GREAT IS THEY FAITHFULNESS (LAMENTATIONS 3)
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One of the 20th century's most loved hymns and even has a Wikipedia entry. Thomas Chisholm wrote “Great Is Thy Faithfulness” as a testament to God’s faithfulness through his very ordinary life. Born in a log cabin in Franklin, Kentucky, Chisholm became a Christian when he was twenty-seven and entered the ministry when he was thirty-six, though poor health forced him to retire after just one year. During the rest of his life, Chisholm spent many years living in New Jersey and working as a life insurance agent. Still, even with a desk job, he wrote nearly 1,200 poems throughout his life, including several published hymns.
Chisholm explained toward the end of his life, “My income has not been large at any time due to impaired health in the earlier years which has followed me on until now. Although I must not fail to record here the unfailing faithfulness of a covenant-keeping God and that He has given me many wonderful displays of His providing care, for which I am filled with astonishing gratefulness.”
To see God’s faithfulness in times of faithlessness is a big leap of faith. Chapter three is the third of five funeral dirges by Jeremiah who was shocked, stunned and saddened by the failure, faithlessness and fall of Jerusalem. It was hard to see any good to come out of the exile. The tone of chapter one and two was doom to deliverance in the third chapter, from tragedy in the first two chapters to trust in chapter three.
What are some of the worst things that have saddened you lately? How can we ask the Lord to pull us out? Why must we have faith in the darkest hours of life?
Heed and Weep
1 I am the man who has seen affliction by the rod of the Lord’s wrath. 2 He has driven me away and made me walk in darkness rather than light; 3 indeed, he has turned his hand against me again and again, all day long. 4 He has made my skin and my flesh grow old and has broken my bones. 5 He has besieged me and surrounded me with bitterness and hardship. 6 He has made me dwell in darkness like those long dead. 7 He has walled me in so I cannot escape; he has weighed me down with chains. 8 Even when I call out or cry for help, he shuts out my prayer. 9 He has barred my way with blocks of stone; he has made my paths crooked. 10 Like a bear lying in wait, like a lion in hiding, 11 he dragged me from the path and mangled me and left me without help. 12 He drew his bow and made me the target for his arrows. 13 He pierced my heart with arrows from his quiver.
14 I became the laughingstock of all my people; they mock me in song all day long. 15 He has filled me with bitter herbs and given me gall to drink. 16 He has broken my teeth with gravel; he has trampled me in the dust. 17 I have been deprived of peace; I have forgotten what prosperity is.
It is very hard for us to conceive of God as an angry, aggressive and even adversarial God. Miroslav Volf, a Christian theologian from Croatia who is the Director of the Yale Center for Faith and Culture at Yale University, used to reject the concept of God’s wrath. He thought that the idea of an angry God was barbaric, completely unworthy of a God of love. But then his country experienced a brutal war:
“My last resistance to the idea of God’s wrath was a casualty of the war (1992-94) in the former Yugoslavia, the region from which I come. According to some estimates, 200,000 people were killed and over 3,000,000 were displaced. My villages and cities were destroyed, my people shelled day in and day out, some of them brutalized beyond imagination, and I could not imagine God not being angry. Or think of Rwanda in the last decade of the past century, where 800,000 people were hacked to death in one hundred days! How did God react to the carnage? By doting on the perpetrators in a grandfatherly fashion? By refusing to condemn the bloodbath but instead affirming the perpetrators’ basic goodness? Wasn’t God fiercely angry with them? Though I used to complain about the indecency of the idea of God’s wrath, I came to think that I would have to rebel against a God who wasn’t wrathful at the sight of the world’s evil. God isn’t wrathful in spite of being love. God is wrathful because God is love.”
(Miroslav Volf, Free of Charge, Zondervan, pp. 138-139)
The first section (vv 1-17) details the Lord’s wrath (v 1), or the outburst of passion. It is the outpouring, overflow or onrush of passion. The word “wrath” is an extension of “eber,”or “beyond, the other side or the opposite side.” It is the spillover, the crossover, or the passover (Ex 12:12) effect. It is anger over and beyond, over the top, outside the norm and out of range. More than anyone could stand, suffer or stomach. More than anyone could envision, endure or be exposed to.
