The message of hope in the book of Lamentations

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As we consider what 2025 might hold in store, there is much to make us concerned about the months ahead. In the wider world there are the continuing wars and unrest in Ukraine, the Middle East and Sudan, plus continuing attacks by militant Islamic groups in North and Central Africa, and ongoing tensions between China and Taiwan.

In addition, there is uncertainty about what a second Donald Trump presidency will mean for both the United States and the world in general. In Germany there is concern about the implications of the growing support for the right-wing AfD party, and in South Korea the president has just been arrested. Across the world there is also a growing wave of antisemitism fuelled by the conflict in Gaza.

In this country there is continued worry about the state of the economy, the NHS and social care, immigration levels, the prevalence of sexual abuse, the housing crisis and the effect of more house building on the countryside, and proposals to legalise assisted suicide.

More generally there is a widespread feeling of unease about the future of the country amid what appears to be growing tensions between different social, ethnic and religious groups - the riots last summer being an expression of this.

For those in the Church of England there is worry about the continuing fallout from past cases of sexual abuse in the wake of the resignation of the Archbishop of Canterbury in the aftermath of the Makin Review about the handling of abuses committed by John Smyth and division about the best way to handle issues of sexual abuse in the future.

There is also continuing division about how to resolve differences over same-sex relationships and same-sex marriages as the House of Bishops continues to produce new proposals as part of the Prayers of Love and Faith process. Generally there is a feeling that the Church is in a state of serious decline and there is uncertainty about how to address this.

For people across the country, there are worries about income, employment, housing, relationships with family and friends, mental and physical health, and the prospect of death.

The question all these concerns raise is where we can find hope for the year ahead and in this article I want to suggest that we can find hope by looking at what at first sight may seem a very unlikely source, the Old Testament book of Lamentations.

Lamentations, which Christian and Jewish traditions hold to have been written by the prophet Jeremiah, is as its name suggests a book of lament. Specifically, it is a book which laments the destruction of the city of Jerusalem and the temple built by Solomon by the armies of the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar in 587 BC.

In Jewish tradition it is recited on the ninth day of the Jewish month of Ab, the day on which Jews mourn the destruction of the first temple by the armies of Nebuchadnezzar and the destruction of the second temple by the armies of the Roman Emperor Titus in AD 70.

In the first two chapters of Lamentations, and in the first twenty verses of chapter three, the author of the book laments both the calamities that have befallen the city of Jerusalem as a result of God's infliction of judgement upon it and the afflictions that God has caused him to suffer as an individual.

Thus, in Chapter 2:5-6 we read concerning Judah and Jerusalem:

"The Lord has become like an enemy,
he has destroyed Israel;
he has destroyed all its palaces,
laid in ruins its strongholds;
and he has multiplied in the daughter of Judah
mourning and lamentation.

"He has broken down his booth like that of a garden,
laid in ruins the place of his appointed feasts;
the Lord has brought to an end in Zion
appointed feast and sabbath,
and in his fierce indignation has spurned
king and priest."

Then in chapter 3:1 we read concerning the writer of Lamentations: "I am the man who has seen affliction under the rod of his wrath; he has driven and brought me into darkness without any light; surely against me he turns his hand again and again the whole day long."

If all we had from the writer of Lamentations were verses like those just quoted it might appear that he was someone totally without hope. However, if we continue on in chapter 3 we find twelve verses (21-33) in which he re-affirms his trust in God and consequent hope for the future.

As scholars who have studied the literary structure of Lamentations have noted, the position of these verses within that structure is significant. These verses are situated right in the middle of the book. The book as a whole consists of five chapters, so chapter three is the central chapter and these verses are in the middle of chapter three. They are, in structural terms, the centre of the book. Furthermore, everything that comes before them is lament and everything that comes after them is also lament.

The point of this structure is to make the point that it is possible to trust God and have hope for the future even when all you can see around you is calamity. Even in the centre of the storm you can (and should) go on trusting and hoping.

If we look at the verses themselves we find that they can be divided into two sections, verses 21-24 and 25-33.

Verses 21-24 run as follows: "But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases,his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is thy faithfulness. 'The Lord is my portion,' says my soul, 'therefore I will hope in him.'''

The first thing to note about these verses is that they start with the word 'but'. The writer of Lamentations has previously said that his soul is bowed down under the weight of his afflictions (3:19-20), but now something else happens. What happens is that he makes a deliberate decision to recall what he knows to be true about God. In the words of esteemed Bible scholar Chris Wright in his commentary on Lamentations: "He makes it come back into his conscious thinking, so as to change his whole perspective."

The second thing to note is that what the writer recalls is God's "steadfast love" and "faithfulness", his unbreakable, unchanging love and mercy towards the people of Israel and the world as a whole, and his commitment to send a divine messiah descended from the line of King David to make all things right.

The third thing to note is that recalling these things brings hope. If this God is on his side (his 'portion') then he can have hope for the future even amid present catastrophe. Because God is always loving and merciful then things will work out for the best even if he cannot currently see how.

Verses 25-33 then go on to declare:

"The Lord is good to those who wait for him,
to the soul that seeks him.
It is good that one should wait quietly
for the salvation of the Lord.
It is good for a man that he bear
the yoke in his youth.

"Let him sit alone in silence
when he has laid it on him;
let him put his mouth in the dust—
there may yet be hope;
let him give his cheek to the smiter,
and be filled with insults.

"For the Lord will not
cast off for ever,
but, though he cause grief, he will have compassion
according to the abundance of his steadfast love;
for he does not willingly afflict
or grieve the sons of men."

The first thing to note in these verses is that the writer affirms that, in the words of the commentator Matthew Henry, " ... afflictions are really good for us, and, if we bear them aright, will work very much for our good. It is not only good to hope and wait for the salvation, but it is good to be under the trouble in the mean time."

If we ask why the writer believes this counter-intuitive message, the answer is two-fold. To start off with, he understands that God "does not willingly afflict or grieve the sons of men". God is not a cosmic sadist who enjoys seeing people suffer. He is, as the writer repeats, a God of "steadfast love", and when he causes his people to suffer and be griefstricken it is because he has a good and merciful purpose in doing so (even though this may not be apparent at the time).

Furthermore, he knows that because God is God, suffering and grief will not have the last word: "The Lord will not cast off for ever ... though he cause grief, he will have compassion." To quote Matthew Henry again, it is God "that causes grief, and therefore we may be assured it is ordered wisely and graciously; and it is but for a season, and when need is, that we are in heaviness". Or, as the Psalmist puts it:

"For his anger is but for a moment,
and his favour is for a lifetime.
Weeping may tarry for the night,
but joy comes with the morning" (Psalm 30:5).

The message of Lamentations for us as 2025 gets going in earnest is that terrible things may well happen - in the world, in the Church, and to us personally, just as calamity befell Jerusalem and its inhabitants in 587.

If and when terrible things do happen, it will be right to lament as the writer of Lamentations does. It is a perfectly proper human reaction to respond to suffering and death with grief and lamentation. We would be inhuman if we didn't.

However, even in the midst of our sorrow we also need to follow the example of the writer of Lamentations by deliberately recalling what we know about God, namely that he is a God of steadfast love and mercy, who only allows bad things to happen for a good purpose and who will never let evil and death have the last word.

If we do this, we will then be able to have hope. Hope not in us but in God. We will be able to affirm with the Psalmist that because God is God joy will come in the morning.