercy, steadfast love, goodness, and justice.
His hope is firmly placed in what he knows to be true of God, regardless of the circumstances he is facing. He also acknowledges the things that God disproves, regardless of who commits them!
In my words, God hates when people perpetuate injustice! When prisoners are crushed when justice is denied, and when people get cheated. Notice the legal/courtroom-like language used there? There is also an implication that this injustice is coming from people either equal in power or authority, and whenever someone has power, we must wield it responsibly, justly, and lovingly.
God despises these things because they are the antithesis of who God is. Where we like to cut people off and cast them aside, God says He will never cast us off. Where we can take joy in the downfall of others, God never takes joy in causing grief. Where we have compassion and love others selectively, God always has compassion from His gracious and steadfast love. Where we try to justify war and acts of violence with even an ounce of happiness, God doesn’t punish from His heart.
Crying Out!
What follows this hope is a series of declaratives to God. Words of shame, words of pain, words of the rawest emotion and pain. At a climactic point in the poem, at least I see it as a climax, the author declares, “I am lost… Do not close your ear to my cry for help!” Then in a turn of events, God comes near to the author, and does not scold them, does not question them, and does not even try to correct potential wrongs. God merely comes and says, “Do not fear!” If you have been following On Beautiful Feet for some time you know God does not mean this as “Buck up and put on your big boy pants.” What God is really saying in this is, “I am here, I am in control, trust in me, and I have you.”
Justice and Compassion:
Throughout this poem, there is a key message reverberating through every line and toward every heart that has felt how the author has. The Lord will achieve justice, and He will always do so more rightly than we ever could. We will always lean too strongly toward punishment or leniency, but doing so never properly heals, restores, and disciplines quite like God can. We also can never quite be compassionate like God can. We have limits, we have non-transformative methods, and so on.
God however has brought perfect justice and compassion and holds them together in a manner where there is no division from one to the other! Meanwhile, we argue whether to enact justice or to have compassion, God has both, fully and completely.
Final Blessing:
That is something to rejoice in and remember when we go and share the good news with others. Many wonder why God lets bad things happen to good people or why such evil can exist in this world. Largely, we perpetuate evil and create bad things, God’s heart in it all is to give mercy and restore us to a point of steady goodness.
Now may the Lord of Life and Redemption be with you in every step, every breath, and every heartbeat of your journey.
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