Father God, thank you so much that you love us.
You created us, Lord, You love us so much.
You do not abandon us when we have rejected you.
But you entered our world in the person of your son, and you
rescued us through His death and resurrection.
You give us Your Holy Spirit to live in us.
Lord, we are as near to you as it's possible to be.
In other words, thank you that you speak to us words we need to
hear for our and love of you and trusting in you and worship of
you in this world. And we want to trust that this
bit of your word of lamentations is a gift from you as well.
Or help us as we think it through today as we bring this
series to a close and as we have a time of discussing together,
asking questions, sharing reflections.
Or please, would you build us up on our love for you?
And would you give each of us a sense of confidence even as we
leave this place? That that you have, you've
spoken words that we needed to hear and words that are for
argued in Jesus name. We ask it.
Amen. So in the New Testament letter
of to Timothy and the Apostle, Paul is writing to his friend
and fellow church leader Timothy to encourage Timothy as a leader
and a Christian. He writes this.
The words are on the screen from to Timothy 315.
To 17 He writes from infancy. Timothy, you have known the Holy
Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation
through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God breathed
and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and
training and righteousness, so that the servant of God may be
thoroughly equipped for every good work.
That statement, all scripture, is God.
Breathe. It's an astonishing statement,
actually. The all Scripture that that the
the words we have in the Bible. It is the Word of God breathed
out by God. Christians believe that every
one of the 66 books in the Bible written by human authors, but
every one of those authors was inspired by the Holy Spirit.
So they speak not just human words but the Word of God to us.
And more than that, they do that we have the Word of God because
a loving God wants us to be thoroughly equipped for every
good work, to know him and live for him.
In this world, those are our convictions about the Bible, the
word of God as a church at Ave. and the scriptures that Paul
refers to that are actually primarily the Old Testament
scriptures. So the whole Bible, both Old and
New Testament, is able to make us wise for salvation through
faith in Jesus. They're written to lead us to
trust in Jesus and to experience the new life that he alone can
give to us. And I want to say this morning
that that includes this difficult.
Dark Book of Lamentations that we're preparing to finish this
morning. And again, I wonder how have you
find our time in this book and Lamentations?
Dan asked that last week we've been looking at it on Sunday
mornings, looking at our home groups.
Actually, if you're if you're a teenager or 11 plus at Ave.
you've been looking at even more than the rest of us.
You've been doing it in source as well.
It's been a thorough dive into this book and there's no doubt
about it, this is a challenging book.
To read together. It's not a light or uplifting
book. Among other things, it's a book
that looks at God judging sin, and so it shouldn't feel like
fun. I was sent to the other day off
and we choose to do maybe a slightly more difficult bit of
the Bible in January, February. I'm actually really glad we
didn't do that with Lamentations, if the darkness of
winter and lamentation might have felt a bit.
Too much. It's an unfamiliar book.
So as well. Actually many people who have
been Christians many years don't know this book very well,
including me, Lamentations. It is dark and it's heavy and
it's emotionally draining to read.
I've been struck by that Every week we've had people read from
the book. Dan is going to read in a
moment, but but it's emotionally draining to listen to.
But the main reason we're looking at Lamentations that we
do it at 5 weeks to camping out in this bit of the Bible.
Is we believe that we need to listen to God's word, all of it.
If we're to know God, we need the Book of Lamentations.
If we're to know the Lord Jesus and right the beginning of our
time in this book, I suggest there's a big question.
So at the heart of it, which is. 587 BC and Jerusalem has just
been destroyed by the Babylonian Empire.
The temple has been destroyed, the place where God's people met
with God. The King has been carried off
into exile along with most of the people, and only the poorest
people remain in the rubble of the city to work the land.
This book records for us the darkest, bleakest moment in the
history of ancient Israel and what makes the suffering of the
people of Jerusalem even worse. Is as the book unfolds.
We learned that they had brought the destruction of Jerusalem on
themselves, the people who dress on their being judged by God for
their consistent repeated centuries long refusal to trust
him and worship him alone. And because of that,
Lamentations is a dark and painful book for that
generation. It's a dark and painful book for
anyone to read. But I want to suggest that at
the end of this book, the book we're looking at this morning,
Lamentations, Chapter 5, the 5th poem.
