Latest / Reformed Thinking / Hope in the Midst of Ruin: The Soul’s Recovery Through Remembered Truth (Lamentations 3:21–24)

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Hope in the Midst of Ruin: The Soul’s Recovery Through Remembered Truth (Lamentations 3:21–24) · Reformed Thinking

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The year is 586 BC and the air is thick with black smoke.
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Yeah, the metallic, inescapable scent of blood is just
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everywhere. It really is.
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The city of Jerusalem, the crown jewel of the covenant people, is
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reduced to a smoldering landscape of ash and ruin.
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The institutions of faith are completely shattered.
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The walls are breached, right? The screams of the dying echo
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through the narrow streets and the survivors are being rounded
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up in chains to be marched across the desert into a hostile
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foreign land. Everything that anchored the
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people to their identity, their security and their God has been
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violently ripped away. Yet out of this terrifying,
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agonizing setting emerges one of the clearest confessions, hope,
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and all of human history. Welcome to reformed thinking.
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We are so glad to have you joining us for this.
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Today we are bringing you an extensive analysis, a true deep
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dive into the source material surrounding a highly specific,
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weighty text of scripture. We're looking at Lamentations
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Chapter 3, verses 21 through 24. We have two rigorous theological
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texts analyzing covenant mercy within the severe Crucible of
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divine wrath. The mission for this deep dive
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is to unpack how hope actually survives when your circumstances
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look completely bleak, and we are going to look at this
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entirely through the lens of Reformed theology.
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The theological stakes here are incredibly high for you as the
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listener. When we look at this text, we
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are forced to reject the hollow bombs of modern secular
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psychology. Absolutely.
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We have to completely discard the shallow optimism that
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pervades so much of modern religious thought.
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Lamentations 3 demands that you look at the objective,
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propositional reality of God's character.
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Right, because true comfort does not come from looking inward to
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find some hidden reserve of personal strength.
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It does not come from a sudden favorable shift in your outward
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circumstances. Pure comfort comes from a
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resolute, unblinking gaze upon the immutable nature of the
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Creator. We are dealing with objective
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truth here, not subjective sentimentality.
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If you are looking for a quick psychological fix, this text
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will offend you. But if you are looking for solid
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rock at the bottom of the abyss, this is where you find it.
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So let's unpack this. Let's step directly into the
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brutal historical realities of the text.
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We really have to set the stage thoroughly before we can fully
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grasp the theology being presented.
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We are situated in 586 BC. The Babylonian siege under King
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Nebuchadnezzar has reached its catastrophic conclusion.
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And this is after months of agonizing starvation within the
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city walls. The devastation is total and
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absolute. The Temple of Solomon, the very
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place where the glory of God dwelled, is now nothing but
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smoldering rubble. That was the epicenter of the
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sacrificial system and the atonement for sin.
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The priesthood has been slaughtered right there in the
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streets. All the social, economic and
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political structures are completely dismantled.
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And then there is the Davidic king Zedekiah.
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He suffers a fate that is almost too horrific to imagine.
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It is brutal. He attempts to flee, is
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captured, and is brought before Nebuchadnezzar.
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There he is forced to witness the execution of his own sons,
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and immediately after that the Babylonians gouge out his eyes.
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So the very last image seared into his mind for the rest of
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his life is the death of his heirs.
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This is the absolute collapse of everything the people of Judah
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held dear. This is not a metaphor, this is
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historical reality. And that historical context is
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an absolute necessity for you to grasp.
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This was not random geopolitical bad luck.
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No, not at all. In the biblical perspective,
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this event is the literal terrifying outworking of the
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covenant curses outlined centuries earlier in Deuteronomy
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chapter 28. Moses warned the people in plain
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language. He told them that if they
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engaged in persistent idolatry, injustice and covenant breaking,
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the wrath of God would fall upon the land.
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They would be besieged, they would starve, and they would be
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exiled. So while Babylon and King
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Nebuchadnezzar are the human instruments of destruction, God
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Himself is the theological 'cause.
