Despair: A Moment or a Way of Life

Father, thank you for your word. Thank you that you are not silent, but you are a God who speaks and that you have spoken through your word.

We thank you for Jesus. We thank you, Father, that he is not only Emmanuel, God with us, but he is also the one who died on the cross for us to make us right with you.

And we ask, Lord, that the Holy Spirit would move with might and power and deep conviction in each of our lives at this time as we reflect upon your word, as your word speaks into our hearts.

And we ask that you would grip us again with who Jesus is and what he has done for us.

And we ask this in the name of Jesus, your son and our savior. Amen.

We're going to be looking at Lamentations chapter three. If you have your Bibles, you might want to turn to that.

And as I was sharing last week, it's a way of pastors, ministers and Bible study leaders can often refer to themselves as referred, talk as if they're going to tackle a book.

And the book of Lamentations week after week has been tackling me.

Part of it is that it talks about a God who causes suffering.

And it obviously raises questions in everybody's mind as to how and why anybody would believe in a God that causes suffering.

And not only is that going to be walked towards again this week in the text, but it also talks about God not forgiving.

And how on earth can you believe in a God that doesn't forgive?

Or at least it seems as if he doesn't forgive or doesn't want to forgive.

And one of the things which is so wonderful about the book of Lamentations is it walks right into these problems.

And it doesn't walk into these problems like a philosophical argument.

It's a poem.

It's not clear whether it would have been just something that was just merely a poem, so to speak, that you would read like a poem if it's meant to be sung.

But it's five separate poems, each of them connected and related to each other.

And it's a poem that speaks deep into our heart and into our experience.

And not giving away the ending, one of the things that I think the book of Lamentations does regularly is there's enough light to understand who God is and enough light to understand who you are.

And on the other hand, it doesn't force itself on us.

And that rather than actually being something which condemns God, it's something which reveals who we are and who we really are in the real world in light of the reality of the living God and how we should then live.

So let's look at chapter 3, verse 1.

And we'll see right off the bat that it's talking about very, very serious issues because it begins like this.

Actually, just before I read it, well, no, let's read it.

I am the man who has seen affliction under the rod of his wrath.

And the his is referring to God.

I'm just going to read that again.

I am the man who has seen affliction under the rod of his wrath.

This is a poem that has a lot of pain in it.

And it's a poem that's going to wrestle and articulate hopelessness and even despair.

And in fact, one of the things I guess that the poem is going to set before us isn't that there should be no point in time when you're hopeless.

It isn't that there should be never a time that you experience despair.

In fact, one of the things that the book does is it doesn't shame you if you, in fact, as you read it, are feeling despair or hopelessness.

The book doesn't shame you.

It doesn't keep on telling you that, okay, real, you know, real authentic human beings never experienced this.

Real Christians never experienced this.

It's going to articulate these things without shaming them.

But it will also pose the question, is the hopelessness and despair to be a moment or a way of life?

Is the pain to be a moment or a way of life?

Obviously, people do choose despair and hopelessness as a very long season and maybe even a way of life.

But because we Christians believe that this is ultimately God's word written, the question is, does God, who doesn't shame you over feeling despair or hopelessness,

is he calling you to a way of life centered around pain or despair or hopelessness?

So here again it is.

I am the man who has seen affliction under the rod of his wrath.

And just, it's very, very concrete poetry.

And it goes like this, it continues on.

He has driven and brought me into darkness without any light.

Surely against me he turns his hand again and again the whole day long.

He has made my flesh and my skin waste away.

He has broken my bones.

He has besieged and enveloped me with bitterness and tribulation.

He has made me dwell in darkness like the dead of long ago.

He has walled me about so that I cannot escape.

He has made my chains heavy.

Though I call and cry for help, he shuts out my prayer.

He has blocked my ways with blocks of stones.

He has made my paths crooked.

He is, just sort of pause before we read verse 10.

You notice the power of this imagery.

And one of the things about this poem that we have to understand is that it's taken from, in a sense, the point of view of the speaker, the observer.

Just as in other completely different sermons, or apparently different but not really different,

that the talk, when it talks about things which we would call scientific things, is always observational language.

And observational language, in a sense, isn't wrong, because you just speak about what you observe.

