All right, well, beautiful singing. So welcome to Red Village Church. If not met you, my name is Aaron and I’m the preaching pastor here. And glad you’re with us this morning. So March, right? So almost winter is almost done, and so spring is right around the corner. So if you have a Bible with you, if you open up through the book of Lamentations. So Lamentations, we’re going to be looking at chapter one of Lamentations, but for this time here, I’m just going to read verse one. Okay, so when you find Lamentations, it’s the Old Testament, it’s kind of in the middle of the Bible. So if you can find some of the major prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Isaiah, Jeremiah, then it’s Lamentations you can find there. So open up to chapter one, and then as you open about keeping them open. Okay, so we’re going to work through all this this morning. This morning, starting to read verse one. But as we get to the heart of the sermon, we’re going to go through line by line for each verse. So please hear the word of the Lord starting in verse one, says, how lonely sits a city that was full of people. How like a widow she had become. She was great among the nations. She who was a prince among the provinces has become a slave. So ask God. Words first this morning, would you please pray with me? Lord, thank you for this morning. Thank you for the book of Lamentations. Lord, please help me to communicate well in this time. Please let me speak truth. Please keep me from error. Please give the listeners ears to hear and pray you bless this time. For the glory of Jesus we pray. Amen. So this morning is gather together. We do so by starting this new sermon series, which is a sermon series through the Old Testament Book of Lamentations, which, guessing is a book that probably most of us here have heard of, but probably not a lot of us know a ton about. And because that before we get into the text, let me just spend a few minutes here just giving you some handles on this Old Testament book that hopefully just helps us to understand and apply this book to our lives in this study. So I have a handful of things. So first I mentioned this Old Testament book was written for some reason when it was written, and it was written in response to the fall of Jerusalem to the Babylonian empire. So you can read about this in second Kings as well as in the book of Jeremiah. And because this book was written in response to the fall of Jerusalem, scholars date this book around 587, 586 or so BC so shortly after the fall of the great city. Second, let me mention the author of this book. Okay, so for much of church history, many have credited this book to be written by the prophet Jeremiah, who lived during his time. He wrote about the fall of Jerusalem in the book that we refer to as Jeremiah, 2nd or 2nd Chronicles 35 says that Jeremiah was created, or created, a composer of many laments. And so it seems that points to, like, maybe he was the author of this book. Furthermore, the Septuagint, which is the Greek translation of the Bible, which is translated before the time of Christ, credits Jeremiah as the author of Lamentations. So there’s a prologue in the Septuagint, considering the book of Lamentation. It says this. And it was so after Israel had been taken captive and Jerusalem laid waste that Jeremiah sat weeping, and he’s saying this dirge of Jerusalem. So as mentioned, for a long time, many have credited Jeremiah as the author. But now most modern scholars are a little more hesitant to name an author, in large part because the book itself does not give an author. But not just that. The style of writing at times feels similar to the book of Jeremiah, but other times a little different. And so because of that, some scholars are hesitant to credit Jeremiah as the author of Lamentations, which I think are legitimate hesitations. But for me, I’m actually comfortable referring to Jeremiah as the author, but I can’t say that with certainty. Third, let me just address the name Lamentations. And this book is referred to as Lamentations because of a common word found in this book, which is a word that we translate. How? So we see how in the first word of chapter one, which I just read for you, also the first word of chapter two, and then again the first word of chapter four. And in the Hebrew Bibles, this word that we translate, how is one we actually see in other places in the Scripture as well, to communicate, like a wailing lament with this word that we translate? How is that the root word of, like, lament, Lamentations, which is the first thing I want to just point out to us before we get in, is that this book is made up of five individual poems of lament. Our English Bibles nicely actually separate these individual polls into poems into our five chapters, which is how we split up this sermon series with one sermon on each chapter, each poem. So this book is a collection of five poems. So maybe think of, like, the Book of Psalms, how the Psalms are a collection of a bunch of different Psalms, and then put together in one book. So this is basically what Lamentations is, five books or five poems in one book. Fifth, the poems, as mentioned, the Septuagint prologue, these are dirges which were common for funerals, where a dirge would be like giving a lament of a death of a loved one with great hope that the lamenting of death would be like, cathartic for those mourning the death. And these five dirges that make up this