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He is executing righteous judgement against the rebellious
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people. The devastation of Jerusalem is
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an act of holy justice. God is fulfilling His promises,
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even the terrifying ones. He is proving that His Word is
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absolute truth, even when it results in the destruction of
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His own chosen city. I think modern readers, and
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honestly even those of us who sit in Orthodox churches,
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struggle intensely with this concept of God's wrath.
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Oh, without a doubt, people prefer a deity who only hands
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out blessings. Right, a grandfatherly figure
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who winks at sin and constantly affirms our choices.
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But if we remove the reality of divine judgement from this text,
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we actually weaken the hope it offers.
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That is a crucial point. If God is not sovereign over the
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disaster, then his promises of restoration lack authority.
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I was reading through the sources and the logic struck me.
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If Babylon destroyed Jerusalem outside of God's sovereign
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decree, then God is weak. And a weak God cannot guarantee
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any future mercies. The sensory experience of the
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original audience was overwhelming.
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They smell the stench of death. They watched their cultural
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elite being chained and marched into exile.
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Every visible symbol of their faith was eradicated.
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The reality was utterly bleak. But I struggle with how we apply
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this. I mean, if I am sitting in the
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ashes of my own life and I view my hardship as a covenant
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sanction or divine discipline, that sounds terrifying.
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It does sound intimidating at first.
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Honestly, it seems like that would breed fear rather than
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comfort. If I think God orchestrated the
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collapse of my life, my reflex is to run away from him.
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How does viewing this destruction as a legal
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covenantal action change the way a person processes their own
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dark providences? Well, that is a very natural
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human reflex. It requires us to distinguish
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between the terror of chaos and the discipline of a sovereign.
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OK, unpack that for me. When you view hardship simply as
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a random accident of a chaotic universe, you are left to the
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mercy of blind chance. That breeds true paralyzing
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terror, because chaos has no boundaries.
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Right, there is no purpose in chaos.
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But when you understand the divine discipline is a legal
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covenantal action governed by a holy and just God, it completely
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changes your perspective. The Westminster Confession of
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Faith touches on this right, specifically Chapter 5 on
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Providence. Yes, it teaches us that God's
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most holy, wise, and authoritative governing extends
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to all His creatures and their actions.
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So when the people of Judah understood that their suffering
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was the result of a covenant they had broken, it meant they
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were still in a relationship with the covenant maker.
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Precisely, discipline implies a father who corrects his
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children. If God were simply destroying
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them out of capricious anger, they would be utterly consumed.
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But because it is a covenant sanction, there are strict legal
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boundaries to the wrath. The law guarantees judgement for
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sin, but the covenant of grace guarantees that God will
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preserve a remnant. Acknowledging the righteous
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judgement of God is really the first step toward genuine
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repentance. It removes our pride and crushes
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our self righteousness. And it leaves us entirely
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dependent on His unmerited favor.
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You run to the very God who is striking you, because He is the
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only one who has the authority to heal you.
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That brings immense clarity to the text because the historical
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reality is so bleak and the theological reality of God's
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judgement is so heavy, the author of Lamentations had to
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use a highly disciplined literary structure.
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He had to do that to keep from sinking into total chaotic
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despair. Let's look at that structure.
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The Book of Lamentations consists of five poems written
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as funeral dirges. The Hebrew term for the genre of
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mourning poetry is Keenoth, and the structure is incredibly
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meticulous. Chapters 124 and five all have
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22 verses each that matches the 22 letters of the Hebrew
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alphabet. It is a strict acrostic form,
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but Chapter 3, which is the center of the book's chiasm,
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intensifies the structure drastically.
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It is a triple acrostic consisting of 66 verses.
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The author uses the 1st letter of the Hebrew alphabet for the
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first 3 verses, the 2nd letter for the next 3, and so on.
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It is as if the author is utilizing the rigid boundaries
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of poetry to contain an ocean of chaotic grief.
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He is forcing his mind into a structured discipline because
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his emotions are completely unspooling.
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The literary architecture here is brilliant and it is
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absolutely necessary for the human psyche under duress.
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Look at the 1st 20 verses of chapter 3.
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The language is relentless and shocking.
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The author speaks of being made to chew on gravel.