Each verse from verse 2 speaks of what the Lord did in the “he” passages, as many as 26 times in Hebrew, touching on:
V 2 Steered (made me walk in darkness) V 3 Selected (turned his hand against.. against)
V 4 Sickened (made old my skin… my flesh) V 5 Surrounded (besieged me VS surrounded )
V 6 Sat (dwell in darkness) V 7 Shackled (weighed me down with chains )
V 8 Stonewalled (shuts out my prayer V 9 Sidetracked (make crooked…my paths)
V 10 Spotted (bear…wait…lion hiding) V 11 Seized (mangled me…pulled me in pieces)
V 12 Shot (bow… arrows) V 13 Seeped (heart/reins)
V 14 Scorned (laughingstock)
V 15 Soaked (filled me with bitter herbs)
V 16 Smashed (broken my teeth)
You can see how personal, primary and primitive the author’s relationship with God by the use of “I” four times (vv 1, 7, 8, 14), “me” 10 times (vv 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 10, 11, 12, 15, 16) and “my” eight times (vv 4, 7, 8, 9, 11, 13, 14, 16) in each verse from verse 1-16. He felt that God had hunted, handicapped, hobbled and halted him. God’s discipline of Israel left her defeated, demoralized and destabilized. The feelings were raw, real and rational. The purpose was always for our healing – our repair, recovery and rebuilding, reconciliation, renewal and redemption.
Sometimes God’s use of suffering to reveal Himself, right wrongs and raise awareness. He uses it to deal with our misplaced pride, power, pleasures, profit and pursuits. Sin has its consequences, captives and casualties. It is not worth its price, pain and punishment.
Chapter 3 is more personal. Jerusalem is never mentioned in the chapter.
Hope and Wait
18 So I say, “My splendor is gone and all that I had hoped from the Lord.” 19 I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall. 20 I well remember them, and my soul is downcast within me. 21 Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: 22 Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. 23 They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. 24 I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.” 25 The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him; 26 it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord. 27 It is good for a man to bear the yoke while he is young. 28 Let him sit alone in silence, for the Lord has laid it on him. 29 Let him bury his face in the dust— there may yet be hope. 30 Let him offer his cheek to one who would strike him, and let him be filled with disgrace. 31 For no one is cast off by the Lord forever. 32 Though he brings grief, he will show compassion, so great is his unfailing love. 33 For he does not willingly bring affliction or grief to anyone. 34 To crush underfoot all prisoners in the land, 35 to deny people their rights before the Most High, 36 to deprive them of justice— would not the Lord see such things? 37 Who can speak and have it happen if the Lord has not decreed it? 38 Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that both calamities and good things come? 39 Why should the living complain when punished for their sins?
It’s been said, No matter how dark the night is, daybreak will follow, the dawn will come and a new day will begin.
Here are some acronyms:
Helping Other People Everyday
Helping Our People Endure
Helping Open People's Eyes
Houses Of Prayer Everywhere
Healing Of Past Emotions
Hold Onto Positive Expectations
His Own People Eternally
Hold On, Pain Ends
He Offers Peace Eternal
Hope is nothing without faith (Heb 11:1). The first imperative in the chapter is “remember” (v 19), which is repeated twice in the next verse (v 20). Remember is more than memory – recall, recollection or retention; it is to recognize, regard and revisit. It means don’t let my suffering, shame and sorrow and struggles be futile, fruitless or forgotten.
Hope (v 24) is a very important virtue in the chapter. The word “hope” occurs five times in the chapter, more than any chapter in the Bible, all in chapter 3 (3:19, 21, 24, 26, 29), even though verses 21 and 24 are the verb in Hebrew. Hope means stay (Gen 8:12), tarry (1 Sam 10:8), wait (2 Kings 6:33) and trust (Job 13:15). The first person occurrence of the verb (Gen 8:12refers to Noah, who was on a year-long cruise. Wait is more than time; it is trust and tenacity in His goodness. Good is mentioned in verse 25, 26 and 27.
We have hope because of God’s love to us. Great love (v 22, hesed) occurs 247 times in Hebrew, but remarkably only thrice in plural, twice in this chapter (vv 22, 32, Isa 55:3). Mercy or compassion is negative in translation, failing to highlight its beauty, grace and goodness. The same verse is translated as lovingkindness (NASU), steadfast love (ESV) and faithful love (Holman Christian Standard). His mercies are never fail (v22), which means ended (Gen 2:1-2), spent (Gen 21:15), done (Gen 24:15), destroy (Job 9:22) and fail (Ps 69:3). It is full, fresh and favorable faultless. If “hesed” is singular, then it is with the noun “great/multitude” (v 32). Consume and fail (KJV) are different because the first (consume) is material, and the second (fail) is about time.
