WWUTT 2664 Cause Us to Return to You (Lamentations 5:1-22)

When you have sinned against God, you may feel, God would never forgive me for this. Don't have that attitude. Come to God and ask that He would forgive you of your sins and restore you once again, when we understand the text.

This is When We Understand The Text, a daily Bible commentary to help encourage your time in the Word. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday we feature New Testament Study, an Old Testament book on Thursday, and our Q &A on Friday.

Now here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe.

Thank you, Becky. In the study of the book of Lamentations that we've been doing over the last several weeks, we come to the last chapter as we bring this study to a close. This is Lamentations chapter 5.

We have been studying this song of lament, this mourning over sin, because God has brought judgment against the Jewish people after they had worshiped false gods and had gone after the ways of the pagans around them.

At the conclusion of this song, the people lift up a prayer, asking that God would turn from His chastisement and show them mercy once again. But it ends on something of an uncertain note, not knowing if God is going to restore this people and bring them back to Him.

Let me begin by reading the very conclusion of the chapter, then I'll go back up to the top and we'll do our exposition. This is Lamentations chapter 5, verses 19 to 22. Hear the word of the Lord. You, O Yahweh, sit enthroned forever.

Your throne is from generation to generation. Why do you forget us forever? Why do you forsake us so long? Cause us to return to you, O Yahweh, that we may be returned. Renew our days as of old, even if you have utterly rejected us and are exceedingly angry with us.

And that's the way Lamentations concludes. And as we consider these final verses ourselves, let this be a reminder to us. If you have sinned against God, turn to Him and seek forgiveness. Even if it seems to you in that moment that God is not listening to you, it could be because of the conviction that you were feeling over your sin, that you would feel like you are so far away from God, but don't let that feeling stop you from coming to Him and confessing your sin and asking that God would forgive you and show you mercy once again.

Let's come back up to the start of Lamentations chapter 5, where we read, Remember us, O Yahweh. Remember what has happened to us. Look and see our reproach. Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers, our houses to foreigners.

So what this is saying, what the people are singing about here is they are mourning before God. You have given us these things. This is your land. You had brought us into it. And when the Israelites were brought into that land of promise, God used them to purge from the land, those wicked pagans and what they were doing, worshiping false gods and the unholy practices that they were engaged in.

God had said to the Israelites, don't think that it's because you've done anything good that you are inheriting this land. It's because these people are wicked and I am vomiting them out of the land that you may receive and inherit it.

But they were always to praise God for the gift of this land. So the people are saying here, all of these things that belong to you, they were an inheritance that you gave to us. But that inheritance has been turned over to strangers and our houses to foreigners.

We have become orphans without a father. Our mothers are like widows. Now orphans without a father means that God has disowned this people. He has cut them off. So they are recognizing their state and crying out to God that he would remember them and restore them.

It should be recognized by this point of the song. We deserve this. We deserve this judgment and more. But God, that you would turn from this and show us mercy again. We go on to read in verse four, we drink our water by means of silver.

Our wood comes to us at a price. They're not drinking their own water anymore. They have to get it from other people. The wood, it doesn't come from our own trees. Rather, we have to buy it from people who have harvested their own forests so that we can build our houses.

We can't use the resources of our own land. And remember, the resources were the sign of God's blessing. Whenever the harvest was bountiful, whenever the vats of wine were overflowing, whenever there were great forests of trees to cut down and build homes and palaces, well, that was just a demonstration of God's blessing to this people that he would cause the land to be so fruitful.

But the land is not producing for them anymore that they have to borrow from their enemies. Verse five, our pursuers are at our necks. We are worn out. There is no rest for us. We have given our hands to Egypt and Assyria to get enough bread.

They had hoped that the Egyptians were going to deliver them from the Babylonians and didn't work out that way. Assyria wants our enemy. We now have to look to them to get bread. Our fathers sinned. They are no more.

It is we who have borne their iniquities. Slaves rule over us. There is no one to tear us away from their hand. So the state of Israel right now is so low, they're even lower than slaves. We even have to work for slaves in order to make enough money, in order to buy our bread so that we can survive.

And we were once the people of God. We were once those mighty people that God had rescued out of slavery in Egypt. And now they're even lower than slaves. But again, knowing that this is deserved because of the sins they had committed against God.