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He mentions Wormwood and gall, which are symbols of intense
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toxic bitterness. He even describes God acting
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like a bear lying in wait, or a lion and hiding, ready to tear
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him to pieces. This is a man who is
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experiencing the full weight of divine chastisement.
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He is not sugar coating his reality.
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He is articulating his anguish with brutal honesty.
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He feels targeted by the Almighty.
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But then, right in the middle of this agonizing dirge, verse 21
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interrupts the despair like a Thunder clap.
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The text says, but this I call to mind and therefore I have
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hope. The Hebrew word used there is
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shub, which means to cause, to return, or to bring back to
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mind. This is a deliberate, strenuous
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cognitive act. It is not a sudden emotional
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shift where the author just wakes up feeling better.
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The grief is still there, but he forces a different thought to
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the forefront. The concept of preaching to
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oneself is so vivid here, and it is a massive challenge to how we
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naturally operate. In seasons of extreme
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affliction, pain tends to narrow your perception to a pinhole.
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When you are suffering, your physical and emotional agony
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scream so loudly that it drowns out everything else.
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Your vision gets restricted entirely to the immediate
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crisis. The destroyed house, the medical
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diagnosis, the empty bank account.
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That is why memory is a central faculty in our faith, not a
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marginal 1. Forgetfulness breeds rebellion.
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When we forget who God is and what He has done, we panic and
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we grasp for control. But remembrance breeds trust.
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We see a stark contrast here between this biblical model of
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mental discipline and modern secular mindfulness.
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Modern mindfulness often encourages you to empty your
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mind, to detach from your thoughts, and to exist simply in
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the present moment. But the Prophet here is doing
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the exact opposite. He is not emptying his mind at
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all. He is aggressively filling it
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with objective theology. I think the distinction between
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emptying the mind and filling it with truth is a critical
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dividing line between secular coping mechanisms and Christian
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warfare. Biblical Meditation is always
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active. It is the strenuous, exhausting
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work of taking the promises of God and forcing them to the
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forefront of your consciousness. When the author uses that word
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shob, he is executing a holy resistance against his own
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despair. He is looking at the rubble of a
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city and the terror in his own heart and he is saying I will
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not allow my current circumstances to dictate my
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theology. Instead, he dictates his
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theology to his circumstances. He brings the objective reality
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of God's character back into his active thoughts.
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He treats his own memory as a weapon against the lies of the
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enemy and the overwhelming evidence of his physical eyes.
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I like to think of the mind as a courtroom.
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Grief, pain and trauma are the prosecuting attorneys and they
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are highly effective. They are pacing back and forth
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in front of the jury of your soul, shouting that all is lost.
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They are pointing to the tangible evidence.
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Exhibit A is the destroyed temple.
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Exhibit B is the blinded king. Exhibit C is the starvation in
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the streets. The prosecution rests and the
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case looks completely closed. Verse 21 is the moment the
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believer slams their hand on the table, objects to the
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prosecution's narrative, and forces truth to take the witness
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stand. The believer issues a subpoena
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to the character of God. But the mechanics of this are
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incredibly difficult when your nervous system is in full fight
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or flight mode. How do you actually execute this
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holy resistance? When your feelings are screaming
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that you are abandoned, how do you practically put truth on the
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witness stand? Right.
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It requires A rigorous dedication to the objective Word
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of God over and above your subjective nervous system.
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Practically, it means you stop listening to yourself and you
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start speaking to yourself. When your feelings tell you that
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God has abandoned you, you must articulate out loud what you
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know to be true from Scripture. You read the Psalms of Lament.
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You recite the historic creeds of the faith.
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You review the historical acts of redemption.
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The Prophet and Lamentations did not wait for his emotions to
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catch up. He led his emotions by a sheer
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act of the will, grounded entirely in his intellect and
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his theological training. You execute this holy resistance
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by anchoring your mind strictly to the closed Canon of
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Scripture. You refuse to rely on mystical
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internal impressions. He refused to wait for a sign.
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You declare the truth of the text, even when your voice
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shakes, even when your hands are trembling.
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And even when your heart feels like stone, the truth remains
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true, regardless of your capacity to feel it in the
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moment. So what does this all mean for
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the text? If the Prophet is deliberately
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calling something to mind, what specific truth is weight enough
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to counter the literal ashes of Jerusalem?