book, they really do have a funeral feel to them. So not necessarily a death of a specific person, but the death of Jerusalem. And this poem does feel a little bit cathartic for the author, for the author to try to process what had just happened. By the way, as we work through these poems, we’ll see that the author does in some sense come to its conclusions on why the destruction of Jerusalem. Even our text today, we see the author gives some of the reason why this happened, but he can sense that these conclusions of why this happened are not like fully satisfying. And that’s why he laments, not fully satisfied with the difficult trying situation that he was in the answers he could find. So this is something we’re going to circle back throughout our study. The life we live is often filled with questions, questions of why, questions that we struggle to find conclusions that can maybe satisfy our hearts. In those times, one of the things that we do is we lament. Sixth, Lee mentioned the first four poems are acrostic in nature, which each line starts the next letter of the Hebrew Alphabet with three of the poems having three acrostics. And if you page the letter, you see this in chapters one, two and four, you see how there’s 22 verses. So in the Hebrew Alphabet there’s 22 letters. And then when you get to the third chapter, do you see how it has 66 verses? So there’s actually three acrostics there. So three multiplied by 22 gets us to our 66. Now, the reason for the cross sects, scholars say it’s basically threefold. So first, it’d been easier to like memorize the poems if you know which each verse is going to start with, knowing it starts with the next letter. Second, the acrostic communicates like a fullness. Whereas in the Hebrews, from alpha to Tav, or maybe we would say it like from A to Z, there’s a fullness of lament, nothing is missing. Third, the acrostic seems just to help the author keep his thoughts organized. So we know when we’re in places of lament, of wailing, it can be very difficult to stay focused, organized, it’s hard to communicate our thoughts. So it seems like the author here is trying to use acrostic to fully communicate how he’s feeling in helpful ways, in ways that are just not just scattered. So just know those are the first four poems are acrostic in nature. But then if you look at the fifth poem, if you want to point there, you see there’s also 22 verses, but it’s not an acrostic. Now, without trying to overread the purpose behind that, it does seem that maybe the author perhaps is communicating some like, similarities between the fifth poem and the other poems with the 22 verses. But within that, maybe he’s communicating that at times our laments are just not as organized as we might want them to be. Or at times our lamentings are more like groans where we’re scattered in our thoughts, scattered in how we feel. I don’t want to overread why the fifth poem is similar yet different, but I do think it’s something worth chewing on. So those are just a few handles and lamentations. But also, before we get back to the text, let me just briefly share with you why lamentations? Like why are we going to study this Old Testament book? A few reasons for this I thought might be good for us to know up front. So first, so one of the commands of Scripture is we’re to teach the entire Council of God. And over the years here at Red Village, we’ve worked through a sizable portion of scripture together, Old Testament, New Testament, we’ve gone through like narratives, we’ve worked through wisdom literature, we’ve had psalms, we’ve gone through some prophets, gospel accounts, epistles, parables, apocalyptic. But this, up to this point we have not really studied laments outside. Maybe a lament here and there in psalms we went through a number of years back. So for us to try to work through the entire Council of God, I thought it’d be appropriate for us to spend a few weeks on this book to work through laments. Second, I want to go through this book just to help us have a God honoring outlet for when life does not make sense. Whether does that make sense for you at the individual level or when life does not make sense at a grander scale, which was the case for lamentations. Grander scale, Jerusalem fell. Now, when life does not make sense, particularly when it doesn’t make sense, ways that we kind of get twisted around in knots where our emotions are full. I think there’s two sides of the ditch that we can fall on the one side is you almost like suppress our emotions where for different reasons we’re like emotionally flatlined, almost afraid of emotions or worried that God will be angry with us if we show some type of emotions, as if like emotions in themselves are bad. So it’s like one side we can err on, but then the other side we can err on is that when our emotions are just running every a fever pitch, where all we are going on is our emotions, where we’re trusting our emotions more than we’re actually trusting in the Lord. However, when it comes to laments of scripture, we see a God given way to keep us from falling on either side of the ditch. Because as we lament, we lament with like full raw emotion that not only can be cathartic, but in scripture, emotion filled laments are actually meant to lead us to God, to look to him for help, to recognize how much we need to actually trust him even with our unsolved questions. And that’s actually the prayer for this study as we go through this book