Week 35a--Lamentations

We kick off Week 35 with the book of Lamentations, five poems of mourning (which is what “Lamentations” means) 

Tradition tells us that Jeremiah wrote the book of Lamentations, but the text does not specifically say this. It makes sense to say that Jeremiah is the author, because we have just read about the fall of Jerusalem and a shell-shocked prophet wandering around its ruined streets. This was his hometown, and it had been destroyed. He is in mourning--and so he writes.

Each of the first four poems is an acrostic, with each of the 22 verses (or segments, in chapter 3) beginning with a letter of the Hebrew alphabet, in order. 

The first poem describes the sadness of the city of Jerusalem, the desolation of the city and the people. Jeremiah’s heart is broken: “There is no one to comfort me,” he writes in verse 21.

In the second poem we read what God has done to Jerusalem and Judah. Still more desolation is described. (Jeremiah certainly earned the nickname “weeping prophet.”)

Even in this book, I have favorite verses, and they are found in the third poem. It begins with the same theme, weeping and wailing and woe is me--it was awful, there’s no way to deny it--but in the midst of all the garbage is this gold nugget that shines like the sun. 

Jeremiah writes in verse 21: “This I recall to mind, Therefore I have hope.” His hope is found in the next few verses: “The LORD’s lovingkindnesses indeed never cease, For his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness. ‘The LORD is my portion,’ says my soul, ‘Therefore I have hope in Him.’” More uplifting thoughts are found in the following verses (all the way to verse 42) but then Jeremiah returns to weeping again, because, well, his city has been destroyed and his people are in exile.

The fourth poem is another acrostic, 22 verses detailing the devastation of the city of Jerusalem.

In the fifth poem the people beg God to remember them. The city is asking to be healed, the people are speaking with one voice: “Restore us...unless you have completely rejected us” (5:21-22).

The end leaves me hanging. “Restore us...unless you have completely rejected us.” That’s it. No promise, no hope, no answer. But that’s how life can seem sometimes. We beg God for answers, for solutions, for help, and then we wait. The Jews waited 70 years to return to Jerusalem! On days like this we remember: “The LORD is my portion, Therefore I have hope in Him.” He has not completely rejected the Jews. Restoration will come.