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What fact could possibly outweigh the destruction of the
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Davidic throne and the slaughter of the priesthood?
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The answer leads us directly into the attributes of God.
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We see a triad of divine character displayed here, Love,
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mercy and faithfulness. Verses 22 and 23 bring us some
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of the most stunning language in all of Scripture.
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The text says the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases.
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His mercies never come to an end.
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They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness.
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What's fascinating here is the precise terminology the author
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employs under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
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Let's look closely at the Hebrew word has said.
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Most English Bibles translate this as steadfast love or love
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and kindness. But those English words often
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carry a sentimental, emotional tone that misses the biblical
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weight. Has said not a vague sentimental
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kindness. It is not a generic affection,
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which would be the Hebrew word hava.
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Has said is a loyal treaty bound devotion.
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It is a strict covenantal obligation.
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God loves his people because he swore an oath to do so.
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In the ancient Near Eastern context, A suzerain vassal
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treaty involved a greater king binding himself to protect a
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lesser king as long as the lesser king remained loyal.
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But God's hesed goes infinitely further.
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He binds himself by an oath to remain loyal to his elect even
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when they fail. The text says that it is
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strictly because of the Lords, he said, that we are not
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consumed. The Hebrew verb used for
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consumed is tamam. And Tam means to be finished,
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completed, or brought to a total end.
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So the only the reason the remnant of Judah was not
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completely wiped off the face of the earth is because God's
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covenantal devotion stands firm even when His people are
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faithless. The only reason they were not
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Tamam is his said. I want to make sure we grasp the
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practical weight of his said. It is like the difference
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between someone saying I care about you and someone signing a
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legally binding mortgage contract. 1 is a feeling that
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can evaporate depending on the mood.
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The other is a legal document that holds up in court
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regardless of how anyone feels. He said gives the believer legal
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standing to approach the throne of grace and they would move to
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the next word in the triad Rasham translated as mercies or
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compassions. This word shares a root with the
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Hebrew word for a mother's room. It conveys A visceral, deep
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seated protective compassion. And the text specifically notes
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that these mercies are plural. It is an immense abundance of
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compassion. Furthermore, they do not fail.
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The supply never ever runs out and the Prophet declares that
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they are new every morning. We also have the climax of this
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triad in the word Yuna, which means great faithfulness.
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This ties directly back to the Reformed understanding of God's
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immutable decree. God ordains whatsoever comes to
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pass, as the confession states. His faithfulness means he is
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completely consistent with his own character and his own
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decrees. He does not change.
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He does not mutate, he does not revise his plans based on
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unforeseen circumstances, because he foresees and ordains
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all circumstances. In a world where the monarchy
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fell, the temple fell and the economy fell, God remains the
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singular, unmoving reality. The greatness of his
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faithfulness is demonstrated by his sheer immutability.
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He is the same yesterday, today and forever.
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Pondering this concept of daily renewal is fascinating.
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Why does the text say these mercies are new every morning?
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Think about the physical reality of the original audience.
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They were waking up sleeping in the dirt, surrounded by the
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charred, smoking remains of their homes.
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They had no food, no king, and no temple, but the rising sun
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over a ruined city is a daily visible witness that God still
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governs the world. The laws of nature hold because
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the law giver holds them. We do not live on stored up
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grace from the past. Yesterday's grace was
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exclusively for yesterday's trials.
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Every single breath you take today is a present, active gift
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of God's sustaining mercy. That daily renewal is a severe
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rebuke to our self-reliance. It forces us into a posture of
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daily active dependence. We want stockpile of grace so we
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don't have to rely on God tomorrow.
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We want our bank accounts full, our health guaranteed and our
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relationships perfectly secure. But God gives us manna for one
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day at a time. The prophet recognizes that each
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dawn is a fresh testimony of God's restraint.
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He does not treat us as our sins deserve.
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The very fact that the sun rose and the survivors had breath in
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their lungs was objective proof that the covenant curses had not
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resulted in total annihilation. The wrath was measured.