If you read about the sun rising, or if somebody says the sun is rising in the east, they obviously, you know that they're just talking about how it looks from your point of view.

And one of the things about this poem is he's talking about things from his point of view, how he's experienced them.

And, you know, even here, you have this double image that God, on one hand, has walled him in and constrained his life.

On the other hand, he's made his way crooked.

And there's these constant, multiple, very, very concrete images from his point of view.

And the poem is a bit of a, it will move you through things.

And as it goes through to verse 18, it's going to move to this conclusion that his hope is completely and utterly gone, and he's caught in despair.

Continue reading at verse 10.

He is a bear lying in wait for me.

In other words, to kill me.

He, a lion in hiding.

He turned aside my steps and tore me to pieces.

He has made me desolate.

He bent his bow and set me as a target for his arrow.

He drove into my kidneys the arrows of his quiver.

I have become the laughingstock of all peoples, the object of their taunts all day long.

He has filled me with bitterness.

He has sated me with wormwood.

He has made my teeth grind on gravel and made me cower in ashes.

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.

Now, some of you, before you came to this service, might have been in a good mood.

Some of you might have been trying to get into a good mood.

Some of you are thinking, wow, that describes exactly how I feel.

Just before we go anything further, you know, Christians are ones who understand that Jesus is their Savior and Lord.

And they've come to trust him as their Savior and his disciples.

And a disciple is one, in a sense, who follows another person, who trusts another person to be the wise guide, the leader, the model, the emulator, the one who provides.

And one of the things that Christians learn from Jesus is that ultimately the words of Scripture, God uses many, many different authors.

But ultimately the word of Scriptures are the words that God wanted to have there.

And if you think about it for a second, this gives these words very, very, very great power.

God wanted this expression of hopelessness and despair to be in his word.

Like God wanted it.

It wasn't as if he was sort of, he got caught up with watching angels play.

And while he got caught up watching angels play, some human being snuck this in or God's enemy snuck this in or the devil snuck this in.

And, you know, then, you know, after a couple of centuries of God watching angels play, he sees and he goes, oh, dang, this part, I didn't want this to get in the Bible.

What's this doing there?

That's not what happens at all.

That, in fact, this very, very powerful language of being broken, of ruin, of hopelessness, God wanted this text to be in the Bible.

Now, before I go any further on this, I need to tell you something about, so, you know, just give me a bit of mercy for a second here.

There's a bit of a grammar geek moment, a little bit of mercy.

But some of us love different grammar and structural things.

Other of us go, okay, here's my time for a nap.

But it's actually really, really important here to understand something that's going on in this.

If it wasn't for the fact that the poem is an acrostic, and that means that every, the first, like, the Hebrew equivalent of the letter A begins the first verse.

And, in fact, actually this, if you go back and you look at it, one of the reasons you can understand that this is the heart of the whole book of Lamentations is that, so an acrostic is where the first word of the first line begins with, in a sense, our letter A, then B, then C, then D.

The second word of this, the second verse, you know, is B and C.

And chapter 1 and 2 are acrostics.

There's 22, at this time of, in Hebrew, there's 22 letters in the alphabet.

And so chapter 1 and chapter 2 are acrostics.

But chapter 3 is like an acrostic on steroids.

It is, if you're reading it in the original language, it's like, okay, that's an acrostic.

Whoa.

That's an acrostic.

Whoa.

And then you go, whoa, this is an acrostic.

Because chapter 1 and chapter 2, every, in a sense, verse or stanza has three poetic lines.

But it's only the first word of the first line that has, in a sense, the first letter.

But when it comes to chapter 3, there's still, in a sense, three poetic lines for every letter of the alphabet.

But every single line begins with the letter A in the first three.

And then in chapter, and then verses 4, 5, and 6, in a sense, the Hebrew letter for B, every word is like that.

And so the way the whole book is structured, it's an acrostic and it's an acrostic.

Whoa, this is like really a huge acrostic.

It draws your attention to it, which is what, in a sense, God wants.

God wants your attention to be drawn to the despair.

But he also wants your attention to be drawn to what happens next.

And this is the other thing which is really cool about this, is that if this was like a book like Isaiah or Ezekiel or the book of Proverbs,

because in the book of Proverbs, like the first ten chapters are a whole group of, in a sense, psalms or poems.