We get our bread at the risk of our lives. It says in verse nine, because of the sword in the wilderness, our skin has become hot as an oven because of the burning heat of famine. They violated the women in Zion, the virgins in the cities of Judah.

Princes were hung by their hands. Elders were not respected. These are the people of God and the way they are regarded by other people in the world now that God is not worshiped or feared by the nations.

Going on to verse 13, young men lifted up the stone at the grinding mill and youths stumbled down under loads of wood. Elders have ceased from being at the gate, young men from their music. So the elders, when they sit at the gate, they are making judgments on behalf of the people.

Whenever decisions were made, maybe at trial or a land was shifted from one person to the next, maybe some deed or some sale had taken place or something like that. Judgments were made there at the gates and the elders of the city, those who were seen as the wise men of the city would sit in the gate and determine these cases.

They would even make rulings on behalf of the widows or on behalf of the poor or for the orphans, defending justice and upholding the law of God. But there are not elders in the gate because there are no longer men who are wise enough to consider these cases.

The law of God is being forgotten. It is not being upheld. And the statement in verse 14, that young men from their music, there is no longer joy in the land. We are not rejoicing because God has been good to us and has shown us such kindness.

It's nothing but songs of sadness. Verse 15, the joy of our hearts has ceased. Our dancing has been turned into mourning. This is one of the reasons why this book is called Lamentations, a song of lament, because the dancing has been turned into mourning rather than dancing on their feet and rejoicing with such great praise.

Because they are bowed low to the earth, as we had read about in chapter four, that they are eating ashes from the ground instead of the bread of their labor. Verse 16, the crown has fallen from our head.

Woe to us, for we have sinned. We are not ruling over the people that are around us. Rather, we have become lower than slaves. Once again, crowns have fallen from our heads and woe to us because we had gone against God and what we are receiving we deserve and worse.

Verse 17, because of this, our heart is faint. Because of these things, our eyes are dim. Because of Mount Zion, which lies desolate, foxes walk about in it. This was the mountain where God once dwelled.

This was where his house resided. The temple that was built to him and the presence of God filled it. But God is not there. It is now a wasteland. Zion is not the envied hill that now other nations look to and they want to come to and see how this God of the Hebrews has blessed its people.

It's as if a lamp has gone out. Mount Zion lies desolate. Think of a lighthouse that is on the coastline. Lighthouses used to be there to tell the ships where the land was or where there might even be coral or a barrier reef or something like that below the surface of the water that wouldn't be seen by the ships.

The lighthouse would be there so that the ships would know where the land was. It might give a signal in a storm or it may just be a light in the middle of the night so the sailors know where it is that they are going.

And if the light is out, how fearful that would be. Because the sailor doesn't know where the land is and he may just continue on his way until he runs right into the shore that he didn't know was there.

And so think of it that way with God no longer on Mount Zion. The presence of God is not there. The people don't know which way to go. They have no guidance. As said in Psalm 119, 105, your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.

And not everybody had their own Bibles and were walking around with copies of the Old Testament. They would go to the temple and they would hear the scribes read the scriptures to them. But how do they know the way that they should go when there are not even men who are wise enough to know God's law and sit in the gate and determine our cause?

But instead they stumble about as in the darkness. They are like orphans without a father to teach them and to guide them. Their women don't rejoice any longer. They have become like widows themselves without husbands to provide for them and to teach them the way that honors the Lord.

There's a lot of similarity here to what David prayed in Psalm 51, have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love, according to your abundant mercy, blot out my transgressions, wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.

For I know my transgressions and my sin is ever before me against you. You only have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment.

Behold I was brought forth in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold you delight in truth in the inward being and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart. Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean, wash me and I shall be whiter than snow.

Let me hear joy and gladness. Let the bones that you have broken rejoice. Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.

Cast me not away from your presence and take not your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and uphold me with a willing spirit. And we'll hear some of that come into this prayer even as we read the closing verses 19 to 22 once again.

You, O Yahweh, sit in throne forever. Your throne is from generation to generation. So no matter what has happened here, even though Israel has been overthrown, even though Mount Zion has gone out, God's presence is no longer there.

