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The Lord Is My Portion | Lamentations 3:19-33 | Blessing Chishanu · Chapel Talks

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By the time you leave theological college, some
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of what filled those years will slowly become
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a blur, fading in our memories. But every now
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and then, something deeply formative stays with
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you. For me, one of those moments came through
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a conversation with Justin Stratus, my tutor
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in doctrine while I was at theological college
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at Trinity College Bristol. He said something
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along the following lines. Studying theology
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is like discovering grandparents you never knew
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you had. My aim is not to merely sharpen you
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cranially, so to speak, as you grapple with doctrinal
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complexity. My aim, rather, is, among other things,
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to introduce you to your grandparents, to Tertullian,
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to Oregon, to Athanasius, to Augustine, your
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spiritual forebearers, this great cloud of witnesses,
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dear friends. He implored us as students to sit
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with them, to interrogate them, to ask them hard
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questions, to note their sighs and their silences,
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pull on their beards, tell them, Grandpa, your
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beard stinks there, your breath stinks. You see,
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dear friends at Theological College, if we are
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not careful, if we neglect this call to proximity,
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we risk becoming what C .S. Lewis calls chronological
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snobbery. Thinking that the story starts with
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us. You see, we read the scriptures, these letters
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from home with others across the timeline of
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human history, across continents and cultures,
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listening to voices of those who have gone before
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us and those who read alongside us today. And
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so, as I turned to these poems of lament, I took
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Justin's counsel to mind, to heart, so to speak,
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decided I'm going to sit down with Augustine
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over coffee. He came slowly, shoulders bowed
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beneath the weight of a collapsing world. In
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AD 410, an unthinkable thing had happened. Rome
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had fallen. The city had stood for centuries,
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that symbol of power and permanence. Her banners
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blazing across the ancient world, ransacked by
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the Visigoths, trampled beneath barbarian feet.
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Refugees poured into North Africa, carrying stories
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of horror. And yet, amidst it all, Aurelius Augustine
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dips his pen in ink and dares to write words,
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not of despair, but of defiant hope, in his work,
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The City of God. For Augustine, faith did not
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mean refusing to grieve. No, dear friends. He
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says, citizens of God, he writes, grieve and
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they rejoice in hope. They grieve, yet they hope.
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And so those words rang in my mind as I came
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to the text of Lamentations. For this too comes
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to us from a people who have watched their world
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collapse, so to speak. And so just as Augustine
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weeps over the ruins of Rome, centuries earlier,
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this poet of Lamentations, Jeremiah, weeps over
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the ruins of Jerusalem. Both men standing among
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the smoldering remains of those ancient cities.
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And so as we turn to our scriptures, as our forebearers
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did, dear friends, to the counsel of God's word,
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let's pray. Lord, your word is living. And as
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the song said earlier on, would it reveal our
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Christ? And so, Holy Spirit, we ask that you
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would impress upon us that these things be true
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for the glory of our King. Amen. In his book,
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Dark Clouds and Deep Mercy, Mark Vrogel, Exploring
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Lament, writes, While attending a meeting at
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a Christian conference center, I noticed a picture
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on the wall. It featured a painted scene of a
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small English cottage tucked between two mountains
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with a flowing stream. A small garden surrounded
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the house. It resembled a Thomas Kinkard painting
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with pastel colors and soft lines. And a bright
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sky, the kind of art you find in a Christian
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bookstore. This soothing refuge would become...
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a place I'd love to visit, so to speak, one of
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peace and tranquility. Below the painting were
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the words of Lamentations chapter 3, verse 22
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to 23. The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases.
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His mercies never will come to an end. They are
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new every morning, new every morning. Great is
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your faithfulness. Oh Lord, great is your faithfulness.