And so scholars try to debate about whether, you know, this poem here connects with this poem or this poem or this poem or this poem.

And chapter 4 is, chapter 3 is actually four different poems.

Isaiah 3 · chapter mention

Verses 1 to 24, verses 25 to 39, verses 40 to 47, and verses 48 to 66 are all actually four separate poems.

But because it's an acrostic, you understand that the author is holding them all together and you're to understand them all together.

And so here we come up to verse 18 in this poem.

And we have this very powerful, you know, look again at verse 17.

My soul is bereft of peace.

I have forgotten what happiness is, so I say my endurance has perished.

So is my hope from the Lord.

We're coming to the end of the first poem.

And then verses 19 and 21, there starts to be a little bit of a transition.

It goes like this,

Remember my affliction and my wanderings, the wormwood and the gall.

In the Bible, usually when they use the word remember, it's asking the God to do something.

It's not just remembering.

But because you now look, because I have returned to you and I'm asking you,

can you note this and do something about it?

So it begins to be a bit of a transition from this thing of my hope is, my endurance has perished.

My hope has perished.

Verse 19, Remember my affliction and my wanderings, the wormwood and the gall.

My soul continually remembers it and is bowed down within me.

But this I call to mind and therefore I have hope.

And then listen to these next three verses, which is the end of the psalm.

But it's all part of this bigger poem that makes up chapter three.

The steadfast love 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.

Now, just a couple of things.

I shared this in the first week.

This is the best known part of the Book of Lamentations.

In fact, many people, it's the only part of the Book of Lamentations they know.

And it's not unusual for those verses to be in a little prayer card or a little fridge magnet

or to be a little greeting card or something like that.

And it's very, very interesting that usually when these verses,

if you could put this image up now, that would be very helpful.

Usually when these verses come up, it's with something like this.

You have a beautiful scene of a cottage at a lake or you have a beautiful scene of a farm in the middle of the countryside

and everything is green and everything is lush and everything is peaceful and everything is wonderful.

And that's how people see and understand this verse.

But now you understand that to see that card like that, and I'm not going to diss that card.

I'm not saying that if you have that card in your fridge and you find it helpful, throw it in the garbage.

I'm not going to say that at all.

If that works and helps for you, that's good.

But in a sense, it's a type of a romantic view of what life is like.

And it doesn't speak to people who are caught in despair.

If you could put up the second image, this would be very, very helpful.

You have to understand that these five poems have been written, are being written,

while somebody sits in the ruins like this.

In fact, I was just thinking that maybe I should ask Amy to make a postcard card with those ruins and the words.

And the words,

And that is something to put on your fridge, because that's exactly the context within which this is being said.

The person who says this, the poet, is saying these words, singing this song, praying this prayer,

making this confession in the midst of the ruins.

In the midst of the ruins.

And in fact, you won't understand the rest of the poem, or you won't understand chapters 4 and 5,

the poems that finish after this, if you don't understand,

that just because the poet comes to this recognition,

doesn't automatically mean that his reality is now like being in a farm,

or in the countryside, or in a cottage, or wherever your happy place is,

and everything is green, and everything is prosperous, and everything is safe, and everything is peaceful.

The poet comes to this profound realization.

And as they come to this profound realization, they're still in the ruins.

And they're going to be in the ruins tomorrow,

because ruins don't get, in a sense, unruined or rebuilt,

just instantly.

This text isn't talking about magic.

Now look again at the text.

The steadfast love 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.

This is the heart of the whole poem.

In one level, you might say,

George, that doesn't make any sense,

that all of a sudden, he's just gone through this profound experience

of speaking of hopelessness, and his endurance is gone,

and now all of a sudden, this pops up.

But I would like to suggest to you that that's exactly realistic.

That's exactly realistic.

I've had many, many, many times when I've just felt very, very, very down,

very, very completely overwhelmed,

and all of a sudden, something like this pops into my mind.

You know, I've had many, many times when I've just felt angry at the world

or nobody loves me or completely down,

and all of a sudden, unbidden, so to speak,

or maybe I've shot up the odd little prayer,

God, why don't you do something about that,

and all of a sudden, something will come up into my mind,

some act of kindness, some act of love,

some person who does love me,

some person who does care for me,

some memory of joy.