It doesn't mean that God no longer reigns. He was always on his throne in heaven. When Solomon had built the temple and he had asked that God would dwell there and be with his people, he said, you know, what is this house that I have built for you?

You are higher than the highest heavens. I would never be able to build something with my hands that is worthy of the God of the universe to live in it. But he's asking that God would come down and would be with his people.

God did not need a house to dwell in. The apostle Paul teaches this also, as we've been going through the book of Acts. We'll read about this when we get to his sermon at the Areopagus in Acts chapter 17.

He says there that God does not dwell in buildings that have been made by hands. We cannot give anything to God that he doesn't already have. He does not need us. He does not need us to build something to him so that he may be with us, that his presence may be here with us.

In fact, we are temples of the Holy Spirit. We who are followers of Jesus Christ, his spirit dwells inside of us and he lives with us now in structures that are not made with human hands. So God's throne is established.

No matter what happens on this earth, he is never unseated. No matter who wins the next election, God still reigns on his throne. His throne is from generation to generation. And so what is being asked of here is that though our fathers have sinned and though we have sinned against God, may your kindness toward us be restored to this generation.

You have not ceased to reign. You are still in control and may this God of mercy turn and forgive us. Verse 20, why do you forget us forever? Why do you forsake us for so long? Because their joys have not been restored to them, because they are not experiencing the blessings of God now.

They're looking around and wondering where the presence of God is. This is very similar to the way David prays in Psalm 13. How long, O Lord, will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?

And the way that Psalm ends is to say, I have trusted in your steadfast love. My heart shall rejoice in your salvation. I will sing to the Lord because he has dealt bountifully with me. This is remembering how God has dealt with us in the past.

And may he deal with us in that way again, that he would show us love and bounty, blessing and goodness, mercy. And that's being asked of God here, even as we bring this song of lament to a close. Verse 21, cause us to return to you again, just like in Psalm 51, create in me a clean heart, renew a right spirit within me, cast me not away from your presence, restore to me the joy of your salvation.

Asking that all of that passion and love and desire that I had for God before that it would be restored to me. What was it that David did not have when he went after those sins that appealed to his flesh, the adultery with Bathsheba and then murdering her husband in order to cover it up?

Well, what was going on in David's life right then was that he did not have the joy of his salvation. If he had the joy of salvation, then he would not have gone after these other things that are completely opposed to the joy that we have in God.

So we turn to our sin, we turn to sin, we are, we are wooed away into our sin when we're not satisfied with the salvation that we have in Christ. And so it is, it is being asked of God here in verse 21, cause us to return to you, oh Yahweh, that we may be returned, restore to us the joy of our salvation, renew our days as of old.

And then verse 22, even if you have utterly rejected us and are exceedingly angry with us, show us a little bit of mercy, cause us to come back to you. And may this be a reminder to us that when we have sinned against God, that we likewise would turn from that sin.

We would come back to him and ask that he would restore to us the joy of our salvation. Ask that he would return us to him, that he would put in our hearts that passion for God and once again, renew us as of before.

As said in 1 John 1, 9, if we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. My friends, you may feel absolutely low right now because of the sin that you have committed.

And you may be thinking to yourself, how can God forgive me? Why would he accept me back again after all it is that I have done? Do not be so full of yourselves. Do not think so little of God's mercy.

If we seek his forgiveness, he is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And if you are so blessed to have known the forgiveness of God, then do as Jesus had instructed to those whom he had healed, go and sin no more.

Heavenly Father, when we have sinned against you, you have been so gracious to us. You have sent your son Jesus to die on the cross as an atoning sacrifice and to rise again from the dead so that whoever believes in him will not perish under the judgment that we deserve.

Our sins will be forgiven. We will be restored, reconciled to God and have everlasting life because of what Jesus has done for us. Now teach us, God, that we would walk in a way that is pleasing to you, not going after the passions of our sinful flesh, but desiring the righteousness of Jesus Christ.

And it's in his precious name that we pray. Amen.

This has been When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabriel Hughes. For all of our podcasts, episodes, videos, books, and more, visit our website at www .utt .com. If you'd like to submit a question to this broadcast or just send us a comment, email whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com and let your friends know about our ministry.

Join us again tomorrow as we grow together in the study of God's Word when we understand the text.