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The mercy was renewed. This highlights a massive,
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irreconcilable contrast between secular optimism and biblical
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hope. Optimism leans entirely on the
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probability that circumstances will eventually improve.
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An optimist looks at the rubble of Jerusalem and says, well, it
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can't get any worse. We will rebuild eventually.
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Time heals all wounds. But biblical hope leans on the
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absolute certainty that God's character remains the same, even
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if the circumstances never improve.
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Optimism requires a favorable change in the situation.
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Biblical hope requires no change in the situation, only a steady
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theological gaze at the unchanging God.
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So. They'll let me push back on this
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because it sounds good in a seminary classroom, but it is
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agonizing on the ground. Right.
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If someone is listening to this right now and they feel
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completely abandoned, their marriage is collapsed, or their
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business went under, how does understanding the strict legal
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certainty of Histid actually offer a better anchor than just
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hoping for a change in circumstances?
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Doesn't the human heart need the circumstances to improve, to
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feel loved? That is the big question.
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The human heart desperately wants circumstances to improve,
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but waiting for circumstances to change places your final hope in
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the creature rather than the Creator.
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Circumstances are incredibly fragile and entirely
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unpredictable. Even if your situation improves
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today, it could collapse again tomorrow.
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If your piece is tied to your bank account, your health, or
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your political stability, your peace will be as volatile and
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chaotic as those temporary things.
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You will live on a perpetual emotional roller coaster, but
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the legal certainty of His seed anchors your soul to the eternal
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decree of God. His said means God is legally
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bound by His own oath to work all things for the good of those
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who love Him according to His purpose.
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It means his love for his elect is not contingent on their
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performance, nor is it derailed by their suffering.
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For the listener, feeling abandoned, knowing that God's
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covenantal devotion is an objective fact secured
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completely outside of themselves provides A bedrock that a mere
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change in circumstances could never offer.
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It means you can have total security in the dark.
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It means the dark is not a sign of God's absence, but the very
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theater where His faithfulness is put on display.
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That security leads us to the logical climax of possessing
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those divine attributes. Once you grasp God's character,
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the narrative moves to the ultimate realization.
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The gifts point directly to the giver.
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We arrive at verse 24 which states the Lord is my portion,
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says my soul, therefore I will hope in Him.
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The Hebrew word for portion here is chilek.
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This isn't just a poetic flourish, it is a highly
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specific legal and historical term.
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The redemptive historical background of that word shelek
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is vital for understanding the magnitude of the Prophet's
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claim. In the Old Testament law, when
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Joshua divided. The Promised Land among the
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tribes of Israel. Each tribe received a physical
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territory. They received vineyards, cities,
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and pastures, but the tribe of Levi, the priestly tribe,
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received no land. The Lord told them directly, I
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am your portion and your inheritance.
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God Himself was their exclusive possession.
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By using this specific word, the author of Lamentations is making
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a staggering theological claim on behalf of the suffering
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believer. The climax of this text is the
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realization that the highest good for the human soul is not
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relief from pain, nor is it the political restoration of
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Jerusalem. The highest good, the ultimate
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possession, is the Lord Himself. This verse completely confronts
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and demolishes the idolatrous tendencies of the human heart.
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It is a direct, uncompromising rejection of the modern
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prosperity gospel, which suggests that God is primarily
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useful for acquiring earthly wealth in perfect health.
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The prosperity gospel treats God like a cosmic vending machine.
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You put in your faith and you get out your preferred
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circumstances. But Lamentations 3 exposes the
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absolute poverty of a faith that only seeks God for His benefits
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while remaining completely indifferent to His presence.
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If your theology crumbles when you lose your earthly comforts,
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it reveals that your earthly comforts were your actual God
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all along. And Yahweh was just a means to
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get them. The ruin of Jerusalem stripped
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away every single earthly benefit, leaving only God.
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Earthly portions, whether they are real estate, stock
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portfolios or physical health, can be consumed by fire.
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They can be stolen by invading armies.
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They can be destroyed by microscopic diseases.