And part of the problem for we as human beings have,

and this is, this, you see, that's exactly how these things happen.

Part of the question then is, what do we do with it?

Where do we go with it?

I mean, I know for me, there are many, many times in my life

that I hang on to the suffering.

I hang on to the sorrow.

I hang on to the bitterness.

I hang on to the pain.

I, in a sense,

the door opens to think about something different,

and it's as if I do all in my power to shut that door,

to close that window,

to cover the light,

to repress that moment of hope,

or joy,

or love,

or peace,

or truth that comes to start to flood me

in the midst of my pain.

So I would say that rather than being artificial,

this actually describes human experience.

Some of us might not think of the human experience as being like this

because we've become so accustomed

to almost,

without even thinking about it,

the second that there is a pleasant thought,

a hopeful thought,

that we close that door immediately.

And that's why one of the things about this whole poem,

from the beginning to the end,

is such an important thing for us to reflect upon

and enter into.

Because it starts to maybe show a little bit into us.

There's several things.

As the poem goes on and continues,

and chapter four and chapter five goes on,

pain doesn't go away quickly.

It doesn't go away instantly.

This isn't like a technique or magic.

It isn't as if reality is like a bank machine

where you put your card in,

you just press the options,

and the options just mechanically follow.

And God isn't the sort of God.

Like, why would you think,

I mean, it's as if we want a God

who's like a cash machine,

but if, like, why would we worship that?

I know we worship money.

Why would we want a God who works like a machine

that you just press a button

and then something transpires?

The fact of the matter is,

is that emotionally,

we can live,

we can be in pain.

I mean, the pain might be real.

The ruin might continue to be real.

We are dealing with the ruin of our relationship,

the ruin of our finances,

the ruin of our friendships,

and those things don't get solved or healed

just right away,

and the pain that goes away with it

doesn't go right away.

And in that sense,

this poem and the whole book of Lamentations

is profoundly emotionally accurate.

But at the same time,

at the same time,

even in the midst of pain,

part of the reason that pain is pain

and that suffering is suffering

and ruin is ruin,

is that we have in our very, very deep bones

that that's not what we were made for.

That it's out of whack.

That it's not our true resting place.

That our true resting place

is somewhere quite different.

And so one of the things

which is so remarkable,

I'm going to be spending longer time

on this verse, obviously,

because it's so important

to understand our experience

and the message of the book of Lamentations

and what happens next.

But this,

these three lines

make these powerful lines,

the steadfast love of the Lord

never ceases.

That it's part of God's essential nature

that he is a God of steadfast love.

And actually,

a better way to understand it

is covenant love.

It's not just that God is love,

but it's a covenant language.

It's relationship language.

It's the language of God

desires to have people

who are his children

who are his

and his love for his children

never ceases.

It's clear relational love.

It's not an emotion.

Although it's not

separate from emotion,

but it's not primarily emotional.

It's a conscious willing

for relationship

in the good of the other

and a delight in the other.

It's in a sense

everything that you want

from a friend

to a spouse

to relationship with children

to pets

to places.

It's all of the senses of love

all woven together

in the context of relationship.

And this is part of God's

essential nature

that never ceases.

His mercy

never comes to an end.

He never stops

being a merciful God.

And they are new every morning.

Great is your faithfulness.

There's this idea that

it's got,

as I said in the attitudes,

it's not that God is old

and stale,

but that he is eternal

and new every day.

It's as if he is him

for the very first day.

Everything is fresh.

It's never stale.

And that his faithfulness,

his faithfulness

is something

which characterizes him.

He's unstoppably himself.

And the Lord is my portion.

In other words,

that's this sense

that I belong to the Lord

and he belongs to me.

That that's where my identity

and my destiny

ultimately is rooted.

That if there isn't a God

like this that does exist,

then I have no hope.

And despair, in fact,

should just be the rest

of the way of my life

unless I can grab

a few moments of joy.

And one of the things

which is so wonderful

about this

is that the writer of this,

writing this amidst the ruins,

all he can do

is think back to the Exodus

and think back

to how God deals with Israel

on Mount Sinai

and he can think back

about maybe

what happened,

how Gideon defeated Midian

and he can think back

to things like this.