In this book we do arrive at an answer to the question the poet
and the people have been asking Where do we turn when our world
falls apart? The answer is we turn to the
living God who is. The message lamentations to that
generation, but I want to suggest it's also vital part of
the message this book to every generation of believers.
Whatever is going on in our lives, however hard or difficult
our lives become, the living God is always our greatest need.
Knowing Him, being right with him through faith in Jesus,
living with Him as our God and our King is always what we need
above all. Including part of Lamentations
today. Now just to sort of recap where
we've been, and as we've seen throughout the series, actually
very clearly Lamentations, it's a book of five distinct poems.
Even without our chapter divisions in the English Bible,
it's really clear in the original Hebrew, there are five
separate poems here. And just to kind of summarize
where we've been to poem one began just with a just
outpouring of grief, see. To punish sin and evil.
Again, it's a really sobering chapter but it's got you saying
God, you promised this and you've kept your promise.
But then then poem #3, there's there's light comes through in
the midst of the rubble. They say let's cling to God's
love and compassion and faithfulness and then last week
poem four that that what it adds really is it.
Wishness of what they've been doing.
And so this morning we come to Poll #5, Lamentations, Chapter
5, and Danny is going to come and read that for us.
Lamentations. Chapter 5.
Remember, Lord, what has happened to us?
Look and see our disgrace. Our inheritance has been turned
over to strangers, our homes to foreigners.
We have become fatherless. Our mothers are widows.
We must buy the water we drink. Our wood can be had only at a
price. Those who pursue us are at our
heels. We are weary and find no rest.
Our skin is as hot as an oven, feverish from hunger.
Women have been violated in Zion, and virgins in the towns
of Judah. Princess have been hung up by
their hands. Elders are shown no respect.
Music, joy is gone from our hearts.
Our dancing has turned to mourning.
The crown has fallen from our head.
Woe to us, for we have sinned. Because of this, our hearts are
faint. Because of these things, our
eyes grow dim for Mount Zion, which lies desolate with jackals
prowling over it. You, Lord, rain forever.
Your throne endures from generation to generation.
Why do you always forget us? Why do you forsake us so long?
Restore us to yourself, Lord, that we may return.
Renew our days as of old, unless you have utterly rejected us and
are angry with us beyond measure.
Thanks, Danny. Well, hope you can see actually
that even in our English translations, Lamentations 5
feels a bit different. To the rest of the book, it's
much shorter than the previous poems.
It's about half the length of chapter 4, about 1/3 of the
length of chapters one to three. There's still 22 lines in it,
but it's no longer an acrostic poem.
That's what that A-Z in Hebrew. So the lines are shorter, more
sort of staccato, and you just get the sense at the end of this
book and maybe the poet is feeling like maybe how some of
us have felt. The poet is just weary and he's
exhausted. He's worn out.
By the suffering of his people, the Up tonight he's been
searching for order in the chaos of the Exile.
That's why he's been using this acrostic structure.
But by this chapter, it's like he no longer has the mental
strength to do it anymore. He's just exhausted.
So what are we meant to do with a passage in Scripture that just
seems exhausted? Well, we have to remember that
bit of too Timothy we opened with.
This is God, breathed the Holy. Spirit is.
Guiding the poet here. The Holy Spirit has.
Breathed out this weary, exhausted song, and I think
there's good news for God's people here.
See, we see here that we trust in a God who enters into the
sorrow and sadness and weariness of the poet's experience, and he
gives him the words to express those feelings.
We trust in a God who is full of compassion, and this section of
his word shows us just how deeply He gets us and empathizes
with us when we are weary and exhausted and weeping.
The other big difference to notice about Lamentations
chapter 5 is this is a prayer. Now there have been short
outbursts of prayer earlier in the book.
In chapters one and two, Daughter Zion praise.
In chapter 3 the. Speaker leads the people.
