Yet We Have Hope

Cues from Lamentations

By Kay Horner

Ashlie was a beautiful young mother of two little girls. The joy of the Lord radiated from her, and she served alongside her husband in the youth ministry of our vibrant, growing congregation. Musically gifted, she also led worship with God’s anointing and helped in other ministries where needed.

People around Ashlie couldn’t help but love her because of her love for God and others that touched hearts. We looked forward to years of shared ministry until . . . she was unexpectedly taken from us. While I was writing this article about hope, Ashlie died.

What happens when such deep personal loss and a growing list of other disappointments veils our worship? How do we respond if our perspective of God becomes clouded by the disasters and moral darkness in our world?

Hope Confronts Sorrow

Typically, we wouldn’t turn to Lamentations—a book of poetic laments—to revitalize our hope. We might read a few psalms for a good “pick-me-up.” But we may forget that the Old Testament hymns and poems contain more laments than praise psalms.

In fact, the writer of Psalm 42 asks a question that Jesus’ followers, in every generation, face during difficult times: “Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me?” (v. 5). Aren’t we supposed to rejoice always and be victorious through Christ?

In the same verse, in the middle of bemoaning his troubles, the psalmist inserts the secret for reigniting our prayer and praise when disappointments seem insurmountable: “Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.”

Jeremiah, the probable author of Lamentations, may have remembered this psalm as he grieved the destruction of Jerusalem and other afflictions. He offers the consummate answer to life’s dilemmas—hope in God! The weeping prophet then defines the anchor of our hope as the Lord’s infinite love, unfailing compassions, and abounding faithfulness.

This I call to mind and therefore I have hope:Because of the Lord’s great lovewe are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness (Lam. 3:21–23).

Jeremiah continues by recounting the whys for his hope. He then challenges himself and the people of Zion to examine their ways, return to the Lord, and acknowledge their sin (vv. 25–42). When divisiveness pervades a nation, this bright picture of repentance and hope, against the dark backdrop of despair, becomes a starting point for prayer. Even when the doors of prayer seem tightly shut, the foyer of weeping is always open.

The prophet’s hope confronts his sorrows. Faith debates fears. Night or day, the Lord God of heaven and earth demonstrates His extravagant kindness and inexhaustible faithfulness. God’s covenant love always wins the argument!

Backdrop of Grief

The horrific calamities throughout Judah and in Jerusalem, the capital city, form the backdrop of grief in Lamentations. This short book gushes with emotion birthed out of the nation’s excruciating pain. The city is destroyed, Judah’s king is captured, and the people are deported to Babylon. The desolate land, referenced as her, is devoid of splendor. Jerusalem is robbed of her treasures, her sins are exposed, and she groans in nakedness and sorrow. She longs for comfort, but the wicked priests have died while pursuing their own desires. Her enemies rejoice over her distress.

Chapter one of Lamentations paints a vivid picture of the grief-stricken people and explains why all this has happened: “The Lord has done what he planned; he has fulfilled his word” (2:17).

Aren’t there interesting parallels here to our country today?

National prayer leader David Bryant, speaking to Christian leaders desiring a Christ-awakening across America, said this:

Multitudes of Christian leaders in America are currently in danger of being sued for spiritual malpractice. . . . Leaders like you and me at this convocation must go all out to reawaken and refortify God’s people with a bold, fresh, comprehensive vision of and engagement with God’s Son in the fullness of his supremacy. Otherwise, this significant falling away from Christ will be unavoidable—and ultimately, we will be held accountable.1

Bryant listed major challenges unfolding simultaneously today at a level previously unseen:

• Immigration demands and hordes of asylum seekers
• Trillions of dollars of increasing national debt
• Widening income inequality and a growing gap between rich and poor
• Unrestrained urban violence across the land
• Unsustainable increase in prison populations at all levels
• Global drug trade and the opiate epidemic killing tens of thousands of Americans yearly
• International trade wars shaking economic stability
• Rise in human trafficking and slavery, nationally and worldwide
• Soaring health care and prescription costs
• Impending exhaustion of Medicare and Social Security funding
• Rapid spread of pornography and the mass sexualization of our culture
• An intensifying battle over abortion, reminiscent of the struggles during the abolition movement more than 200 years ago.2

These and other factors—including the closing of churches and a drastic reduction in church attendance—call us to grieve and repent for our nation.

Change of Perspective

Lamentations 2:17–18 urges God’s people to pour out their hearts to the Lord in repentance. And the people call the city walls themselves to turn into a wailing wall: “Let your tears flow like a river day and night; give yourself no relief, your eyes no rest” (v. 18). Repentance and forgiveness would seem impossible with the temple destroyed and sacrifices suspended. But Jeremiah’s hope doesn’t rest in buildings, traditions, human structures, or rituals. His personal lamenting at the beginning of chapter three changes to hope as he calls to mind the Lord’s great love.

Instead of plunging into despair, Jeremiah remembers that God’s forgiveness flows from love and not temples. His mercy reaches into repentant hearts, not into lives hardened by a constant focus on personal or national troubles. Our patience wears thin, but the Father’s compassions are, according to the original language, the total negation of being consumed, vanquished, or spent. His tenderness, mercy, and sensitive love may be newly accessed every morning by those who pray and put their hope in the everlasting Lord.

As joint heirs with Jesus Christ, we can unite our voices with the psalmists’ and the prophet’s voices, declaring this:

My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever (Ps. 73:26). I wait for the Lord, my whole being waits, and in his word I put my hope (Ps. 130:5). “The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.” The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him; it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord (Lam. 3:24–26).

Unfolding Story of Hope

Wait is an ugly, four-letter word to most of us. Our Internet-speed expectations avoid waiting at any cost. However, the original word for hope in Lamentations 3:21 can be translated wait.

Times of waiting strengthen our character. And the Lord reveals His character as He pours His love into and out of our hearts.

The apostle Paul experienced intense, personal suffering, and he ministered during a season of religious divisiveness and governmental persecution. At that time, Jesus’ followers in Rome could have easily despaired if they had not put their hope in the love of God. Yet Paul knew the secret and the cycle of hope:

Since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us (Rom. 5:1–5).

Are we hoping for national tranquility, church/ministry growth, or relief from our suffering? Or is our hope that “the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea” (Hab. 2:14)?

Anyone who has ever dealt with a water leak or flooding knows the power of water. It diffuses, seeps, and pours through the tiniest opening. In a similar way God’s overflowing, abundant love can permeate every area of our lives so that we won’t give up hope in crushing times. Paul uses a verb tense here that indicates an action in the past with results continuing to the present. What a great way to emphasize the abundance of God’s love!

Character Transformation

Paul wasn’t focusing on tranquility of the heart but on a relationship with God. We may feel more like lamenting than rejoicing in our suffering, but God tells us to persevere and to allow Him to lovingly transform our character through repentant prayer and grateful worship.

Ultimately, we will always cycle back to hope when we recall with Jeremiah and Paul that God’s compassions never fail, and He continually pours His love into our lives.

1David Bryant, “The Case for a Nationwide Christ Awakening,” http://christnow.com/the-case-for-a-nationwide-christ-awakening. 2Ibid.

KAY HORNER is executive director of the Awakening America Alliance and founding director of The Helper Connection, a ministry for forming relational networks among pastors’ wives and women in ministry. You may contact her via khorner@awakeningamerica.us.