But for we as Christians,

this text poses riddles

that only Jesus fulfills.

See, one of the things

which is so different

between Jesus and Buddha

is this,

that Buddha constantly said,

look not to me,

look to my Dharma.

Don't look at me.

Like some Buddhists will tell you,

if you see the Buddha

on the road, kill him.

As this sense

that it's not about Buddha,

it's about his way,

it's his doctrine.

And the Buddha keeps saying,

okay, it's not about me,

it's about my doctrine.

But the thing which is different

about Jesus

is it is about him.

Jesus says,

I am the way,

the truth, and the life.

And so what we understand

is that everything

in the Bible

is pointing to Jesus.

That those things,

the part of the Bible

that are written before him

in a sense

are posing riddles

or jumps of faith

which only start

to become clear

when Jesus arrives.

You see,

Jesus is described

as Emmanuel.

In other words,

Jesus is with you

in your mess.

Jesus is with you

in your ruins.

Jesus is with you

in your despair.

He is with you

in your pain.

He is so with you

that ultimately,

even though he himself

had never broken

his relationship with God

and was sinless,

he is so with you

that he takes upon himself

the sin and the punishment

that is proper to you.

And he's also Savior

that on the cross

he doesn't die

for the things

that he has done

wrong himself,

but he in a sense

the ruin that you deserve,

the punishment

that you deserve

is laid on him

and the destiny

that he deserved

and was properly his

is offered to you.

And even this language

of God's compassion

and his steadfast love,

once again,

that only makes,

those are all

relationship languages

but only the God

revealed by Jesus.

It's only when we understand

that there's the Father,

the Son,

and the Holy Spirit

and that Jesus is God,

the Son of God,

made flesh,

it's only when we understand

that from all eternity

there was the Father,

the Son,

and the Holy Spirit.

So from all eternity

love could truly exist

in no other system

of thought,

no other spirituality,

no other religion.

Is there a proper understanding

that, like,

where does love come from

in any of those?

Like, if everything is one,

how can there be love?

If everything just comes about

from chance,

like, how does love

make any sense?

If God is a singular God

like Allah,

then how can there be love?

Does he have to create

to have somebody to love?

But this profound insight

that God's love

is unending,

this is posing a riddle

that only Jesus in the Gospel

starts to explain.

that long before there were

human beings

there was love.

And God did not have

to create human beings

so that he had someone

to love.

Long before there were angels

there was love.

And that when any one of you

have a sense

that the ruin

of my relationships,

the ruin of my life,

the ruin of my hopes,

that there's something wrong

and broken with that

and that something like love

must be real,

if you have that longing

and yearning,

only the biblical Gospel

makes it clear.

Only the biblical Gospel

is love from beginning to end

and is an invitation

for you

to enter into

love took flesh

and died for you

because he loved you.

and to know him

is to know a love

that would die for you,

that would take your ruin

into his life,

that you might know

the destiny of love.

Only the Gospel.

So now it changes.

If you look at it

in your English language Bibles

very, very closely,

you'll notice the transitions

because it goes from the singular

to the plural

and it goes...

So now in a sense

he's going to talk about this

a little bit more.

What we're going to see now

is that it's as if he...

Well, look what happens

in verse 24.

Sorry, verse 25.

Because 25, the poem changes.

The Lord is good to those.

See, now he's no longer

talking about me.

I am the man.

He's talking to those.

He's talking to the people.

The Lord is good to those

who wait for him,

for the soul who seeks him.

Just notice that.

Isn't that like...

It's a very, very profound...

It's a verse well worth

meditating upon

in the spiritual life.

That on one hand

what we do is we wait

and on the other hand

we seek.

You see, it's the language

of relationship.

It's the language of persons.

Isn't it?

That like...

What does a husband

and a wife do

in their marriage?

On one hand

they seek the love

of the other.

On the other hand

in a sense they wait.

There's this dance,

this balance

between seeking and waiting.

And it's woven here

into the structure

of the poem.

It's one of the ways

that reading a poem

like this helps

to structure you

to understand

what it means

to have a relationship

with the living God.

And by better understanding

the relationship

with the living God

through Jesus,

it helps you

to understand yourself

and your relationships.

But it's a very wonderful

verse to meditate upon.

I'll read it again.

Verse 25.

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.