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They are inherently perishable. But God cannot be diminished, He
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cannot be overthrown. He cannot be stolen or
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bankrupted. When the believer declares the
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Lord is my portion, they are confessing that their true
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wealth is located securely outside the reach of any earthly
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disaster. The Babylonians took the gold
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from the temple, they took the bronze pillars, they took the
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sacred vessels, but they could not take Yahweh from the heart
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of the true believer. The believers inheritance is
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kept in heaven, untouched by the fires of 586 BC.
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Here's where it gets really interesting.
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Think of this in terms of a marriage.
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It is the exact difference between marrying someone for
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their immense wealth versus marrying them for who they are
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in their character. If you marry someone strictly
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for their money and then the bank accounts are completely
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emptied by a market crash, the marriage dies immediately
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because the entire foundation of the relationship is gone.
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You loved the money and not the spouse.
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The Babylonians came in and bankrupted the nation of Judah.
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If the people only loved God for the fertile land, the
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agricultural surplus and the political security, their faith
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would never survive the exile. But if they love God for God,
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the marriage holds even in the ashes.
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But here's the genuine struggle. How does a believer actually
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make that transition? How do you move from objectively
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knowing God is good in your intellect to inwardly declaring
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with your entire soul He is my portion?
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How do you renounce the idols when you still desperately want
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them? That transition from objective
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intellectual knowledge to subjective soul deep
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appropriation is the exclusive work of the Holy Spirit.
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The spirit illuminates the mind and stirs the affections, but
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practically speaking, it usually happens when the believer is
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violently brought to the end of themselves.
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As long as we have earthly props to lean on, we tend to lean on
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them. We trust God, but we also trust
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our savings account. We trust God, but we also trust
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our health. When Providence strips those
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props away, we fall. And in falling, we are forced to
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see the sufficiency of the rock at the bottom.
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You make that declaration by actively renouncing your idols
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in the midst of your pain. You look directly at your losses
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and you say out loud, this hurts intensely.
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But this was not my supreme good.
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It requires A deliberate submission of your will to His
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sovereignty, recognizing that even in taking away your
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comforts, He is dealing with you in mercy.
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He is amputating the idols that were killing you to show you
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that he alone is a enough. But that creates a massive legal
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problem for the Sinner. To claim the perfectly holy God
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as a personal portion requires a mediator.
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Sinners have no rightful legal claim on a holy God.
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We cannot just decide that the Creator of the universe belongs
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to us. We broke the covenant.
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We deserve the Wormwood in the gall.
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This reality forces us to look forward, creating a direct
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theological bridge to Jesus Christ.
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We have to look at the cross and the empty tomb.
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You can map Lamentations chapter 3 entirely onto the person and
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work of Jesus Christ. He is the true and better
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Jeremiah. He is the ultimate weeping
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prophet who looked over the city of Jerusalem and wept for its
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impending doom. When the author of Lamentations
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talks about drinking the Wormwood and the gall, he is
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speaking metaphorically about his suffering.
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But Jesus Christ literally had Gall offered to him on the
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cross. He drank the cup of God's wrath
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down to the very dregs. The doctrine of penal
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substitutionary atonement is vividly, terrifyingly displayed
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here. On the cross, Jesus experienced
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the ultimate divine desertion. He suffered the true
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lamentation, crying out, My God, my God, why have you forsaken
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me? The justice of God, the full
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weight of the covenant curses of Deuteronomy 28, fell in full
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unmitigated force upon the Substitute.
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The only reason we can receive the new mercies of verse 23 is
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because the wrath was totally exhausted on Christ.
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We are not consumed solely because Christ was consumed in
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our place. He absorbed the absolute limit
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of the covenant sanctions so that we could inherit the
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covenant blessings. We have to expand on Christ's
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threefold office here, his role as prophet, priest and king in
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relation to this text. It angers the theology perfectly
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as our great High Priest, his perfect intercession and his
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once for all sacrifice secure our portion forever.
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The Levites lost their physical temple in 586 BC, but Jesus is
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the true temple. He is the meeting place between
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God and man that can never be torn down.
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As our King, he sovereignly governs the dark Providence's.
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The Babylonians were a temporary tool, but Jesus holds all
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authority in heaven and on earth.
