Lamentations 3: God's Word For The Despairing, The Doubting And The Depresssed (Fixed)

Pastor Erick Sorensen takes a look at Lamentations 3 noting the reality of despair and depression in the believer's life and more importantly what God has to say to us when we are caught in the grip of such trying times.

[@drakethelayman6103]

Thanks man.. ones like you are scanty out here, im truly grateful to you and 1517. Its uncanny that so few want to hear the good news in its pure form.. its only form. Your doing your work well, please continue.

[@luxolomoshoeshoe1601]

Thank you so much Pastor. I read the whole chapter last night before sleep. ❤

[@JaredTremper]

Amen!

[@mathete9968]

When Jeremiah said:
"My hope is perished from the LORD" , he had reached his lowest point he saw his sins as black as they really are and was convinced that he was lost, cut off from God, dammed. And this is what the true depths of spiritual depression really are. We see ourselves as the lost and condemned, unworthy worthless sinners that we really are. And we are constrained to confess with Peter:
"Depart from me;
FOR I AM A SINFUL MAN,
O Lord."
(Luke 5:8)
And with Isaiah
Woe is me! for I am undone;
because I am a man of unclean
lips, and I dwell in the midst of a
people of unclean lips"
(Isaiah 6:5)
And with David
"I am a worm, and no man ..."
(Psalm 22:6)
And with Job we must say at last:
"I abhor myself, and repent
in dust and ashes"
(Job 42:6)
Remember O Christian, that when we are under heavy affliction, as was Jeremiah along with the entire nation, we are acutely reminded of our own sins.
Recall the what the widow of Zarephath said, who tended to Elijah, when her son died?
"What have I to do with thee, O
thou man of God? art thou come
unto me to call
MY SIN TO REMEMBRANCE ...?"
(1 Kings 17:18)
And this feeling of complete undoing and guilt before God, we feel also, when grievous disaster suddenly strikes.
"Then shall ye remember your
own evil ways, and your doings
that were not good, and shall
loathe yourselves in your own
sight for your iniquities and for
your abominations.
(Ezekiel 36:31)
But now the Gospel came back to Jeremiah ... he remembered that Christ would come into the world to bear all his sins away:
"This I recall to my mind,
therefore have I HOPE.
It is of the LORD'S
MERCIES that we are not
consumed, because his
COMPASSIONS fail not.
They are new every morning
[ie. Continually]
Great is THY Faithfulness.
The LORD [Jesus] is my portion,
saith my soul; therefore will I
hope in Him."
(Lamentations 3:21-24;
Ephesians 2:8, 9)
It is due to Christ and Christ alone that Jeremiah had HOPE. And it is due to Christ alone that we too have HOPE, namely through Faith in Christ delivered to be Crucified for our sins and Raised from the dead on account of our Justification. (Romans 4:25)
And when the sure HOPE of the Gospel breaks through upon us to our own souls we say with Zephaniah:
"For then will I turn to the people
a pure language [The Gospel],
that they may all call upon the
name of the LORD, to serve him
with one consent ...
In that day shalt thou not be
ashamed for all thy doings,
wherein thou hast transgressed
against me ..."
(Zephaniah 3:9, 11)
In Christ Jesus our sins have been taken away, the FIERCE ANGER of the LORD has been TURNED AWAY (Psalm 85:2, 3) and we have been cleansed of all our sin
(Psalm 51:2, 7;
John 13:8, 10;
1John 1:9).

[@terrytaerum7087]

I think it's worth pointing out that, Lamentations is an orchestral piece having 5 chapters, the first 2 chapters have 22 verses each which begin consecutively with the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet. Chapter 3, the one Erick does a wonderful job reviewing, is the musical highlight expressing hope and having 66 verses being bundled three verses to a repeating Hebrew letter. Chapter 4 has 22 verses with the same format as chapters 1 and 2. Chapter 5 is the finale, a chapter of chaos where foreigners rule Jerusalem, with 22 verses but without the organization of previous chapters. Even so, Jeremiah ends chapter 5 with hope.