And just sort of pause here.

There's a bit of a play here

and a bit of a point

to Jesus.

In chapter 1,

verse 14,

we bear the yoke

of our sins.

Now the poet is saying,

if you understand

great is the faithfulness

of God,

his steadfast love

endures forever,

it is good to wait for him

and to bear that yoke,

the yoke that comes

from the God

whose compassion

never comes to an end.

And this points us through

to Matthew chapter 11

Matthew 11 · chapter mention

where it says,

Jesus says,

my yoke is easy

and my burden is light.

And there's this,

once you see that,

when you look at this verse

in 1.14

and then you realize

how Jesus is fulfilling

these two things.

Verse 29.

Verse 28,

I should say,

let him sit alone

in silence

when it is laid on him,

that is the yoke.

Let him put his mouth

in the dust.

In other words,

that is just,

in a sense,

to make yourself

prostrate before the Lord,

to make yourself

helpless before him.

There may yet be hope.

Let him give his cheek

to the one who strikes,

let him be filled

with insults.

And what this is just

really talking about

is that if you understand

that the steadfast love

of the Lord never,

that if you understand

that the steadfast love

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 have hope.

And when you start

to understand that,

in a sense,

that God is the God

who really does exist

and that he's calling you

into a relationship

with himself

and he will accept you

if you come to him

in the person of Jesus,

not weighing your merits

and your accomplishments,

but parting your offenses,

there is a sense

that there can be purpose

even in seasons

of pain and punishment.

Verse 31,

For the Lord

will not cast off forever,

but though he cause grief

or sorrow,

he will have compassion

according to the abundance

of his steadfast love,

for he does not willingly afflict

or grieve the children of men.

I just want to pause here.

These three verses

combined with 22 to 24

are in some ways

the high water mark

of the doctrine of God

which is being presented here.

And they're very key

to understanding

what's going on.

For the Lord,

verse 31 again,

For the Lord

will not cast off forever,

but though he cause grief

or sorrow,

he will have compassion

according to the abundance

of his steadfast love,

for he does not willingly afflict

or grieve the children of men.

Here's what it's saying.

Punishment is a moment,

but God's love is forever.

Punishment is a moment,

but goodness is forever,

love is forever,

truth is forever,

justice is forever,

mercy is forever.

Those are God's fundamental attributes.

The fundamental attribute of God

is not punishment.

The fundamental attribute of God

is not anger.

He is properly angry at evil,

but he punishes

and the punishment is done,

and in a sense,

the punishment

has a beginning and an end.

But God's goodness

has no beginning,

no end.

His love has no beginning,

no end.

His mercy has no beginning,

no end.

God's love is not

that who he fundamentally is,

and that's what this text

is capturing

in poetic language.

See, once again,

I mentioned this a little bit,

I think,

in my last sermon,

but it's a very,

very important point

to understand

that many people

in our culture,

when they talk,

they talk as if

what really is needed

is a God

who is beyond good and evil.

And I said,

I challenge this,

that's what we really want.

Like, if you think about it

for a second,

if your son or your daughter

said that I'm going to pursue

a life that is beyond

good or evil,

would you be happy

if they said that?

Well, maybe you would.

But maybe,

let's say,

you're seeking to enter

into a relationship

with somebody,

you'd like to have a boyfriend

or a girlfriend,

and if you start to get

to know the person,

they say,

by the way,

I'm pursuing a life

that is beyond good or evil.

Well, would you be happy

about that?

Like, what on earth

can that possibly look like?

Like, if you think about it,

a person pursuing

a life beyond good or evil

would be the type of person

who could,

in the morning,

early in the morning,

capture a cat and kill it,

and then later on in the day

could maybe do an experiment

against their will

on a human being,

and then after that

they could listen

to some Bach,

and then maybe

they could go to church,

and then maybe

they could tell you

how much they love you

and give you roses.

And in a sense,

if you had a person

who could do all of those

types of things

with no type of sense

that there was anything

inconsistent about it,

what you would think

is that there was something

broken in that person,

something missing

in that person.

Because the fact of the matter

is that we never want

a God that is beyond

good or evil,

just as we would never want

to date a person

who is beyond good or evil.

We would never want

to be married to somebody

who is beyond good and evil.

