Through the Lord's Mercies
An ancient hope in troubled times
The writer of Lamentations considers the burdens and hardships that had befallen God’s ancient people. Because of disobedience and sin, both personal and communal, the chosen people of God had been conquered and oppressed. God had blessed them with power, position, and privileges with Him so they might be a light shining into the world’s darkness, but darkness had penetrated to the very heart of the people.
God bears long with His people raising up leaders and prophets to guide them, but ultimately, the voice of the Lord is rejected again and again. At last, in justice, God withdraws His protection and allows the nation to fall into the hands of its enemies. Over time, the Babylonian Empire conquers the nation and plunders the holy city. The visible presence of God among His people is removed when the Jerusalem temple is destroyed, wealth and treasure along with the best and brightest of the next generation are taken captive to Babylon, and the promised land itself is laid waste. The Lamentations reflect on the consequences of sin and self-reliance that led the people of God to this tragic end.
From a human perspective, things could hardly get worse, yet right in the middle of the book, the author appeals to the nature of God to keep His promises.
Lamentations 3:21-24 reads:
“This I recall to my mind; therefore I have hope. Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness. ‘The Lord is my portion,’ says my soul, ‘Therefore I hope in Him!’”
Even though the people are deserving of the judgments being received, God will surely relent due to His great compassion. In fact, it is only because of God’s great compassion that His care for His people has endured over the many generations of unfaithfulness. Even as the faith of people wanes, God’s faithfulness is renewed. Even as the people have rejected God’s lordship, He is using the harshness of judgment to bring them back into covenant keeping with Him.
His people have been unfaithful and unjust by serving other gods and abusing their authority and blessings, and yet God will renew His attachment and mercy towards them. He will not treat them as their sins deserve, but will again, just as the sun comes up with each new day, return and extend unfailing compassion.
In our time, I do not believe God deals with modern nation states in the same manner as He dealt with His covenant people in the pages of the Hebrew Bible, but I do believe we can see parallels from this story of how God engages with the church and believers today.
For far too long, many of us have claimed to be committed disciples of Christ even as we sought our own ways and followed our own false gods. Sometimes it has been the pursuit of power or political influence that led us away from our gospel mission. At times, the ancient fears of the other have risen up anew in manifestations of a Christianity based less on Christ’s message of compassion than on our own need for racial superiority or social dominance. In other seasons, it has been money or pleasure or a desire to be seen as relevant and desirable by the watching world that has drawn us away from our first love. We have too often sacrificed a genuine, lasting commitment to God for a moment of cultural relevance. We have not been faithful to our calling to live as lights in the world.
If we are willing to admit such errors in the past and in the present, what can we do? How can we return to the Lord in our hearts so that we can return to faithfulness in our daily lives?
Like the ancient poet, we recall the Lord’s promises.
We remember His goodness. We lean into His faithfulness.
We repent of our sins, and we admit our failure to honor His will.
We recognize and name our shortcomings and short-sightedness.
We seek to live at peace with God and, as far as it depends on us, with our neighbors next door and throughout the world.
Like the ancient prophets, we call ourselves and others to collective work of restoration and repair.
We advocate for the hurting, and we bear witness to the brokenness in our world.
We speak up prophetically against the forces of our culture seeking to apply a whitewash of faux Christian identity to cruelty, greed, and worldly ambition.
We acknowledge that we have been too silent, too complicit, and too disengaged as we have stood by as the loudest voices have drowned out the lessons we should have learned from the church’s past compromises.
We cry out for the Lord to remember and to renew His people even as we sound a warning about the dangers we see that others have yet to fully realize.
None of us have been what we ought, and yet the Lord is still faithful and of great compassion.
May we remember His mercies, and trust in them. Like voices in the wilderness, may we call the hurting and the disillusioned back to Him. May we encourage one another not lose hope in the dark. His compassions have not failed, and He will not fail to remember us.
We look for the breaking of dawn.