to help us on that end to know how we can use our questions, our raw emotion in ways that cause us to actually trust in God, even rejoice in God, to further along to be with God in the eternal life that is to come, when our lamenting will be no more. By the way, we worked at Text to study today in the weeks to come, I do want us to feel the emotion of the poems. So poems are meant to elicit emotion. So let’s do that as we go through the study. The third reason for this study. So as Christian people, our hope is that we become more and more like Jesus Christ. And having good, right? Biblical lamenting actually helps us on that end. So we’ll talk about this more in just a bit. But in his incarnation when the Word became flesh to dwell among us, we read in scripture that the Lord Jesus lamented, He lamented with raw filled emotion. Whereas times his emotions are so high, like he would be in tears as he was trusting in God through it all. So if we’re going to be Christlike, as situations rise that call for us to lament like Jesus, we should, we should lament with real emotions. Knowing that lamenting is a very real part of our Christian faith is hopefully it’s leading us to further trust in our God. Okay, so that was a little bit longer. Introduction. Please look back at me at verse one of chapter one, which is mentioned as the first poem of lament in this letter where we read the first how which is how tied to lamenting, to. To wailing. Where, as mentioned, is where we get the title Lamentations from in this first poem. This is almost like a painful eulogy of Jerusalem, where God’s favor, the favor he gave to his promised people and the old covenant is like, now off them. And it’s off because God’s people failed to keep their end of the covenant. So, verse one, how lonely sits the city, which is the city of Jerusalem, the city that once was full of people, but now, because of exile, the city is now virtually empty. How like a widow, meaning she, Jerusalem. How like a widow she has become just basically desolate. How she was like, great among the nations. She’s a real crown jewel in the ancient Middle near east, where she was like a princess among the provinces. But now, as she sits lonely, it is as if she was a slave. So the first line, the poet is remembering me back to what Jerusalem once was, thinking back to the glory days when Jerusalem was strong, mighty. But now in verse one, she’s the opposite. She sits in ruins, she’s downtrodden, she’s defeated. She. She’s a shell of her former glory. Because, based on the timeline when this poem seems to be written, she became a shell of her former glory. And this all happened so quickly, just maybe a few days or a month or so before the poem was written. The poet would have never imagined how this once proud city would so quickly become the point of ruins. And sometimes in life, our memories can be sweet, where we look back with fondness, such fondness that past memories can even bring us smiles in the present. My kids get older, T and I would actually love to look back and think when they were little, and the fun things we would do, or the fun things our kids would say. And those memories that make us smile, we laugh again. They’re sweet, precious memories to us. But sometimes, especially when life can turn quickly, fond memories can actually be very painful to look back upon. And this is certainly the case for the author of Lamentations, the past glory, the past memories of Jerusalem, was making this painful present situation almost too difficult to bear. Where the past glory is now, almost like mocking the current situation, where the past glory is like an added burden of despair. Verse 2. In her despair, she Jerusalem. She weeps bitterly in the night with tears on her cheeks. And this raw emotion, just gutted, devastated, almost like uncontrollable weeping and sadness and gloom. But in the poem, as she weeps these painful tears, we read that even among all her lovers, she has none to comfort her in her great despair. She sits lonely, she sits isolated, she cries alone, which we know when we’re gutted by life, isolation, loneliness just makes it so much worse. But this is the reality for Jerusalem in the poem. No one has come alongside her to provide her with comfort. No one there to console her. No one was there to weep as she herself was weeping. All of her friends have dealt treacherously with her where they have become her enemies, which is even worse than being in isolation. It’s hard enough when those who thought you were close to you are like, absent. You feel they’re absent in times of need. But here, for Jerusalem, those she felt she was close with now have actively turned against her. So not only is the past glory of Jerusalem mocking her, like so are her friends. Verse 3. Judah, which is the region Jerusalem dwelled in, Judah had gone into exile because of affliction and in hard servitude. But even the land which Jerusalem dwells is absent from her in the poem. Even though Judah now dwells among the nations, there’s no resting place. Her pursuers are all overtaken her in the midst of her great distress. And this here, this seems the poet referring to some of the people of Judah who fled to Egypt as the Babylonians came to conquer Jerusalem. They fled to Egypt and attempt to escape from the Babylonian sword. But now, as they lived in Egypt, it’s not like things are going great for them. But as they lived in Egypt, they did so with great