We want to be married

to somebody who's good.

We'd want our children

to be kids who are true,

that are loving,

not beyond good and evil.

In fact,

what we want,

ultimately,

is what the Bible here

is describing,

that the good and the true,

the just,

things which are just

and things which are loving,

things which are beautiful

and things which are mercy,

that these things

never come to an end

and they never stop,

and that if you press

into any one of them,

it isn't that the others fade

or become contradictory,

but that the more

you press into goodness,

the more you press into love,

the more you press into truth,

the more you press into justice,

the more you press into mercy,

and you want a reality,

you want a God

that,

in fact,

as you go more into goodness,

more into truth,

more into justice,

more into love,

what they do

is they illuminate each other

and are at harmony

with each other

and are at one

with each other

yet remaining themselves.

And that which is

your true longing

of your heart

is that which is revealed

here in this poem.

We need to wrap this up.

Let's continue.

Verse 34.

To crush underfoot

all the prisoners

of the earth

to deny a man justice

in the presence

of the Most High

to submerge a man

in his lawsuit

the Lord does not approve.

It's just poetically saying

God never thinks

that these things are right,

by the way.

Verse 37.

Who has spoken

and it came to pass

unless the Lord commanded it?

Is it not from the mouth

of the Most High

that good and bad come?

Why should a living man

complain,

a man,

about the punishment

of his sins?

This is a very important verse.

Why should any one of us

complain?

See, this is the heart.

The memory verse

for this week

is the difference

between godly grief

and worldly grief,

godly sorrow

and worldly sorrow.

And in a sense,

worldly sorrow,

worldly grief,

we can be upset

that we got punished.

We can be upset

that we got caught.

But the heart

of godly grief

is a sorrow

that we actually

had done something

which is wrong

and a hope

that there is some way

that that can be paid for,

that that can be amended,

that that can be dealt with,

that the sorrow

and the pain

that we have,

that we would have done

something like that

which was both wrong

and hurtful,

that there can be a day

that that can be mended

so that there's both

a sorrow for the wrong

that is done

and a longing

for mending

as opposed to merely

how dare you punish me,

how dare you say

that that was wrong,

how dare you question me,

how dare you,

how dare you cut me off

because if I did that

and feel sad and sorrowed,

not because

you've done anything wrong,

but because you have consequences.

And this psalm

is raising this particular issue

in a very powerful way,

this poem.

And if we believe,

it's from our point of view,

because God isn't responsible

for moral evil,

from our point of view,

it's pain,

from our point of view,

it's sorrow.

That's what we experience.

But if God is,

in fact,

not in control

of things that cause pain,

how can we believe

that he is in control

of things

which are good?

If he is not in control

of things

that cause you sorrow,

how can we believe

that he is going to be

in control

of those things

that bring you joy

and blessedness

and peace,

that in fact

will bring you salvation?

Verse 38,

it is,

is it not from the mouth

of the Most High

that good and bad

has come?

Why should a living man

complain a man

about the punishment

of his sins?

That's the end

of the second poem.

Now the poet

urges people to pray.

He goes like this,

let us test

and examine our ways

and return to the Lord.

Let us lift up

our hearts and hands

to God in heaven.

We have transgressed

and rebelled

and you have not forgiven.

You have wrapped yourself

with anger

and pursued us,

killing without pity.

You have wrapped yourself

with a cloud

so that no prayer

can pass through.

You have made us

scum and garbage

among the people.

All our enemies

open their mouths

against us.

Panic and pitfall

have come upon us,

devastation

and destruction.

Now how does that

fit in with the other things?

We have to go back

to the sermon

I did last week,

but required forgiveness

is privilege

and abuse.

And what the poet

is saying

is that God

never gives privilege

and he never abuses.

I talk about more

in the sermon

that I go through yesterday,

but the whole point

that he is saying this

in light of verses

22 to 24

and what's going to happen

next is he's

all saying,

listen,

these things have come

upon us,

we have done these sins,

we have done these things

which are wrong.

It's because of our

wrongdoing

and our unrepentant heart

that God has closed

his ears,

that God doesn't want

to hear about what,

just like if

somebody has hurt you

and then they want you

just to pretend

as if nothing has happened

and you close your ears

to them,

that's not your fault,

that's their fault.