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You see, the artist sets these beautiful words
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against an equally beautiful landscape. But Lamentations
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gives us a different portrait, a very, very different
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portrait. You see, instead of an English cottage
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nestled between the mountains, the city of Jerusalem
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lay in ruins. Lamentations chapter one, verse
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one. How like a widow is she. who was once great
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among the nations, she who was queen among the
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provinces, has now become a slave. There was
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a time when Jerusalem stood tall in all her glory
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and beauty. It was the envy of the ancient world.
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The Talmud describes it this way. It says that
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ten measures of beauty descended to the world.
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Nine were taken by Jerusalem and one by the rest
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of the world. Jerusalem is a beauty unparalleled.
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Yet now that beauty lies in rubble and ruin.
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And so in a very real sense, this poet's funeral
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lament for a city whose glory has faded confronts
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us. Lamentations 1 verse 6. All the splendor
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has departed from daughter Zion. But the tragedy
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remains deeper still, dear friends. Jerusalem
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was more than just a beautiful city. You see,
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this was home. This was the city of David, the
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center of worship, the very dwelling place of
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God himself. Here the nation prayed, they worshiped.
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Here generations had met with the God of Israel.
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And yet now it lies in ruin. Instead, we find
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these terrifying words. Lamentations 1 verse
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13b. He has given me into the hands of those
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I cannot withstand. See dear friends, the great
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tragedy of this account does not stem from the
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presence of an external adversary laying siege
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on their city. The great tragedy is derived from
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the heart -rending reality that God himself seems,
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watch my language, to have turned against his
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people. He has given me. Into the hands of those
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I cannot withstand. And this is not a conclusion
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drawn only from the rubble. Years earlier writing
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first. Writing to the first exiles in Babylon.
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Jeremiah records the following. I carried you
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into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon. The boot
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of the oppressor on your neck. I placed it there.
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Can you feel its weight? Pull back the curtain
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of reality. And you find not. chaos not random
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chance not even babylon but the very sovereign
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hand of god at work as the old hymn goes god
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plants his footsteps in the sea if he were to
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do so on the sand we would tell where he is the
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way in which he chooses to act is beyond our
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understanding how would the god of israel do
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this to his beloved lamentations 1 verse 15 The
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Lord rejected all the warriors in my midst. He
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has summoned an army against me to crush my young
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man. And so instead of a concordant scene filled
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with serenity, Jerusalem is in ruin. Her structures
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are collapsed. Her land is scorched and barren.
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Bright skies are replaced with looming dark clouds.
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Quaint gardens are exchanged for streets of suffering.
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Thousands upon thousands lay dying in the streets
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of Jerusalem. Hunger and plague sweep across
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the land unchecked. So severe was the plight
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that acts of cannibalism begin to take place.
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Lamentations 4 verse 10. With their own hands,
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compassionate women have cooked their own children,
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who became their food when my people were destroyed.
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And so the weeping poets... Drenched in sorrow
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over all that he sees, weeps bitterly. Verse
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1, verse 16, chapter 1. This is why I weep, and
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my eyes overflow with tears. No one is near to
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comfort me. No one to restore my spirit. My children
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are destitute because the enemy has prevailed.
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He is in anguish, in deep. Like a bear lying
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in wait, chapter 3, verse 10 to 18. Like a lion
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in hiding, he dragged me from the path and mangled
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and left me without help. He drew his bow and
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made me the target of his arrows. He pierced
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my heart with arrows from his quiver. I became
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the laughingstock of all my people. They mock
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me in song all day long. He has filled me with
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bitter herbs and given me gal to drink. He has
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broken my teeth with gravel. He has trampled
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me in the dust. I have been deprived of peace.
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I have forgotten what prosperity is. So I say
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my splendor is gone and all that I had hoped
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from the Lord. Utter anguish and despair. He
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has stared into the darkness and found no easy
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answers. And perhaps we need to stay here for
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a moment, dear friends. Because in some of our
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evangelical traditions, we can be very good at
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getting to the answer. We know the doctrines.