despair, great hardship. They’re put into place of hard servitude, distress. They found no rest. They’ve only escaped Babylonian captivity. It’s not like they found a better life. They’re suffering as well. Verse 4. Through all distress, the roads of Zion, which Zion is another name referring to Jerusalem. The roads leading to design were mourning, almost like a funeral procession, like leading up to Jerusalem. In the text, the roads were weeping because none of the travelers of the road, you know, who were headed at one time to the many joyful festivals the city once hosted through the year, they weren’t traveling them anymore. Now, none of the parties, none of the festivals would take place because all the gates of the city were desolate. And all the priests who were in charge of the various festivals in the poem were groaning as even the priests were like crippled by sadness, disbelief of what just happened. In particular, what happened to the temple which symbolized God’s presence with his people as it was destroyed. Furthermore, in this lament, in this poem, all the virgins, the young maidens have been afflicted, and she herself suffers bitterly. This here, this is referring to young women who desire to be married. But because of desolation, because of what just happened, those desires seemed unlikely to be met. I think this here, this is the poet actually presenting the future. Future desires, future hopes, future plans, is now joining in to mock those of the city where desires, the hopes, the dreams of the future seem to be dashed unlikely to ever be met. So Jerusalem, the road to Jerusalem, which once was a place of excitement, of anticipation, because all these fun festivals, it was a place of a hopeful future, but now it’s a place of great sadness. Maybe for us, just think of, like your favorite vacation spot that you make to go to every year, that you just look forward. I can’t wait to go there. Maybe for us, my family, like our camper, we just love going there. But overnight, that place has become a place of sadness, of misery that just mocks the poet. This is a real part of the lament of this poem. Verse 5. Keep going. To make things even worse, to pile onto the misery, the frustration, we read that her foes have now become the head, her enemies prosper. Let’s think how painful this is. So once they’re backing up, bad enough what happened to Jerusalem, Bad enough you’re feeling isolated, bad enough your friends have turned on you. Bad enough the past, the future are mocking you. But now, not only are the enemies over you as your head, they’re prospering as everything seems to be going their way, where not only are they kind of getting away with what they just did, but everything is turning in their favor. Which, by the way, is actually one of the great laments in Scripture, the lament of the wicked prospering. So Jeremiah lamented this in Jeremiah 12 says, why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why do all the faithless live at ease? You have planted them, and they have taken root. They grow and bear fruit. Job, lamented in chapter 21, why did the wicked live on, grow old and increase in power? The book of Psalms, lamented in chapter 73. For I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. At least for me. I think that’s one of the great frustrations that I can have in life when I see whoever it may be, who’s wicked get away with it. And not only that seemingly prosper. That is a hard question for us to try to reconcile. Why did the wicked prosper? That’s exactly the lament in this poem here. How can evil, wicked Babylonians, how can they not only get away what they just did, but how can God be good and just by now letting them prosper? Keep going. Middle of verse five. Because the Lord has afflicted her, speaking of Jerusalem, for the multitude of her transgressions. Now, this here, this is the author trying to make sense of it all. And where he’s trying to make sense of it all is doing so by understanding that sin has consequences. So we see in the old covenant that if God’s people sinned, God would take his favor from them. And that’s what true what just took place in Jerusalem is all their ongoing habitual sin, where the people of God continue to break the old covenant, continued to go after false gods. So now in the poem, the poet understood God’s people were now reaping severe consequences for what they sowed. And this wrestling, this understanding of sin, its consequences, is something the poet actually will continue to do throughout the poem, where he understands, at least in part, the answer to his questions of how sin. Sin is how sin is. Why for us, when we lament this can be a very real part of the complexities that we’re working through in our own heart as well, where in some levels we try to understand the answers to our questions, our concerns, or we can maybe acknowledge how sin is involved. Although at times, I think most of the times even that does not fully satisfy our questions, still doesn’t quite land the way we wish it would. I think this is true of the poet here. He understands. He accepts that sin has consequences, understands how Jerusalem broke the covenant. But in his lamenting, things are still hard, still confusing. I think we know this is still hard, still confusing to him because the poem continues. It doesn’t just end, okay, that’s right, sin has consequences. The end. Now that keeps going, where we read further, grieving further