In prayer. But up to this point, prayers
and lamentations have been brief, desperate and mainly
complaints to God. But here the poet leads the
people. In a sustained.
Act of prayer to finish the book and notice this is a communal
prayer, a corporate prayer. So just look at all the
corporate language US. Are.
We and so on, see the writer speaking for the whole community
here. The whole people of God are
crying out to God here they're turning to God and repentance
and faith, and they're doing it together.
And why is that significant? Well, I think this chapter is a
powerful picture of God's people suffering together.
Experiencing loss together and praying together.
Someone wants to put it to me like this when people in the
Bible. Weep they weep.
With their friends, they weep with one another.
And why does corporate? Prayer matter so much.
Well, because in the New Testament Romans 12 verse 15, we
are called to weep with those who.
Weep. As well as rejoice with those
who rejoice, we're called to lament together as God's people,
because as we do. That.
That we take suffering seriously together.
We learn compassion as we suffer together.
And we help one. Another turn to God when we
might not feel we have the strength or even the desire to
do so on our own. See as a church family at Ave.
We're not meant to suffer alone, in silence, isolated from each
other. Yes, we need to pray
individually, just me and God alone, But we also.
Need to pray corporately in our home groups at A.
Family meeting after a church service during the week.
See in Lamentations 5. God's people are praying
together. They're suffering alongside each
other. They're turning to God together.
It's a powerful picture of corporate prayer, and I think
it's here in God's word to encourage us to do the same, to
grow as a church family that prays together now at the heart
of this. Communal prayer is verses 2.
To 18 So as the poet prepares to end his book, he gives us one
more time as verse one puts it, a record of the people's
disgrace, the story of the survivors in Jerusalem.
And it acts as a recap of all that the book has been telling
us so far. And the picture it paints for us
leaves us in no doubt. Without God, his people are
lost. Without God, his people are
lost. That's versus 2 to 18.
See, this is a prayer. All about the.
Experience of loss after the destruction of Jerusalem in
587BC. And it quickly becomes clear, if
it hasn't been clear already in the book.
The people of Jerusalem have lost everything.
Just a few examples from this chapter.
Verses 2 to 3, the people of Jerusalem have lost their homes
and families. Let me read verses two to three
again. Our inheritance has been turned
over to strangers, our homes to foreigners we have become.
Fatherless. Our mothers are widows, families
have been cut off. There's there's little hope for
the future. Or verse 7, they've lost their
freedom. Again.
Remember, in the Old Testament, the Israelites always look back
to their origin story. How God?
Formed them as a people to the time when they were slaves in
Egypt, and the Lord set them free from.
Slavery through Moses. And give them a land of their
own, a city of their own Jerusalem, but now because of
their turning away from God. Verse 7.
Slaves rule over. Us and there is.
No one to. Free us from their hands.
And verses 11 to 14. The people of Jerusalem, they've
lost their dignity. Just look at those painful
verses 11 to 14 again. Women have been violated in
Zion. They're not safe in Jerusalem
anymore. Princes and old men are put to
work. Elders are shown no respect.
Young men are treated like slaves.
It's a picture of oppression and humiliation at the hands of an
occupying force, at the hands of the Babylonians.
And the result of all this? They've lost their joy. 1st 15
Joy is gone from our hearts. Our dancing has turned to
mourning. And we're just exhausted as the
poet is exhausted, as he lists all these things that they have
lost. But it's at this point in the
poem and the book as a whole, that they come to the clearest
expression of repentance and fear.
In the book of Lamentations versus 16 to 18.
Let me read that for us, or 16 wool to us, for we have sinned.
Because of this, our hearts are fint.
Because of these things, our eyes grow dim from Mount Zion,
which lies desolate with jackals prawling over it.
It's if at this point in the book, all the people can do is
just collapse onto God, admit just how much they need him to
intervene to save them, I just cry out to God to do that.
And with these words, I think the poet is describing for us
what repentance and faith looks like.
Then a couple years ago I came across this definition.
Of repentance and faith I just find so helpful.
Repentance and faith basically means that we collapse on Jesus.