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We know the promises of God. We know what the
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forebearer said. We know where the sermon is
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supposed to land. And sometimes in our eagerness
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to rush to truth, we can rush with people through
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their pain. And I'll sit with them. Hence my
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long -winded start. Sit. But lamentations does
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not let us do this, dear friends. The poet does
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not clean up his emotions for God. He does not
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rush past the ache. He names it and he stays
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with it. Biblical lament dignifies grief as an
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act of faith. You see, the emotive life in scripture
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is not to be shunned. I come from a very emotive
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tradition. There are other traditions which are
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less so. Yet we are embodied beings and in those
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spaces we are created to worship God as we are
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and to experience life on this side of time with
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the full plethora of the way God has made us.
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Only then, having stirred into the darkness without
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pretending it isn't dark, does one change the
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direction in our text. The following word comes
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out. Yet, yet this I call to mind. And therefore,
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I have hope. Lamentations chapter 3, verse 21
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to 24, where we'll spend a few minutes. Because
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of the Lord's great love, we are not consumed,
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for his compassions never fail. They are new
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every morning. Great is your faithfulness. I
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say to myself, the Lord is my portion. I will
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wait for him. Number one, remember God. Yet this
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I call to mind. In his unimaginable anguish with
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the imperial yoke of Babylon, yet firmly fastened,
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glimmers of hope begin to rise. Yesterday at
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the Labour Party conference in Liverpool, the
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message emblazoned across our screens was hope
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again. And here, centuries earlier, from the
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rubble of Jerusalem, Jeremiah says, Yet this
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I call to mind, and therefore I have hope. But
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Jeremiah's hope is not a political slogan. It's
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not optimism that circumstances will prove. You
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see, his is a biblical hope. And his hope has
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an object. You see, his object is God. Jeremiah
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remembers his God. Babylon is still there. Jerusalem
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is still in ruins. Nothing around him has changed.
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But something within him has shifted. Yet this
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I call to mind. And therefore, I have hope. Jerusalem
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is in ruins. But God is not. As Tim Keller put
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it, we may hear our hearts say it is hopeless.
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But he says we should argue back. Jeremiah argues
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back by remembering his God. Perhaps he calls
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to mind the God who called him from his mother's
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womb. Yet this I call to mind. And therefore,
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I have hope. Warren Wasby, along the same train
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of thought, says the following. Unbelief causes
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us to look at God through our circumstances,
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and this creates hopelessness. But faith enables
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us to look at our circumstances through the reality
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of who God is. And that gives us hope. And yet
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this I call to mind. I'm sorry, James. It's who
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I am. You can hear a pin drop. Rupert, it's good
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to see you. A few years ago, well, about five,
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six years ago, my wife and I had the privilege
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of having lunch with Peter Lewis, the long -serving
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pastor of Cornerstone Church in Nottingham, a
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renowned Bible teacher who had spent more than
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four decades preaching and teaching the scriptures.
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Towards the end of his life, he was diagnosed
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with cancer. And he said something to this effect.
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After decades of preaching the truth of the gospel,
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there comes a moment when those truths are no
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longer simply what you preach to others. They
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are what you must cling to yourself. When the
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diagnosis comes, when the darkness descends,
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when the questions have no easy answers, this
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is where you see your belief is tested. What
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he was simply saying is after 50 or so years
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of ministry, this is where the rubber hits the
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road. In my lament, in the aggressive nature
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of this cancer, where do I place my hope? Darkness
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descends and the questions have no easy answers,
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dear friends. Where do you place your hope? The
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city is still in ruins. The world has collapsed.
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Nothing has changed for Jeremiah at this point.
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And yet, I call to mind. And therefore, I have
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hope. You see, lament doesn't ask us to pretend
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that all is well. It doesn't call us to deny
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the pain. It doesn't say airbrush reality. Lament
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looks at reality square in the face and then
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looks beyond it to the God of hope. And so, dear
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friend, I know you are in this room in your grief
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and in your pain and in your sorrow, in your
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lament. Remember God because hope comes from
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remembering God. Point number one. Number two,
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remember his character, his love, his faithfulness,
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his mercy, his love. Because of the Lord's great
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love, we are not consumed, for his compassions
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never fail. The ESV renders it because of the
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steadfast love of the Lord. His mercy has never
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come to the end. The word for love translates
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that great Hebrew word, hasid. English translations
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struggle to put their arms around this very big
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word. It's a comprehensive word. It's incomparable.