frustration, and that the children of Jerusalem have all gone away, captured by their foes. Verse 6. The daughters of Zion and all her majesty now gone departed. The princes of the city have fled like the deer. But as they fled, it’s not like they’re able to find rest in the pasture. Rather, they fled without any real strength to escape their pursuers. I think this is just further underscores, just like the weariness here of this poem. I mean, everyone, from the least of the greatest, everyone is like gassed, exhausted, basically lifeless. Because I felt sad how hopeless they felt. Keep going. Verse 7. We start to see the poet kind of circle back around to some of the same things he wrote in the first six lines, which I think for us. We know when life does not make sense, especially when we’re grieving, lamenting, we’re trying to find answers. And you’ll have similar questions, similar frustrations, similar discouragements. They can almost be like a loop in our mind. We’re like recycling the same things over and over and over again with hopes that perhaps, maybe that like one of the times around the loop, our questions will finally be satisfied for us today. Because the poem is a bit of a loop. I’m going to go a little bit more quickly from here forward, but as you go a little more quickly over these, a lot of the same questions and doubts and discouragements of the poet. Let’s just feel the knots, the knots in the poet’s stomach as he loops around the same questions, the same frustrations. Verse 7 Jerusalem remembers in the days of her afflictions and wandering all the precious things that were hers from the days of old, the past mocking. In the poem, she also remembers again when her people fell into the hands of her foe, and there was none to help her. Furthermore, Jerusalem remembers her foes gloating over her, and how they mocked her in her downfall. Do you see the loop here? Poet’s in verse eight, more wrestling with sin, how sin is involved, the poet wrote, jerusalem sinned grievously, therefore she became filthy. All who at one time honored her now despise her, for they have seen her nakedness. And this nakedness here perhaps points to a time that maybe Jerusalem could like, hide and cover up some of her grievous sins, some type of facade, some type of external experience. But now no more. She’s been exposed, uncovered. The curtain was pulled back, sick found its way out. In the poem because she’s been exposed. She herself groaned, her face turns away with embarrassment. Shame. As in verse nine, her uncleanliness was in her skirts. In her sin for a time that was hidden, she took no thought of her future. Jerusalem had no understanding how grievous sin would one day, like, catch up with her. Not just catch up with her, but destroy her. Therefore the poem because of her lack of foresight, lack of fear of God. Her fall was terrible. Where she had no comforter, where no one felt sorry for her. In a sense she got what was coming to her. All she had now was her cry, including the cry of the palm of Lament. At the end of verse nine, this cry oh Lord, behold my affliction, for the enemy has triumphed. Just think how empty this is, everything gone. All that Jerusalem has left is shame, embarrassment CRIES OF LAMENT this one proud city had fell. Verse 10. The poem describes how the enemy has triumphed. We see how the enemy stretched out his hands over all her precious things. That everything is a value to Jerusalem. Now the enemy has hands on it. For she has even seen nations enter into her sanctuary. Right. The most precious thing in Jerusalem, the sanctuary and the temple. Now the nations and the poem. Those who you forbade to enter into your congregation are now there. They’re present in this most holy sacred place. Further mocking Jerusalem Further mocking Jerusalem’s God. Verse 11. All her people groan as the people from Jerusalem they searched for bread. Were in their search for bread, they resorted to having to trade their most precious treasures just for food. So in the poem they would have enough strength just for living. Continue to feel the utter despair, the utter hopelessness of this once proud, majestic city. Now they’re just hoping to find enough bread for the day. In the poem. In the lament, in her despair, Jerusalem further cries out to anyone who would hear. In the poem, she further cries out to the Lord, saying, look, O Lord, look and see, for I am despised. Look, please Hear me. Verse 12. As the Lord did not look and see the way the poet longed for, she continued to cry out, is it nothing to you all who pass by? Look, see. See how I’m hurting. If there’s any sorrow like mine which has been brought upon me, which the Lord afflicted in the day of his fierce anger. Someone please look. This is an absolute plea for help here. For anyone to just please see how broken Jerusalem was. Please see in way that maybe there’s some kindness, some compassion, maybe just even a drop of sympathy for us. This is like begging, begging God begging all who would travel by. Someone look. Help. Someone please show some compassion. Keep going. Verse 13. From on high, he, the Lord sent fire into my bones. He made it descend. He the Lord spread a net for my feet. He turned me back. He the Lord left me stunned, faint. All the day long my transgressions were bound into a yoke by his, meaning the Lord. By his hands they were fastened together, they were set upon my neck. He, meaning the Lord, caused my strength to