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Reading Lamentations 3:40-66 as the singer resigns himself to the Lord, confessing his sins before God and waiting for the Lord to act with judgment against his enemies. Visit wwutt.com for all our videos!
All of us have sinned against God, and what we deserve for our sin is punishment, everlasting punishment. But God has everlasting goodness toward those who believe in Jesus Christ 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 our study of the Book of Lamentations, we come back to Chapter 3, looking at finishing the chapter today. Remember that this book is a song of lament, just as the name would suggest.
The people are mourning over the sin that they have committed against God and the judgment that has come upon them as a result. Looking at the ruins of Jerusalem, and seeing as how Israel and Judah have been sent into captivity into Babylonian exile.
Whenever we are punished, what God does not want to hear from us is complaint. When this punishment is deserved, what we need to do, rather, is confess before God. And as we had considered last time, it is utter foolishness for a person to complain about that which God has ordained in his providence.
We considered in verses 37 to 39,. Who is there who speaks and it happens unless the Lord has commanded it? Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that both calamities and good go forth? Why should any living person or any man complain because of his sins?
God is sovereign and he is right to execute judgment, especially considering we all deserve far worse. But God is patient and merciful, even extending compassion toward Israel, though they do not deserve it.
His mercies are new every morning, as we read earlier in the chapter. And so the rest of this chapter is a confession of submission to the will of God. Let me begin reading here in verse 40, and I'll go through verse 66.
Hear the word of the Lord. Nun. Let us search out and examine our ways, and let us return to Yahweh. We lift up our heart to our hands toward God in heaven. We have transgressed and rebelled. You have not pardoned.
Samech. You have covered yourself with anger and pursued us. You have killed and have not spared. You have covered yourself with a cloud so that no prayer can pass through. You have made us mere scum and refuse in the midst of the peoples.
Peh. All our enemies have opened their mouths against us. Panic and pitfall have befallen us, devastation and destruction. My eyes run down with streams of water because of the destruction of the daughter of my people.
Ayin. My eyes pour down unceasingly without stopping, until Yahweh looks down and sees from heaven. My eyes deal severely with my soul because of all the daughters of my city. Tzadi. My enemies without cause hunted me down like a bird.
They have silenced my life in the pit and have placed a stone on me. Waters flowed over my head. I said, I am cut off. Koph. I called on your name, O Yahweh, out of the lowest pit. You have heard my voice.
Do not hide your ear from my prayer for relief, from my cry for help. You drew near when I called on you. You said, do not fear. Resh. O Lord, you have pleaded my soul's cause. You have redeemed my life.
O Yahweh, you have seen my oppression judge my case. You have seen all their vengeance, all their purposes against me. Shin. You have heard their reproach, O Yahweh, all their purposes against me. The lips of those who rise against me and their whispering are against me all day long.
Look on their sitting and their rising. I am their mocking song. Tav. You will recompense them, O Yahweh, according to the work of their hands. You will give them dullness of heart. Your curse will be on them.
You will pursue them in anger and destroy them from under the heavens of Yahweh. And if we get that far, that will be the conclusion of chapter 3. Now, something that was said in the book of Isaiah. Though the Babylonians were brought by the hand of God against Judah, and Judah was sent away into exile.
That did not justify the Babylonians' actions. That did not make what they did right. And, in fact, as Isaiah would go on to prophesy, judgment would come upon the Babylonians as well. It's not like they were going to get off the hook.
Just because Israel had done evil did not mean that Babylon was just in their punishment. They were a hammer in the hand of God to bring a punishment against Israel. But God would deal with Babylon eventually as well.
And I bring that to mind because one of the things that I read here in verse 52 was, My enemies without cause hunted me down like a bird. They've silenced my life in the pit and have placed a stone on me.
Now, how could it be said that my enemies without cause hunted me down like a bird when we've already considered this punishment is deserved? And worse, but God is showing mercy to Judah and they are stirred in their hearts to confess and call upon the Lord.
So what would be in the heart of those who are singing this song to say, My enemies have hunted me down without cause? When, of course, they deserve this and worse. Well, because Judah had done nothing to Babylon.
It wasn't like Babylon is taking revenge on Judah because they had dealt wickedly with the Babylonians. The Babylonians have no cause against the Jews, though God is using them as a weapon to bring punishment, as a tool or as a rod to bring this lesson upon those who had done so wickedly against the Lord.
Even though they are a tool in God's hand, that does not mean that Babylon is innocent in all it is that they have done. They have no good reason to come against the Jews. They themselves in their hearts.
