19 Remember my affliction and my wanderings,
the wormwood and the gall!
20 My soul continually remembers 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;
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.”
25 The Lord is good to those who wait for him,
to the soul who seeks him.
REFLECTION:
In the original Hebrew text, the first four chapters of Jeremiah’s Lamentations are acrostic poems, and the first letter of each poem is arranged in the order of the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet. There are sixty-six verses in this chapter, which is a three-level acrostic poem: the first three sentences of the poem start with the first letter of Hebrew alphabet, then the next three sentences start with the second letter, and so on. Examples of other acrostic poems are Psalm 37, 119, 145, etc. In his distress and sorrow, Jeremiah still saw a glimmer of hope: “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end.” (v22) When Jeremiah was in the darkest moment, he has hope because of this promise: God has always been faithful and will continue to be faithful. Jeremiah experienced God’s judgment and God’s love at the same time. At the time of judgment, Jeremiah still recognized God’s mercy, just as he would be wary of God’s judgment when things went well. God’s faithfulness has never changed. Today, as long as we look to God, God will also respond to us. God’s love and faithfulness can overcome any sin, and God will not despise a broken and contrite heart. As long as we sincerely repent, God will definitely forgive us.
PRAYER:
Come to God with a contrite heart, and ask God to illuminate the darkness and filth in your heart, so that you can see the hidden sins in your life that have been unwilling to confess for a long time; humble and confess your sins before God and ask for His forgiveness, and ask for God’s love and mercy to fill your life so that you can be comforted by Him.
11 My eyes are spent with weeping;
my stomach churns;
my bile is poured out to the ground
because of the destruction of the daughter of my people,
because infants and babies faint
in the streets of the city.
12 They cry to their mothers,
“Where is bread and wine?”
as they faint like a wounded man
in the streets of the city,
as their life is poured out
on their mothers’ bosom.
13 What can I say for you, to what compare you,
O daughter of Jerusalem?
What can I liken to you, that I may comfort you,
O virgin daughter of Zion?
For your ruin is vast as the sea;
who can heal you?
14 Your prophets have seen for you
false and deceptive visions;
they have not exposed your iniquity
to restore your fortunes,
but have seen for you oracles
that are false and misleading.
15 All who pass along the way
clap their hands at you;
they hiss and wag their heads
at the daughter of Jerusalem:
“Is this the city that was called
the perfection of beauty,
the joy of all the earth?”
16 All your enemies
rail against you;
they hiss, they gnash their teeth,
they cry: “We have swallowed her!
Ah, this is the day we longed for;
now we have it; we see it!”
17 The Lord has done what he purposed;
he has carried out his word,
which he commanded long ago;
he has thrown down without pity;
he has made the enemy rejoice over you
and exalted the might of your foes.
18 Their heart cried to the Lord.
O wall of the daughter of Zion,
let tears stream down like a torrent
day and night!
Give yourself no rest,
your eyes no respite!
19 “Arise, cry out in the night,
at the beginning of the night watches!
Pour out your heart like water
before the presence of the Lord!
Lift your hands to him
for the lives of your children,
who faint for hunger
at the head of every street.”
REFLECTION:
Jeremiah was called the “weeping prophet” because he often wept and shed tears for the disobedience of the people of Judah throughout his life. Jeremiah’s tears were not an expression of weakness, but an expression of sincerity and compassion. In Jeremiah’s time, false prophets were everywhere, and they often announced false prophecies. When Jeremiah warned of the demise of Judah and the imminent exile of the people for a long time, the false prophets said that everything is safe and there is no need to be afraid. In fact, Jeremiah was the prophet sent by God, and his prophecy was true. He called on the people to forsake their sins and sincerely repent for what they did against the Lord. Wayward people betray God because of their stubbornness, and everyone suffers. Are these disasters God’s fault? No, this is the consequences of the people’s evil deeds, and they will also involve innocent people. Even children will be “faint for hunger” and their lives are worrying. We should take warning from Jeremiah’s appeal and understand that the consequences of sin are extremely serious! Today, in the face of serious social moral degradation and extreme individualism, how will we react? We should wake up from a state of insensitivity, not be shaken by all kinds of lies, firmly defend the truth of God, sincerely pray for our church with tears, so that the church will not be destroyed by the world, and the church will be a witness for God in the society.