fail. The Lord gave me the hands of those whom I cannot withstand. Now this here, it can. It should be a real comfort to see God’s hand in a situation, even in situations perhaps we would not choose. However, when we’re in situations we would not choose, like Jerusalem was in this poem, the same hand of God. It can be really hard to understand. Like, how is it that God’s hand could be on this the way it is. Even if we accept the reality of sin, it’s still so hard to understand. In fact, recently I got together with a friend who’s not a Christian. And this is a real question that he had for me. How is it you say God is good? He’s a good hand, a sovereign good hand. Then how is it by the same hand there’s so many hard, difficult things in life? And this is a real question. This is a real question that my friend had. This is actually a real question that the poet has in our lament here. He knows this all from God’s good hand. But at this point, this left the poet with more questions than comfort. This is verse 15 of the poem particular. Is there the Lord, he is the one who rejected all of my mighty men in my midst. The Lord, he is the one who summoned an assembly against me to crush my young men. The Lord, he’s the one who was trodden as in a winepress, the virgin daughter of Judah. This all comes from the hand of the Lord. Verse 16. For these things, all the things the hand of the Lord moved from Jerusalem. The poet wrote, he wept. And this weeping was not like a little tear or two. It’s not like a little bit of mist in the eyes. This is a weeping, a wailing, like uncontrollable crying, overwhelming sadness. In the poem, my eyes flow with tears. Yet as his eyes flow with tears, we see the poet is still looking for someone to provide comfort. But in this poem of lament, still no one was there. A comforter is far from me. Through tear filled eyes the poet sees there is no one near to comfort, revive my spirit, feel the loneliness, feel the despair. Furthermore, the poet lamented, my children are desolate and the enemy has prevailed. It’s almost like waving the white flag. In life, basically everything you go wrong has gone wrong. Bad enough the poet has to endure it, but now his children are suffering by the hands of the enemy. Verse 17. Take your eyes there. Zion stretches out her hands once again, looking for anyone to reach back, anyone to provide measures of comfort, compassion. But again there’s none to comfort her, none are reaching back. The Lord has commanded against Jacob. Jacob is reference to God’s people, that the neighbors of Jacob should be his foes. And Jerusalem has become filthy to them. Whoever keep going. Even though you sense the poet upset, confused by the Lord, by why the Lord would stand against them, even using enemies prevail against her. Verse 18. But the Lord is right for Doing so, and the Lord is right, for I have rebelled against his word. This is once again the poet, like accepting some responsibility, understanding sin does have consequences. God’s people broke the covenant. As he once again acknowledges how sin brought this on, he further cries out, but hear all you peoples, hear my lament. See my great suffering. See how my young men, my young women, my young men have gone into captivity. I think this here, this is the poet actually like publicly now confessing sin for any, all to hear. You think in the poem, it’s almost like, yes, I did these things. Yes, it’s true, for a long time I was able to hide my sins. Yes, my sins have found me out. Yes, I do understand I’m getting what I deserve. But yes, I’m still begging you, please come comfort me. See, I’ve learned my lesson. See how broken over what I just did. So do not be far from me. I need your help. However, in verse 19, even though sins were confessed, a further cry for help is given. Still more words of lament. And these still more words. Remember back to the intro. This acoustic here, this is like the fullness of lament. This is what the cry continues to communicate. In the poem. I called out to my lovers, but they deceived me. My priests, my elders, unable to help as they perished in the city, while they sought food to revive their strength, saving with the confession of sin, the acceptance of the consequences of sin. For the poets, still finding no help, no comfort, no hope, still left holding all of the pain. Say it again. You can just feel the knots in the poem. Yes, he sinned grievously. Yes, he’s trying to do the right thing now, yet still no relief. Verse 20, poets at his wits ends, he continues to plead for help as he yet again appeals to the Lord for comfort, crying out, look, O Lord, for I am in distress. Look, see how my stomach turns in knots. See how my heart is wrong within me. And Lord, as you look, please hear me, hear me. I understand this is all because I’ve been very rebellious. But please show compassion, please give me grace, please show me mercy. Because in the street the sword bereaves. In the poem, in the house, it is like death, meaning everywhere the poet looks, it’s just misery, death. It is a funeral lament. For once again, in some ways, the poet accepts his fate. But he does so with hope that the Lord would see with eyes of compassion how awful things were for him, that he might be moved to graciousness, to mercy. And finally, where this first poem ends, verse 20, one kind of puts a summary on this lamentation. They heard my groaning, yet there was none to comfort me. All my enemies have