And so God is going to deal with them and judge them as well. Hence why this prayer comes at the end of chapter three, asking that God's recompense would come against them. So let me go back up here to verse 40, where we started.
And this is true confession before God. Let us search out and examine our ways and let us return to Yahweh. That's driving the rest of what we read here in the chapter, even calling upon God and saying, Lord, please bring vengeance upon our enemies.
This is still coming from a heart that is contrite before the Lord, examining their own ways, recognizing their own sin, and asking that God would pardon. Verse 41, we lift up our heart to your hands.
I'm sorry, we lift up our heart to our hands toward God in heaven. We have transgressed and rebelled. You have not pardoned. So they have yet to see how God was going to forgive and restore. In their hearts, they remain guilty.
And in the land, there is still no fruitfulness. The people are still in exile. Pardon from God would mean that the people would be freed and released from exile. That would come later. But as of yet, the people have not seen the pardon of the Lord.
Going on to verse 43. You have covered yourself with anger and pursued us. You have killed and have not spared. Yes, indeed, many thousands and thousands of Israelites and Jews had died in the Babylonian captivity.
Though many of them were taken away into captivity, they were spared, and the Lord would use them to continue the line that he had promised would come from the descendants of Abraham. And he is preserving Judah because it's from the line of Judah that the Savior is eventually going to come.
And that's what comes out of lamentations. Even when we read that his mercies are new every morning and great is your faithfulness. The ultimate faithfulness that God is showing here is a faithfulness to the promises of old.
That he will bring a Messiah who will redeem his people. And so Judah is being preserved, most specifically for that purpose. Ultimately for that purpose. That the Son of God would be born in Judea, specifically in Bethlehem.
And through Jesus Christ, we would have salvation not just for the Jews, but even for the Gentiles. But in this punishment that God has brought against them, in this affliction, he has covered himself with anger and pursued them.
You know, we love to say that God is love. Some will say that God is holy. They will acknowledge that from what the scripture says. But hardly anyone wants to acknowledge that God is wrath. God is love, but that's not all he is.
And in his wrath, he demonstrates his holiness in bringing judgment upon those who have done wickedly. And so what Judah is mourning over here is that they had to see God in this way. They had so betrayed God that when they looked at him, they did not see the God of love.
They saw the God of anger. And that's their own fault. That's their own doing. They saw the side of God they should not have had to see come against them. If only they had remained faithful. Verse 44, you have covered yourself with a cloud so that no prayer can pass through.
This is certainly a time of mourning in which the Jews are asking for God's kindness upon them, and they have yet to see it. We read in Psalm 6, O Lord, rebuke me not in your anger, nor discipline me in your wrath.
Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am languishing. Heal me, O Lord, for my bones are troubled. Turn, O Lord, and deliver my life. Save me for the sake of your steadfast love. And then later on in the psalm, saying, Depart from me, all you workers of evil, for the Lord has heard the sound of my weeping.
The Lord has heard my plea, and the Lord accepts my prayer. All my enemies shall be ashamed and greatly troubled. They shall turn back and be put to shame in a moment. But this part of the lament in Lamentations 3 has not yet come to that part of the psalm.
So they're still in the early part of that psalm. Lord, rebuke me not in your anger. Still waiting to see that God will indeed forgive and restore. We go on to verse 46. All our enemies have opened their mouths against us.
Panic and pitfall have befallen us. Devastation and destruction. My eyes run down with streams of water because of the destruction of the daughter of my people. We've seen previously about how sons and daughters have even been sent into exile.
There is no new life in Jerusalem and in Judea. Because all of the sons and daughters have been taken away into another land. And so part of this prayer, part of this confession and a desire for God to forgive, would mean that fruitfulness would return to the land.
It would be in the land itself with the planting of crops and the restoration of their way of life. But it would also mean fruitfulness from the womb. That there would be children again. That there would be rejoicing.
There would be giving in marriage. Where families are being created, offspring will result. But right now, my eyes run down with streams of water because it looks like Jerusalem and all of Israel has come to an end.
Verse 49, my eyes pour down unceasingly without stopping until Yahweh looks down and sees from heaven. See, this is a good confession here. A good expression of a broken heart. I'm going to remain here and I'm going to continue to call out to the Lord until Yahweh hears me.
Verse 51, my eyes deal severely with my soul because of all the daughters of my city. We have that statement said again. And my eyes deal severely with my soul. It's like my tears mean my soul is tormented, but it's also the torment of the soul that is causing the tears.
So we have this angst within that is causing the angst without. Physically and emotionally, psychologically, this person is broken down as low as they could possibly get without taking their own life or dying from their very despair.