We acknowledge our need and we receive His grace.
Repentance basically means I I know I can't do it on my own.
I know I can't see it myself. I believe that when the gospel
says that night, and maybe I maybe I didn't used to believe
it, but now I do believe it. That's what the people of
Jerusalem are doing here. They're collapsing on God.
They know they can't go on like this.
They're admitting their need. They know they cannot save
themselves and they cry it to God to save them because they
realize only God can't and Idol can't do that.
People can't do that. Things can't do that.
Lamentations 5. It's a powerful prayer of
repentance and faith of turning to the living God who is our
greatest need and our only hope. And with that at its heart there
there's three prayers that the writer makes here we'll look up
briefly 3 prayers in this book. Remember Lord verse one.
You Lord reign forever. Verse 19 and restore us to
yourself. Lord verse 21.
First of all remember Lords and there's there's this tension in
Lamentations 5. As there is to write the book.
They call on God to remember all that has happened to them.
Verse one, because it feels to them.
Like God's forgotten them verse 21 and look again at verse 21
for a moment. They just cry.
Why do you always forget us? Why do you forsake us so long?
And what it feels like the people of Jerusalem is that
God's forgotten them, their sufferings hidden from God.
He doesn't care about it. And that's a feeling expressed
in lots of biblical laments. But actually, even though it
feels like that in verse 21, actually the existence of the
Book of Lamentation shows that's not true.
We said regularly for the series.
The Book of Lamentations is a memorial, and at the living God
shows His people. He has seen the suffering of his
people in 587-B, C He sees their disgrace, their loss, and he
remembers it. He records it for future
generations in his word, including this generation today.
We are looking at this morning. The Lord did remember all that
happened to Jerusalem. He recorded their suffering in
His word and He lamented with them.
It's an amazing moment. Remember, Lord, I'm 56.
Verse 8 puts it like this. Record my misery.
List my tears on your scroll. Are they not in your record?
Lamentations is the record of the tears of God's people right
there in his word. God has shown himself to be a
God who knows and understands the sorrows of his people, even
his sinful people. Yeah, we might get it if it's
someone like Job. If you know the book of Job in
the Old Testament, he's a righteous man.
The suffering coming on him, He doesn't deserve it.
We get, Oh yeah, I get why God might might listen to him.
Actually, even this generation of God's people who deserved it,
God knows and understands their sorrows.
He takes them seriously. But also actually that that
request to remember, that's actually quite a key prayer in
the Old Testament. Because.
Because when God's people ask God to remember they're actually
what they're doing is they're asking God to act according to
his love and promises. So when God remembers something
in the Old Testament, it's not as if he suddenly forgot it and
it comes back to his mind. The what it means is he's about
to act on behalf of his people. Are some examples here Genesis 8
verse one when Noah and his family are in the ark after the
flood, God remembered Noah and the livestock that were with him
in the ark. I love that God even cares about
the livestock. It's it's it's crazy and he
acted to save them. Or Exodus 224 when the people of
Israel are suffering as slaves in Egypt, God remembered his
covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and then he called on
Moses to rescue them. So this prayer to remember, it's
a call for God to act, to save his people.
It's a cry of faith. It's daring to hope that God can
still step in and save them even at this dark moment.
And then after they list all the things they have lost before
God, they come to the end of this poem.
Then they remind themselves just who it is.
They're crying out to just who the living God really is.
They say you, Lord. Reign forever, you're thrown
endures from generation to generation again.
No matter how lost we are, no matter how powerless we are, the
people of Jerusalem are saying the God we're crying to He's the
eternal king over all creation. It's an amazing moment that the
people of God are choosing to trust in God's sovereignty, even
over their pain, even when it feels like God's enemies of 1.
The Babylonians think, well, well, we're clearly stronger
than the God of Israel because we've just conquered Jerusalem
and that's what it feels like. But they say no, you Lord rain
forever. And they say that as this cry of
faith, even when God feels distant from them.
And there are lots of reasons why Lamentations is a painful
book to read. The detail is is harrowing, but
I want to say it's one of the most painful parts of the book.