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He rules over the very tragedies that break our hearts, and as
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our prophet, He is the Word made flesh who declares the Father's
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absolute faithfulness to us. He speaks the truth of verse 21
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into our despair in the midst of our complete ruin.
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And we must connect the new morning of Lamentations 3.23 to
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the morning of Christ's resurrection.
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The rising sun over the smoking ruins of Jerusalem was a
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pointer, a shadow to the greatest morning in all of
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redemptive history. The morning of the resurrection
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publicly vindicated God's faithfulness.
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The stone was rolled away and indestructible life emerged from
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the ultimate judgement. The resurrection guarantees that
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the mercies of God are permanently secured for the
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elect. Death could not hold the Son of
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God, and therefore the covenant curses have been definitively
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conquered for those who are united to Him by faith.
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The resurrection is the ultimate proof that he is triumphs over
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to Mom. Let me ask the most practical
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question for the listener who is trying to process a severe loss
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right now. Let's say someone is lying awake
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at 3:00 AM, staring at the the ceiling, absolutely terrified of
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the future. How does looking backward at
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Christ's penal substitution on a Roman cross 2000 years ago
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secure the new mercies they need for tomorrow morning?
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How does an ancient historical event provide active present
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comfort in a modern hospital room or an empty house?
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If we connect this to the bigger picture, we see that the cross
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is the objective historical proof of God's character.
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When you are suffering in the dark at 3:00 AM, the enemy will
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whisper that God hates you, that God is punishing you, or that
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God has completely forgotten you.
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If you look only at your immediate circumstances, you
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might be tempted to believe that lie because your circumstances
27:42
look like judgement. But when you look backward at
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the cross, you see the indisputable blood bought
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evidence of his first. He did not spare his own son,
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but gave him up for us all. The logic of the Apostle Paul in
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Romans 8 applies directly here. How will he not also, along with
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him, graciously give us all things?
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The cross proves legally and finally, that God's wrath
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towards your sin is fully satisfied.
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Therefore, the hardship you face tomorrow morning is not punitive
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wrath. It cannot be because that wrath
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was poured out on Jesus. Your suffering is either
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fatherly discipline or a severe trial designed to conform you to
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the image of Christ. The cross turns the terror of
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judgement into the comfort of guaranteed mercy.
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It changes the very nature of your suffering from a curse into
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a tool of sanctification. That distinction changes
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everything about how we live. We have to apply this text today
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by distinguishing carefully between the law and the Gospel.
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The law comes in and exposes our unbelief.
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It highlights our tendency to grumble against Providence.
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The law shows us that in ourselves we actually deserve
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the Wormwood and the gall because of our daily sin.
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It strips away our entitlement, but the gospel provides the free
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gift of a covenant keeping God. The gospel says that Christ took
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the curse, so we get the morning mercies.
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We receive the inheritance of the Levites without having
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earned it. We're looking at a society right
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now that is facing an absolute epidemic of despair.
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The source material highlights a staggering statistic.
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Nearly 30% of adults face a diagnosis of depression at some
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point. Now, while we always acknowledge
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the appropriate place of medical care and physical stewardship,
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we must draw a sharp line. We have to contrast the strict
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limits of secular psychology with the objective reality of
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God's Word. Psychology can sometimes help
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modify behavior, you can teach coping skills, and medication
29:35
can balance chemistry. But psychology cannot resurrect
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A spiritually dead soul. It cannot provide a sufficient
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eternal portion for the human heart.
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The believer does not find mourning mercies in mysticism,
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or by looking within themselves, or by seeking new extra biblical
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revelations. We find them exclusively in the
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closed authoritative Canon of Scripture.
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The objective promises of God written in the Bible are the
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only solid ground when the chemistry of your brain is lying
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to you. Think about the corporate and
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domestic applications of this How do parents teach their
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children that God's faithfulness is the only true anchor?
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We live in a culture that incessantly tells children they
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can be whatever they want, that their truth is found inside
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themselves. And that the goal of life is
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personal happiness. We have to actively,
30:23
intentionally teach them the exact opposite.