And anybody who demands

that you change

while they are unchanged

is wrong.

And he's just saying,

listen,

you guys,

we've turned our back

on God,

we've complained

about the fact

that he's punishment,

all we've done

is blame shifting,

all we've done

is these things,

it's time to return

to the Lord

because his steadfast love

never comes to an end

and his mercies

are new every morning,

return to the Lord.

And that's how

the poem ends

from verses 49,

but once again

it ends

verses 48 to the end,

it ends within

the context of pain.

It ends with the sense

that the Lord

is going to be

the final word

and it ends

with the sense

that not only

do we understand

that there is somehow

in the mystery of God

that in his mercy

he has paid

the price of forgiveness,

that in his mercy

he is both punished

and even though

we are now

not still perfectly righteous

that somehow or another

he has made a way

for this,

that even those

who've been responsible

for the pain,

in the enemies,

they also too

will be judged.

I think,

let's just read it

very quickly,

verse 48,

my eyes flow

with rivers of tears

because of the destruction

of the daughter

of my people.

My eyes will flow

without ceasing,

without respite

until the Lord

from heaven

looks down and sees.

My eyes cause me grief

at the fate

of all the daughters

of my city.

I have been hunted

like a bird

by those who are

my enemies without cause.

They have flung me alive

into the pit

and cast stones on me.

Water closed

over my head.

I said,

I am lost.

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.

You have taken up

my cause,

O Lord.

You have redeemed my life.

You have seen

the wrong done to me,

O Lord.

Judge my cause.

You have seen

all their vengeance,

all their plots

against me.

You have heard

their taunts,

O Lord,

all their plots

against me.

Their lips and thoughts

of my assailants

are against me

all the day long.

Behold,

they're sitting

and they're rising.

I am the object

of their taunts.

You will repay them,

O Lord,

according to the work

of their hands.

You will give them

dullness of heart.

You will curse.

your curse will be on them.

A blessing is,

in a sense,

a bestowal of energy

towards thriving.

And a curse,

in a sense,

is a removal

of that blessing

so that the normal

forces of entropy

take place.

Verse 66,

You will pursue them

in anger

and destroy them

from under your heavens,

O Lord.

The final word

is Lord.

Lord.

And a theme

is going to be

addressed more

in the next two.

But the heart of it

is this fundamental idea

that from beginning

to the end,

God is just,

God is merciful,

God is loving.

And we have sinned

and we need to call

upon him.

And those who are

completely and utterly

repentant,

all they will know,

in a sense,

is God's punishment.

But for those of us

who understand

that we are not perfect,

we can call upon him

for mercy.

And God comes,

relates to us,

not weighing our merits,

but pardoning our offenses.

He'll do that for you.

He will do that for me.

He has done that for me.

So,

in the midst of your pain,

in the midst of the ruin,

there is a Lord

who does hear your prayers

who will be with you.

Jesus is Emmanuel.

He will.

Let's bow our heads

in prayer.

Father,

we give you thanks

and praise

that you do not shame us

for feeling sorrow.

You do not shame us

for feeling pain.

You do not shame us

when we call out to you

and cry out to you

in confusion

and in anguish.

That you are a big God,

a God of love,

and that you can hear

this honest expression

of our pain

and of our confusion.

And we give you thanks

and praise, Father,

that often unbidden

comes into our lives

at different points,

remembrances of you

or longings

and yearnings for you.

And we ask that you

help us, Father,

to be gripped

by the message here

of Lamentations 3,

to be gripped

by the idea

that your steadfast love

endures forever.

Your faithfulness

never comes to an end,

that they are new

every morning.

That you are, in fact,

a God

who is both good and true,

loving and beautiful,

just and merciful,

and it never comes

to an end.

And you have provided,

Father,

for our great need

in the person

of your Son.

And we ask, Father,

that even though

our emotions

might not change

very quickly,

that we still have

to live with

the situation

that we are in,

that you are the God,

you are our God,

you are our God

of love and justice

and mercy

in the midst

of the ruins.

And we ask

that the Gospel

would so grip us

that we can call out

to you,

looking for that day

when we will see you

face to face

and all tears will end,

all suffering will come

to an end,

and we are in your presence

forever.

And we ask this

in Jesus' name.

Amen.