Is the silence of God. Actually, when you read over the
book, God is silent. You write the book.
He doesn't speak directly anywhere.
There's one point in chapter three.
Look at chapter 3, verse 57. The poet remembers words God has
spoken to him in the past when God said to him, do not fear
that that wonderful promise command.
But apart from that one moment, God is silent.
Who wrote the book? I'm going to say the people of
Jerusalem in 587BC. They're not the only generation
of believers who've experienced the silence of God.
Many Christians have experienced that over the centuries.
Even up to today, in the midst of suffering just feels like God
is silent. And yet, verse 19.
Literally, it begins with with. But you, Lord rain forever.
They still cry out to God. They still dare to hope that God
is still in control. God is still good.
And even through this darkest moment, God is working for their
good. And they do that not because
it's wishful thinking. They do that because they know
the character of the King. The character of the God.
They trust him. Think back to the that the
center point of the whole book, that the center point of chapter
3, and indeed the whole of it, versus 31 to 33.
For no one is cast off by the Lord forever.
Though he brings grief, he will show compassion.
So great is his unfailing love, for he doesn't willingly bring
affliction or grief to anyone. They hold on to his character.
They say, God, we know this isn't the sum total of who you
are. They ask Him to remember them
and to act. It's a cry of faith.
They turn to the living God, and they dare to hope in him even
when it hurts, even when things feel so uncertain.
And in the final prayer in this section, they ask God to restore
them. Restore us to yourself, Lord.
And this is the longest lament anywhere in the Bible.
There are psalms of lament. Lamentations is the longest.
But it ends with a prayer for restoration.
Restore us Lord that brings with the idea of return.
Turn back and it's repentance again.
They're asking God to help them repent and come back to him.
I want to see that actually they could have played a really
different prayer here. Verse 21 could have read Restore
our City, Lord. Restore Jerusalem.
Restore things to what they used to be, Lords.
Take the pen away, Lords, But instead they say this.
Restore us to yourself, Lord, that we may return.
What they see in the midst of everything is that their
greatest need is God himself. Their greatest need is to be
right with God, to be restored with God, to know God and live
with him as their God. And only then their days will be
renewed. Only them will their hearts be
renewed. Actually, what they need more,
they don't just need the removal of their pain and an amazing
way. They don't even just need the
removal of their sin. They need the living God.
They need him. He is the only one who can meet
their needs. He alone can save them and
transform them and satisfy them. Out of this rubble, why do God's
people turn when their world falls apart?
The people in Lamentations, they turn to the living God as He is
their greatest need. It's a prayer for restoration.
They're asking God to act in accordance with His love and
promises. Remember, Lord, that they're
trusting in God's sovereignty. You, Lord, reign forever.
They're asking God to rescue them from their lostness.
Restore us to yourself, Lord. It's a prayer of hope, but
actually hope. You can see the very last verse
of Lamentations. It's also a prayer marked by
massive uncertainty for the verse 22.
Restore us to yourself, Lord, that we may return.
Renew our days as of old. Unless you have utterly rejected
us and are angry with us beyond measure, it's not a happy
ending. The book ends with questions
still lingering for the poet and the people because the original
audience lamentations the people of Jerusalem in exile.
They are living their lives in the middle of the story and they
don't know how the story is going to end.
Will the excel ever come to an end?
They ask themselves. Will God ever allow us to come
home, our God's promises for his people over?
Or is there more to come? I don't know.
So it ends here in uncertainty and questions.
But by contrast, we know that Jerusalem's story wasn't over at
this point. 70 years after the destruction of Jerusalem, the
people came home from exile. The city walls and the temple
were rebuilt, the worship of the Lord in Jerusalem was resumed,
and the story of Jerusalem was not yet over as the people
feared. Here all we need to ask is what?
Why is Jerusalem so central to God's purpose and salvation at
this point? Well, the answer is because
Jerusalem was the city where nearly 500 years later.
Jesus, the Son of God would be glorified.
Jerusalem is restored to the Son of God outside the walls of that
city could give his life as a ransom for many.