Great love (hesed, plural) v 22, 32
(for) Not we are consumed (verb)
(for) not His compassions fail (verb) –
new every morning
Great (rab) v 23 faithfulness
New every morning (v 23) means everyday, evermore, ever and ever evergreen.
“Cats”: Daylight, I must wait for the sunrise
I must think of a new life and I mustn't give in
When the dawn comes, tonight will be a memory too
And a new day will begin.
Heal and Wake
40 Let us examine our ways and test them, and let us return to the Lord. 41 Let us lift up our hearts and our hands to God in heaven, and say: 42 “We have sinned and rebelled and you have not forgiven. 43 “You have covered yourself with anger and pursued us; you have slain without pity. 44 You have covered yourself with a cloud so that no prayer can get through. 45 You have made us scum and refuse among the nations. 46 “All our enemies have opened their mouths wide against us. 47 We have suffered terror and pitfalls, ruin and destruction.” 48 Streams of tears flow from my eyes because my people are destroyed. 49 My eyes will flow unceasingly, without relief, 50 until the Lord looks down from heaven and sees. 51 What I see brings grief to my soul because of all the women of my city. 52 Those who were my enemies without cause hunted me like a bird. 53 They tried to end my life in a pit and threw stones at me; 54 the waters closed over my head, and I thought I was about to perish. 55 I called on your name, Lord, from the depths of the pit. 56 You heard my plea: “Do not close your ears to my cry for relief.” 57 You came near when I called you, and you said, “Do not fear.” 58 You, Lord, took up my case; you redeemed my life. 59 Lord, you have seen the wrong done to me. Uphold my cause! 60 You have seen the depth of their vengeance, all their plots against me. 61 Lord, you have heard their insults, all their plots against me— 62 what my enemies whisper and mutter against me all day long. 63 Look at them! Sitting or standing, they mock me in their songs. 64 Pay them back what they deserve, Lord, for what their hands have done. 65 Put a veil over their hearts, and may your curse be on them! 66 Pursue them in anger and destroy them from under the heavens of the Lord.
Judge Horace Gray of Boston who would later go on to serve as a Justice on the Supreme Court once said to the man who escaped conviction on a technicality: “I know that you are guilty and you know it, and I wish you to remember that one day you will stand before a better and wiser Judge, and that there you will be dealt with according to justice and not according to law.”
Jeremiah wrote seven principles about the nature of Israel's affliction: (1) Affliction should be endured with hope in God's salvation, that is, ultimate restoration (Lam 3:25-30). (2) Affliction is only temporary and is tempered by God's compassion and love (vv. 31-32). (3) God does not delight in affliction (v. 33). (4) If affliction comes because of injustice, God sees it and does not approve of it (vv. 34-36). (5) Affliction is always in relationship to God's sovereignty (vv. 37-38; cf. Job 2:10). (6) Affliction ultimately came because of Judah's sins (Lam 3:39). (7) Affliction should accomplish the greater good of turning God's people back to Him (v. 40). (Charles Dyer, Bible Knowledge Commentary.)
Examine/search (v 40) means a disguise, a mask or cover. The verb debuts with Laban searching for the images (Gen 31:35). It refers to physical/outward search, not philosophical search. Test/try (v 40) is more penetrative – to examine intimately, translated as found out (2 Chron 4:18), search out (Job 28:3) and seek out (Eccl 12:9). Examine is external, test is internal.
Judge (v 59) is the only imperative in the second half of the chapter. God’s judgement is independent, impartial, intelligent, indisputable and irreversible, compared to man’s inconsistency, incompetence, incomplete, inconclusive and impatient. Not only is this verb an imperative, this is the only imperative “judge” in the four major prophets. It is also translated as reason (1 Sam 12:7), avenge (2 Sam 18:19), defend (Ps 82:3), contend (Prov 29:9) and plead (Isa 43:26). It is more liken to pronounce than to prosecute. Three things to bear in mind concerning God’s judgment:
We will never escape His judgment
We will never endure His judgment
We will never extinguish His judgment
Conclusion: The Lord judges people regardless of race, religion and rank (Ps 96:10). He shall judge the people without compromise, confusion or counsel. Have you reexamined, repaired and restored your relationship with God? Have you turned your face to Him instead of turning your back on Him? Do you run to Him instead of run from Him? Do you trust Him instead of trust yourself?
