New every morning – Lamentations 3:27-31

And it is good for people to submit at an early age to the yoke of his discipline: Let them sit alone in silence beneath the Lord’s demands. Let them lie face down in the dust, for there may be hope at last. Let them turn the other cheek to those who strike them and accept the insults of their enemies. For no one is abandoned by the Lord forever. (27-31)

Lamentations can be a pretty depressing book. Jeremiah, the author, weeps and mourns over the siege and destruction of Jerusalem. Throughout the book of Jeremiah, he prophesies against Israel (especially the city of Jerusalem) and warns of the coming Babylonian captivity. He makes it clear that the nation and city will be overrun because of their sin and failure to keep their covenant with Yahweh. Now, Lamentations is the follow-up book where, as he predicted, the people remain obstinate and are wiped out by the Babylonian invaders. Lamentations is his book of mourning that details the results of their disobedience.

Chapter three, in particular, is hard to read because it details the years of siege, the starvation, the devastation of the children, and the blatant cannibalism of the people. The prophet also discusses his own poor treatment and the way he suffered for speaking the truth. It is not until chapter three that you begin to see some light and hope. It is there that we have those famous words about “the steadfast love of the Lord that never ceases,” and how “His mercies never come to an end but are new every morning.” While Jeremiah is distraught, and the nation has paid a price, he still knows that God is love and that there is reason to hope in Him.

No matter how dire things might seem in your life right now, there is always light at the end of the tunnel. There is always a reason to hope in the mercy of God. Notice the verses above; sometimes things happen so that we can learn the discipline of the Lord. It is good to submit to that discipline. The sooner you learn the lesson, the sooner the relief will come. Often, our greatest problem is that we fail to learn the lesson God wants to teach us and we keep having to endure the same discipline over and over again. Let us “sit alone in silence beneath the Lord’s demands.” Let us “lie face down in the dust and accept the insults of our enemies.” We have His promise that “there will be hope at last,” and “no one is abandoned by the Lord forever.”