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So it's an incomparable love. It expresses the
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magnitude of God's love. I think within the text
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it's twice that it's in the plural and not the
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single within the singular within Lamentations.
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His steadfast love, his loving kindness, his
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faithful love, his covenant love, his loyal love.
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You see, at the heart of this idea is covenant
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fidelity. God's unwavering commitment to the
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people whom he has bound himself to. And that
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matters here because Israel has been faithless.
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And yet God's character and nature does not change.
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He is faithful. This is not fickle love. It's
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not fragile love. It's not love dependent upon
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the worthiness of the one who receives the love.
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This love is anchored in the character character
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of the covenant -keeping God of Israel. And so
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God has bound himself to this nation. And this
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is how God, dear friends, in Christ binds himself
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to us. It may not sound sexy to use the words,
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but it's steadfast. It's unchanging. It's unrelenting
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in its devotion to you and I. Yes, he's the hound
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of heaven who pursues us to the uttermost. Yeah.
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Okay, slow down. So even while Jerusalem lies
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in ruins, Jeremiah calls to mind the character
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of Israel's God. The steadfast love of the Lord
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never ceases. And dear friends, if you ever doubt
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the steadfast love of God, look to the cross.
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For their love does not merely tell us he loves
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us, he shows us. The eternal son takes on flesh.
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He bears our sin. He stands beneath our judgment
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and gives life to sinners. If I may put it in
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my own words, his body language on the cross
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says dying to meet you. That is love in its fullest
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expression. I am dying to meet you. The steadfast
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love of God has a face. The steadfast love of
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God has a name. And his name is Jesus. In your
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season of lament, remember Jesus. His mercy,
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verse 22, because of his great love, we are not
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consumed. His compassions never fail. The language
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of compassion here is deeply tender. It's related
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to the Hebrew language of the womb, the visceral
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nurturing affection of a mother for her child.
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Isaiah 49 captures it this way. Can a mother
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forget her baby at her breast? Though she may,
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the God of Israel says, I will not. This is the
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heart of God toward his people. His holiness
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means that sin matters and yet his mercy means
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that sin matters as well. And nowhere do we see
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these two realities more clearly demonstrated
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than on the cross of Christ. God does not merely
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overlook sin. Christ bears his judgment. At Calvary,
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justice is not abandoned and mercy is not withheld.
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Justice is satisfied and yet at the same time,
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mercy flows. That is the gospel. Yeah. Micah
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articulates this well. Who is a God like you
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and pardon sin and yet delights to show mercy?
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God does not reluctantly show mercy, dear friends.
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He delights in it. So Jeremiah is thinking through
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this. I remember you. This is who you are. And
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perhaps this is a word for us here at Theological
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College. We can become masters at exegesis, exegeting
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mercy itself, knowing the root word, its variations,
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but never really experiencing what it truly means.
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Articulating mercy while quietly believing that
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our latest failure has exhausted the mercy of
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God for us. Jeremiah says his mercies are new
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every morning. In the truest sense, it means
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I can go back to the cross every morning and
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experience that mercy again. As we grieve over
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our sin. As we lament over the broken aspects
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of our lives. Faithfulness. I'm not doing well
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for time. How much time do I have? You sure?
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Faithfulness. Anyway, I'm from Africa. They said
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25 minutes will be done by two. Faithfulness.
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Hey, brother, you got me, man. I should say Chris
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as well, perhaps. Faithfulness, verse 23. They
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are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness.
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To say that God is faithful is to say that you
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can always count on God. That God will keep his
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word. If we are faithless, he remains faithful.