So the Son of God could take the punishment that our sin
deserves, the punishment foreshadowed in Lamentations and
defeat, sin and death, and the devil once and for all.
He'd save a people for himself and reconcile us to the God.
He is our greatest need. Jerusalem is the city where
Jesus lived and died and rose again.
And so we read the end. Lamentations, we can say
actually no poet, he's not finished with you yet.
There is more to come. But even though we maybe don't
get the force of that question because we live later than the
people in Jerusalem, I think there's still a truth that
applies to us from this ending, the Lamentations.
Because we each live our lives in the middle of the story.
We live our lives between the comings of Jesus.
We live our lives now gloriously, wonderfully after
Jesus came in the 1st place to die and rise again for us.
And the Bible tells us certainty, Jesus is coming back
to restore a new creation, free from sin and death and suffering
and pain. But the Christian life today is
lived between those two comings. We're in the middle of the
story. We're not at our happy ending,
yet we live in a fallen world, a cursed world where we experience
questions and struggles. We live by fifth, not by sight.
We don't yet experience the fullness of Jesus, victory over
sin and death. And we see that all around us
see it when we suffer and sin. When the people around us suffer
and sin. We see loved ones.
Suffer and die. We ourselves suffer and die.
How do we live for Jesus and keep trusting in Him in the
middle of the story? Well, I think actually here's
where the ending of Lamentations is such a gift to us from a
loving God as we turn to the living God in the middle of the
story with our questions and our struggles, and we bring our
sins, our sufferings, everything to Him.
And we remember who he is. We remember he is sovereign.
And we asked him to restore us to himself day by day by day.
Why? Because just like the people in
Lamentations, our greatest need is the Living God.
And who is living God in Lamentations?
Well, hope we've seen it if you've been here the last few
weeks, Living God. He is the God who sees and
understands our suffering. It's it's such detail in this
book. He doesn't want to forget it.
He doesn't want us to forget it. He's a God who punishes evil.
He's a God of justice. God cares more about justice
than any of us do, and that is good news in this unjust world.
And he's a God. He doesn't give up on his people
or his promises, even when his people prove so faithless.
This is the God we can turn to. When our world falls apart, this
is all we can turn to at any point through faith in Jesus.
That is part of the message that the gift of lamentations to us.
I don't know how many people have noticed the title we give
to this series. Blessed are those who mourn.
Those are the words of Jesus. You may be may sound familiar.
He spoke them to his disciples. They're recorded for us in
Matthew chapter 5, verse four. It's the part of the sermon on
the mind, as it's called. And the full saying, saying is
this. Blessed are those who mourn, for
they will be comforted. And it's a weird blessing.
It's just there's no other way to say it's a strange blessing.
High is mourning ever a blessing a good thing?
Surely it's a bad thing. Who would ever want to mourn?
But I hope our time in the book of Lamentations helps us
understand these words of Jesus a little bit more.
Why do followers of Jesus mourn in this world?
Because we know there is something wrong, terribly wrong
in this world, and there's something wrong in our hearts.
And we long for Jesus to put things right.
We mourn because we don't believe that the solutions our
world gives us actually will satisfy.
We grieve and mourn over the consequences of sin and death
because we should. It's not how it should be.
And then we cry out. Lord your Kingdom come.
We long for God's Kingdom to come in all its fullness when
Jesus comes again. And so we turn to Him and we
collapse on him and we admit our need and we receive by faith the
grace He has won for us. Blessed are those who mourn, for
they will be comforted. Who's going to comfort us?
Living God. The living God who the people of
Lamentations cry out to is our greatest need, our only hope,
and the God who has come near to us.
In Jesus, let me pray. Father God, we ask that in Your
mercy, by Your grace and by the work of Your Holy Spirit, you
would help each one of us here today to hear what you want to
say to us through this bit of lamentations.
And Father, as we take some time now to reflect on this whole
message of this book, lead us to yourself.
Help us to be honest And Lord, please help us to hear Your
voice. In your word breathed out by you
for our good and for your glory, in Jesus name we ask you Amen.