PRAYER:
Pray for God to give you a strong, benevolent, and conscientious heart, so that you can stand firm in the face of the world’s various moral declines and liberal values; pray for God to give you more strength and make you willing to offer yourself as a living sacrifice, bravely live out holiness in the turbid current of the world, and bear a beautiful testimony to God.
When the Babylonians conquered Jerusalem and deported much of its population, some residents were left behind in terrible conditions in and around the shattered city. To express their deep shame and grief over the destruction of their home, they wrote songs about its desolation and about the sufferings they were witnessing and experiencing. The book of Lamentations does not tell us who wrote these songs, although tradition ascribes them to Jeremiah. Here we witness people of faith putting into words their struggle to understand how God could have allowed the city they loved to be so devastated.
Each of the five songs preserved in the book has 22 stanzas. The first four songs begin with the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet in consecutive order. In the third song the letters are repeated at the start of each of the three lines in the stanza. There are few expressions of hope, but they are placed in the center of the book to give them extra prominence in a situation where they are badly needed. Overall, this collection of laments reminds us that expressing anguish over a broken, fallen world is a legitimate part of the biblical drama.
1 How lonely sits the city
that was full of people!
How like a widow has she become,
she who was great among the nations!
She who was a princess among the provinces
has become a slave.
2 She weeps bitterly in the night,
with tears on her cheeks;
among all her lovers
she has none to comfort her;
all her friends have dealt treacherously with her;
they have become her enemies.
3 Judah has gone into exile because of affliction
and hard servitude;
she dwells now among the nations,
but finds no resting place;
her pursuers have all overtaken her
in the midst of her distress.
4 The roads to Zion mourn,
for none come to the festival;
all her gates are desolate;
her priests groan;
her virgins have been afflicted,
and she herself suffers bitterly.
5 Her foes have become the head;
her enemies prosper,
because the Lord has afflicted her
for the multitude of her transgressions;
her children have gone away,
captives before the foe.
6 From the daughter of Zion
all her majesty has departed.
Her princes have become like deer
that find no pasture;
they fled without strength
before the pursuer.
7 Jerusalem remembers
in the days of her affliction and wandering
all the precious things
that were hers from days of old.
When her people fell into the hand of the foe,
and there was none to help her,
her foes gloated over her;
they mocked at her downfall.
8 Jerusalem sinned grievously;
therefore she became filthy;
all who honored her despise her,
for they have seen her nakedness;
she herself groans
and turns her face away.
9 Her uncleanness was in her skirts;
she took no thought of her future;
therefore her fall is terrible;
she has no comforter.
“O Lord, behold my affliction,
for the enemy has triumphed!”
10 The enemy has stretched out his hands
over all her precious things;
for she has seen the nations
enter her sanctuary,
those whom you forbade
to enter your congregation.
11 All her people groan
as they search for bread;
they trade their treasures for food
to revive their strength.
“Look, O Lord, and see,
for I am despised.”
REFLECTION:
This book is a lament written by Jeremiah for the destruction of Jerusalem. At that time, the entire kingdom of Judah was completely defeated, the temple was destroyed, and the people were taken captive by the Babylonians. Jeremiah wept for the suffering and humiliated people, and tears penetrated his heart. This lament is read aloud to all the Jews every year, reminding them that the destruction of Jerusalem that year was caused by people’s stubborn sins. “Lovers” in the second verse refers to some countries such as Egypt, because the kingdom of Judah has always hoped that they can help. When the Babylonian army approached Jerusalem, the kings of Judah not only did not pray for God’s protection, but turned away from God and asked for help from other nations. As a result, these so-called “friends” betrayed and even fell into trouble. The most important lesson of the subjugation of Judah is that she “took no thought of her future” (v9). They refuse to believe that an immoral life will lead to divine punishment, the ultimate price of which is playing with fire and self-immolation. Today, in a seemingly comfortable environment, we can choose to listen to God’s words vigilantly, or we can choose to turn a deaf ear to God’s teachings. The results may not be different for the time being, but just as the judgment will surely come to Jerusalem that year, it will also come to us today. May we learn from the history of the fall of Judah. Everyone will listen to God’s words vigilantly and be humble and obey God’s will.
PRAYER:
Come to God humbly, ask God to give you a heart that is always vigilant, and strive to live in God’s word every day; ask God to enlighten you so that you can confess your sins before God and be willing to repent completely; ask God to help you not to forget that His judgment has not yet come not because of slowness, but is patient toward us, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance (2 Peter 3:9).