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He cannot deny himself. Great is our faithfulness,
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oh Lord. But great is your faithfulness. Faith
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in God's covenant loyalty will sustain you through
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the darkest and the most difficult seasons of
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your life. When it appears that the world is
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collapsing around you, years after you don't
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have lectures to go and speak to or teams or
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groups or prayer partners here at Oak Hill, you
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will need to learn this. I have someone I can
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run to in the season of lament that I find myself
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sitting under. Your friends will betray some
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of you. Your body will fail you. You might lose
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your ministry. Or your reputation? In those moments,
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go back to God's covenant. Last but not least,
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verse 24. Finally, Jeremiah says, the Lord is
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my portion. Therefore, I will wait for him. And
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perhaps this is where the passage reaches its
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summit, its climax, top of the mountain. Jeremiah
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has remembered God's love, his mercy, his faithfulness.
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But now he remembers the greatest gift of all.
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The greatest gift of all, dear friends, for Jeremiah
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is God himself. Portion is the language used
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for inheritance. When Israel entered the land,
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the Levites received no territorial inheritance
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like the other tribes. God says to the Levites,
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I am your portion and your inheritance. They
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did not seemingly receive anything from the Lord.
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but they received God. And now look at Jeremiah.
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The city is gone. The temple is destroyed. Security
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is gone. And standing amidst of all those ruins,
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he says, the Lord is my portion. And dear friends,
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how much more can this mean for us today? In
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Christ, God has not merely given us gifts. He
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has given us himself. Christ is ours, sufficient
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and everlasting portion. The psalmist puts it
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this way. My flesh and my heart may fail, but
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God is my strength, the strength of my heart
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and my portion forevermore. And perhaps this
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is where the text searches us here in theological
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ministry. I say in theological ministry because
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I am studying as well. All right. And I think
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as a believer under Christ, a church leader,
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you should always be a theologian. Anyway. And
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perhaps this is where the text searches us for
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those that are in ministry. Because our portion
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can become remarkably respectable. The degree.
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I'm doing a PhD. The book. The doctorate. The
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booming church. The conference invitation. The
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speaking platforms. Being invited to Oak Hill
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College to preach. Good gifts. But terrible gods.
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Hello. And I have to ask my own heart as much
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as yours. If nobody knows my name, if the invitations
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never come, if the ministry I imagine never materialized,
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is Christ enough? Jeremiah stands amidst the
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ruins of everything that he once held dear and
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says, the Lord is my portion. So dear friends,
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ministry beyond all kill is not your portion.
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It's nice to say it here because I'm not graded.
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I'm not marked. You know, deal with it after
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I'm gone. Thank you, Jesus. The Lord is my portion.
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Jeremiah stands amidst those rumors and anchors
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himself on that which truly matters in the light
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of eternity. Ministry is not our portion. Success
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is not our portion. Recognition by the algorithm
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on our Instagram profile is not our portion.
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The Lord is our portion. And we have the great
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privilege of going out into the world to invite
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people into that great story, that great hope,
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to teach the world to actually lament with hope,
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not to lament with despair. Psalm 73, and I land.
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Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing
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on earth that I desire besides you. My flesh
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and my heart may fail. But God is the strength
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of my heart, my portion forever. And so with
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that, dear friends, Augustine put his cup down.
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He walks back into the ruins of Rome. Jeremiah
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stands amidst the ruins of Jerusalem. And you
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and I step back into the uncertainties of our
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lives. But we do not go without hope. The Lord
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is our portion. Amen. Shall we pray? Father,
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firstly, we pray for that one who is in a season
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of lament. We ask that by your spirit, you would
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help them set their eyes on you. Would they remember
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who you are, your story, your covenant faithfulness
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to them? Would they meet mercy? Would they meet
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grace? Would they meet the love of God? We pray
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for ourselves, Lord, that we would be those that
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are anchored in this blessed hope. In Jesus'
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name, amen.