Calling upon the Lord that he would acknowledge and lift up and dry the tears. Now we've read already, verse 52, my enemies without cause hunted me down like a bird. They have silenced my life in the pit and have placed a stone on me.
Waters flowed over my head and I said that I am cut off. So this is still in that attitude of lament calling upon the Lord that he would hear from heaven. And that's what we get in the next phrase. Verse 55, I called on your name, O Yahweh, out of the lowest pit.
You have heard my voice. Do not hide your ear from my prayer for relief, from my cry for help. You drew near when I called on you. You said, do not fear. God is speaking again to his people. The people are hearing from the Lord and it is a relief for them that God is going to answer.
And he is going to return the people to their land. We go on to verse 58. O Lord, you have pleaded my soul's cause. You have redeemed my life. O Yahweh, you have seen my oppression. Judge my case. You have seen all their vengeance, all their purposes against me.
Now, when there is this appeal to judge my case, this is not judge my case before you. Because if it was like, if it was Lord, judge my actions that I've committed before you. I mean, test me and see if everything is all right.
If it was coming down to that, then the Lord would just wipe them out. There is no place, no moral ground that the Jews have to say before God, I am just before you. So this kind of judgment that's being asked for here is with regards to their attitude against their enemies.
The Jews have not done anything unjust against the Babylonians. But the Babylonians have continually dealt unjustly and brutally with the Jews. You have seen all their vengeance and their purposes against me.
So if this is a matter of God's justice being upheld. Yes, the Jews deserve what they get and worse because of what they've done against God. But the Babylonians are even worse than the Jews. So if God's judgment, if his justice is going to be extolled in the land.
Then this justice must come against Babylon. And so we go on to verse 61. You have heard their reproach, O Yahweh, all their purposes against me. The lips of those who rise against me and their whispering are against me all day long.
Look on their sitting and their rising. I am their mocking song. So if they're mocking the people of God, then they're mocking God. And so now the person who is contrite in heart, who is asking that God would hear.
Who is confessing their sins before the Lord. They are saying, God, look upon those who do not confess. Look at those who do not recognize the wickedness of their sin. And let your justice be known to them.
Verse 64. You will recompense them, O Yahweh, according to the work of their hands. You will give them dullness of heart. Your curse will be on them. Jesus said in the book of Revelation, I render to all according to their works.
We are going to be judged by our works. And that prayer is even being lifted up to the Lord. Here, judge them according to their works. The question will be on the day of judgment, were your works yours?
Or were your works the works that you have carried out in God? Do you want to be judged by the works of your hands? Or the works of righteousness that have been imputed to you by faith in Jesus Christ?
We all do have to do good works. And as said in Romans chapter 14, every person is going to have to give an account of himself before God. But for those of us who are in Christ, we did works that are pleasing to the Lord.
Those who are not in Christ did self-righteousness. And that is not going to be enough to atone for sins and to enter into the kingdom of God. The last verse here of Lamentations chapter 3, you will pursue them in anger and destroy them from under the heavens of Yahweh.
And such a confident thing to be said by this group of people who likewise deserve to be punished from God. But they know that if God has turned, if He has heard our prayer, if He is extending His mercy to us, then we will be restored again.
And when this judgment comes, we don't need to fear that judgment because God has already dealt with us. He is now restoring us. May His judgment be upon those who have done wickedly. My friends, if you are going to ask that God's justice would be done in the earth, make sure that you are just before God when you ask for such a thing.
A lot of people say they want justice, but if they really get the justice that they deserve, then they have no cause to stand before God and demand such a thing. We are justified by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Only in Christ can you stand before God innocent. And He has promised us that in Christ Jesus, our sins are forgiven and we have everlasting life with God. Whatever sinful way may still be in your heart, confess it before the Lord.
As said at the beginning of Psalm 32, blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity and in whose spirit there is no deceit.
May we be purified by Christ and cleansed of all unrighteousness and walk in the righteousness of Christ today. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your mercies are new every morning and great is your faithfulness.
May we not lose our conviction. When we sin, we are convicted of heart because we have done wickedly before God and we would turn from that sin to the Lord Jesus Christ and be forgiven. Help us to seek after that forgiveness with tears when we have done wickedly.
And we will not rest until God hears our prayer and turns to forgive our sin. Let us never get comfortable with our sin. But knowing that we have transgressed against the Lord, we desire your forgiveness and your holiness that we may walk in uprightness and never to stumble into this darkness again.
Thank you for your goodness toward us and your patience, your steadfast, loving kindness. And help us to show that patience and loving kindness toward others. It's in Jesus name 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.
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