Sermon Notes

3 16 He has made my teeth grind on gravel; he has made me cower in ashes;17 my soul is bereft of peace; I have forgotten what happiness is;18 so I say, “Gone is my glory and all that I had hoped for from the Lord.”19 The thought of my affliction and my homelessness is wormwood and gall!
20 My soul continually thinks of it and is bowed down within me.21 But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope:22 The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases,[b] his mercies never come to an end;23 they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.24 “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.” (New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition)

The book of Lamentations begins with the Hebrew word ekah ( אֵיכָ֣ה ) which is an interrogative that, in English, is translated as how. There is no masterful narrative plot to engage the reader. And, there is no identifying central human character that takes center stage. There is only an emotional, gut-wrenching cry of anguish. How? Without introduction, without form or fashion, without pre-text, the writer begins this collection of lament poems asking the questions that people often ask when the bottom has fallen out of life and they are mourning what has been lost. How did we get here? How did we not see this coming? How has Jerusalem—God’s holy city—fallen? How did God allow this to happen? How could God turn away from God’s people? EKAH...HOW? And although not expressly stated, how is really a question about why? Why did this happen to me? Why did God abandon me? And, most importantly, why did God let this happen at all?
Like the writer(s) of Lamentations, humans often wrestle with the “how” and “whys” of life. When we have seemingly lost everything and there appears to be no hope in sight, we often succumb to despair and sink to our knees asking both “how” and “why.” Yet, for the faithful—those who look to God for comfort, care, and compassion—we answer our own how and why questions with “who.” We remember that despite our mistakes and our miss-steps, there is a God in whom we ultimately put our faith and trust. We remember that although we are cast down, we nevertheless persist in expressing hope in the God who has been our salvation. Like the writer of Lamentations, we look back over our lives and we recall that God’s mercies steadfastly hunt us down, appearing brand new every morning as a daily object lesson. How deep is God’s love? According to Lamentations, it’s so deep you can’t get under it; it’s so high you can’t get over it, it’s so long that you can’t get beyond it. In a word, God’s love is ceaseless.

The book of Lamentations is a collection of five acrostic—each verse begins with a successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet—poems which are believed to have been written after the conquest of Jerusalem by the Neo-Babylonian army in 587/586 BCE. These poems center on the people who survived devastating siege of Jerusalem which demolished the city, exiled the ruling elites to Babylon, and left dead bodies littering urban streets and the countryside. The most central theme is mourning as expressed in Lament poems.
While the writer(s) of these lament poems are unknown, tradition ascribes them to Jeremiah the prophet, which is why Lamentations appears after the book of Jeremiah in Christian Bibles. However, in Jewish Bibles, Lamentations is part of the section known as the Ketuvim or Writings, and follows the book of Ecclesiastes. From a linguistic context, laments are poems that were often set to music and expressed the grief, sorrow and emotions that accompany profound devastation and loss. In the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament, a lament (qînâ in Hebrew) is sometimes translated as a dirge or funeral song. However, unlike funeral dirges, laments express hope in the midst of despair.
From a literary context, the laments that exist in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament may be individual or national laments. National laments are laments that describe national calamity. However, because Judah no longer exists as a self-determining nation after the fall of Jerusalem and the exile, it is better to describe these laments as communal laments. Throughout the book of Lamentations, primary speakers generally tend to use “I” language in the lament poems. However, the “I” language likely reflects a communal voice of lament as opposed to an individual’s singular voice of lament. Further, scholars believe the laments in Lamentations may be related to Zion songs such as Psalms 137, 46, 48, 50, 76, 84, 87, and 122. The psalms give reverence to Zion. However, once Zion—Jerusalem—is destroyed, then singing songs of Zion are problematic and best, and unfathomable at worst.
Lamentations 3, from which our lesson text is drawn, is the most recognized and well-known poem of the book because of its unyielding expressions of hope in God. In this chapter, the writer again adopts the acrostic style, but in a different format from the previous chapters. In the first two chapters, only the first line of each stanza of three lines began with consecutive letters of the Hebrew alphabet. In the third chapter, all three lines of each stanza begin with the same Hebrew letter.
Again, a major exegetical issue of this chapter—and the rest of Lamentations—is whether this is an individual lament or a communal lament that is stylistically presented in first person singular. In this chapter we see (1) a cry of desperation (verses 1-18); (2) a confession of faith (verses 19-39); (3) an appeal for repentance (verses 40-47; (4) indications of personal suffering (verses 48-54); and (5) a prayer for deliverance (verses 55-66). However, our lesson only deals with verse 16-24.