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We have to teach them that the world has fallen, that suffering
30:28
is absolutely guaranteed, but the gods he feed is the only
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reliable safety net. We have to teach them how to
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lament, and corporately, how does the church lament without
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falling into unbelief? We gather on Sundays and so
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often we force a smile, we sing upbeat songs and we pretend
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everything is fine. While half the congregation is
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bleeding internally from divorce, disease or depression,
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we need to recover the historic biblical practice of corporate
30:54
lament. We need to sing the minor key
30:56
psalms. We need to acknowledge the ruins
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of our lives out loud, but continually point each other to
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the Sovereign King. This raises an important
31:04
question about our natural inclinations under pressure.
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How quickly do we seek out broken cisterns the moment our
31:11
comfort is threatened? The prophet Jeremiah, who
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traditionally authored Lamentations, use that imagery
31:17
elsewhere. We forsake the fountain of
31:19
living waters and hew out cisterns for ourselves, broken
31:22
cisterns that can hold no water. When a crisis hits, our
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immediate reflex is to run to financial security, to political
31:28
saviors, or to mindless entertainment.
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Or to destructive habits to numb the pain.
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Lamentations calls us to repent of those balcon cisterns.
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It calls us to recognize that our coping mechanisms are
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completely bankrupt and to return to the only source that
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will not run dry. I often compare those secular
31:46
coping mechanisms to trying to pay off a $10 million legal debt
31:50
with Monopoly money. You can hand the play money to
31:53
the judge and it might feel like you're doing something
31:56
productive in the moment. But it holds absolutely no
31:59
jurisdictional weight when the real bill comes to you.
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Secular coping mechanisms might distract you for an evening, but
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they do not satisfy the justice of God or heal the wound of the
32:09
soul. Lamentations offer solid
32:11
bedrock. It addresses the foundation of
32:14
your legal standing before God. So, considering all of this, how
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do we actively practice the third use of the law when we are
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still sitting in the ashes? The third use of the law acting
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as a guide for grateful obedience.
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How do we obey God gratefully when our hearts are completely
32:28
broken? The third use of the law teaches
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us how to live in a way that pleases God, not to earn our
32:34
salvation, but strictly out of gratitude for the salvation
32:37
already secured by Christ. When you are sitting in the
32:40
ashes, grateful obedience looks like a deliberate, stubborn act
32:44
of remembering. It looks like opening your Bible
32:46
when you feel absolutely nothing.
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It looks like praying the words of Scripture back to God when
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you have no words of your own. It looks like getting up and
32:54
gathering with the Saints on the Lord's Day, even when you
32:56
desperately want to isolate yourself in the dark.
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Obedience in the ashes is the quiet, persistent refusal to let
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the darkness have the final say. It is the steady confession,
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even through tears, that the Lord is righteous in all his
33:11
ways and kind in all his works. It is practicing verse 21 until
33:15
verse 24 because the reality of your soul.
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We are bringing this deep dive toward its conclusion by
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synthesizing the intense mental discipline we saw in verse 21.
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Synthesizing that with the staggering theological reality
33:28
we found in verse 24. Hope is indestructible entirely
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because God's covenant love his His.
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It is inexhaustible. True recovery for the human soul
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begins not when your circumstances magically improve,
33:40
but when biblical truth reclaims its rightful, authoritative
33:43
place over your grief. The believer is called to a life
33:46
of theological remembrance under the heavy hand of Providence.
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We are summoned to trust, to wait, and to rest in the God
33:53
whose mercies are new every single morning.
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The deepest answer to human ruin is found exclusively in the
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unchanging covenant character of God.
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He is the portion that cannot be lost.
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I want to leave you with a final thought to Mull over, building
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upon everything we have examined in the source material today.
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Consider this if the absolute worst day in all of redemptive
34:15
history, the horrific, unjust crucifixion of the perfect Son
34:18
of God under the unmitigated wrath of the Father, was the
34:22
precise mechanism God used to secure your brightest, most
34:25
eternal mornings? What current ruin in your own
34:28
life might God be using right now to strip away your idols and
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reveal Himself as your exclusive portion?
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Think about that as you face tomorrow morning.
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Thank you for joining us on this deep dive into Lamentations.
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We will see you next time on Reformed Thinking.