16 He ground my face into the gravel. He pounded me into the mud.
In the opening verses of the lesson, the mourner compares his sorrow and anguish to food and drink. He has been forced to eat the bitter food of war, national calamity, and the exile of his people. He has been filled to the brim (literally, nauseated) and his drink was wormwood, a bitter substance usually associated with gall. As a sign of disgrace and mourning he has heaped ashes upon himself. In doing so, he has gotten grit into his mouth.
When we set this verse in context with the chapter of Lamentations 3, several insights are gleaned about how the poet presents this individual’s despair. At the beginning of chapter 3, the poet is described as a geber. This Hebrew word is usually translated as a militarily “mighty,” or “valiant,” or “strong,” man. In the history of biblical interpretation, the word geber is not utilized to describe an everyday ordinary person. Therefore, the poet is saying if the geber is devastated and in despair, then an everyday ordinary person has little hope for recovery.
17-18 I gave up on life altogether. I’ve forgotten what the good life is like. I said to myself, “This is it. I’m finished. God is a lost cause.”
The poet is completely overwhelmed by the catastrophic destruction of Jerusalem. In his great suffering he has lost all inner peace. He can’t even remember what it means to enjoy the blessings of life. The man is in the depths of despair. His strength, physical and spiritual, has perished. The confidence which he had previously placed in the Lord has been shaken and, in fact, has disappeared.
Yet, all is not lost for the poet. The moment he announces he has lost confidence in the Lord he has done something very significant. He has pronounced the precious name of God. The mention of the name of the Lord in this moment of deepest misery and despair helps the prophet to find solid footing for his faith. To this Lord he will turn in confident prayer in verses 19-39 of this chapter.

19-20 I’ll never forget the trouble, the utter lostness, the taste of ashes, the poison I’ve swallowed. I remember it all—oh, how well I remember—the feeling of hitting the bottom.
Since the poet’s outlook is bleak, he shifts his perspective heavenward. He calls upon God to remember his predicament because he himself is not able to forget about it. Mental and physical miseries are not easily forgotten especially when they continue to press in upon an individual. But while the prophet could not for a moment forget his sufferings he did not allow himself to be defeated by them.
Because Lamentations is survival literature, the figure of “Daughter Zion” as a representation of Jerusalem and the Jewish people is key to interpreting this text. While Zion has been presented as a victim who has lost her children, been forced into slavery, and an abandoned wife, she has yet survived. As a survivor, “Daughter Zion” has lived through catastrophe and is able to tell her story from her own perspective. While the Babylonians decimated the land, left bodies littering the land, and deported the royal, political, and religious elites, they did not exterminate the people. The people have survived and will continue to live. The people—who are distilled into one lamenting individual—have a voice which they use to share their theological insight about who God is even in the midst of despair.
21-25 But there’s one other thing I remember, and remembering, I keep a grip on hope: God’s loyal love couldn’t have run out, His merciful love couldn’t have dried up. They’re created new every morning. How great your faithfulness! I’m sticking with God (I say it over and over). He’s all I’ve got left.
In the final verses of the lesson text, the poet reveals the foundation of his hope. The poet first recalls the kesed ( חֵסֵד ) of God. This Hebrew word is difficult to translate, in one single English word and is often rendered as loving kindness or steadfast love. Kesed is similar to the Greek word for grace, but it is better thought of as the womb-love that mothers have for their children. The plural form of the word indicates the magnitude and repeated manifestations of God’s lovingkindness. God’s mercies, or compassions, or womb-love—especially toward the helpless and suffering—never fail.
The expressions of God’s love and mercy are new every morning. Life, breath, food, clothing—how often they are taken for granted; how seldom is thanks offered for them. As the poet meditates upon the ceaselessness of God’s mercy he breaks forth in a triumphant strain: “Great is Your faithfulness!” This verse and the one which preceded it furnished the inspiration for Thomas Chisholm’s magnificent hymn, “Great is Thy Faithfulness.” Those who trust God, know that God is indeed faithful. God never forsakes God’s people!
Lamentations is essentially a template to help people navigate the process of grieving. In many ways, the church has forgotten the cathartic blessing of prophetic lament. It is both natural and necessary to lament what has been lost. The act of lament is actually an act of hope, because for our hope is only as deep as our grief. We can sing, “Great is thy faithfulness, Lord unto Thee,” because we have lamented greatly. We can only know God’s ceaseless love because we have teetered on the edge of the abyss!

i. Wilma Ann Bailey, “Lamentations,” in Gale A. Yee’s Fortress Commentary on the Bible: Two-Volume Set (Fortress Press: Kindle Edition), p. 1498-1499.
ii. Adel Berlin, Lamentations: A Commentary (Westminster John Knox Press: Kindle Edition).
iii. Wilma Ann Bailey, “Lamentations,” in Gale A. Yee’s Fortress Commentary on the Bible: Two-Volume Set (Fortress Press: Kindle Edition), p. 1502.