also heard about all my troubles. And they’re glad that you, you know the Lord, that you have done it, that you have brought the day that you announced. But now, Lord, let them be as I am. Yes, I’m reaping what I sowed with my sin, but now may they, my enemies, also reap what they sow. Lord, do not let them further prosper. Rather, let them be as I am, verse 22. And let all their evil doings come before you and deal with them as well, just as you have dealt with him because of my transgressions, deal with them knowing that my groans are many and my heart is faint. So, in short, at the end of the poem, poet Solomon accepts his fate, but he just cannot accept to see how the enemy is prospering. So he basically pleases the Lord that their fate would be no different from his for us this morning. That’s the first poem of Lamentations, a poem where the poet is really emotionally twisted around so much pain, confusion, frustration, where throughout the poem he’s circling over and over again, looking for answers, yet finding none that will satisfy. This is a poem that ends without any real resolution, which in this present life, this actually can be true. Sometimes we’re just left with questions, not answers. Sometimes in this life, just the secret things, they belong to the Lord. Now let’s close the sermon. I do so by one, giving you just three quick things, things that maybe we can take away from this poem. And I’m going to go through these fairly quickly as well. So first, friends, let laments help you process. Process your emotions, and specifically emotions that have you tied up in knots. I mentioned start. Two sides of the ditch we can fall on is either we suppress our emotions, almost feeling like guilt or shame if we have emotions, or the other side, we just let emotions dictate everything in our life. We’re where all we do is just run on emotions. So rather than falling either side of this ditch, veneering emotional knots because of whatever life’s hardships that come your way, lament, express your emotions to the Lord. Do so with honesty, with vulnerability, by being real. Ra. That is the takeaway of this poem, how honest, vulnerable the poet is. No, we might not get the answers to our laments, but let your laments use you to seek after God in ways that you’re actually going to trust in him, even though you don’t know all the Answers. And by the way, if you’re maybe looking for a practical way to lament, maybe just follow the example of a poem here and write a poem to let all this emotion out through poetry. If you’re not sure how to do that, maybe do an acrostic from A to Z. Second, let laments help you feel the weight of sin. So at the end, the root of all brokenness that we see in life, whether it’s large scale societal brokenness or just individual brokenness, sin’s always at the root. Now, the brokenness of Jerusalem, the poem, the poet admitted, was brought on by the sins of God’s people. Sometimes the brokenness that we feel is actually not because we have sinned. Sometimes maybe someone has actually sinned great greatly against you. That being said, sin is always involved in whatever brokenness we find. Sin is always serious. It always brings pain and suffering and death. So lament in ways to help you feel the weight of how serious our sins are. And as you feel the weight, seek to put away your sin. I think laments are there to help us to not take sin lightly. It helps to remind us how devastating it can be. Third, let your laments lead you to Jesus Christ, who is the very one who lamented over Jerusalem years later, as God’s people continue to break covenant with him, even though they’re actually eventually freed from Babylon and brought back into the city. Friends, let your men lead you to Jesus, knowing that in Him God has given to us a new covenant, one that is not like the covenant of old, that’s based on our obedience. But this new covenant, this better one, is based on who Jesus is and his obedience on our behalf, including his obedience to the point of death, even death on the cross. Where on the cross. As Jesus died, His followers lamented as it looked like evildoers would actually win out. Yet it was on the cross where our hope is found. Because it’s on the cross according to God’s good eternal plan, sin was dealt with fully for God’s people, where Christ fully took on the punishment of our sins on himself. On the cross, Jesus Christ died, but three days later rose again from the dead. And in his death and resurrection, Christ has given to all those who trust in him the promise that one day he will return and he will make every wrong right. Where he will provide us with such comfort that he promises to dry every last tear we ever cried in this life as he ushers his people into the new, the better Jerusalem that will be eternally filled with his people, eternally Filled with His people, filled with emotions of joyful praise, which would be far superior than any festival that Jerusalem ever had before its fall. Friends, let your laments lead you to Jesus Christ so that even now, as we wait for his return, even now, that through his spirit, who Jesus calls a comforter, that even now he might provide you comfort, knowing as difficult as life may be, Jesus promises that he will never leave nor forsake his people. Let your lent lead you to Jesus Christ. So even now, even now he might comfort you, knowing that he is your true friend who will stick by you. Let your laments lead you to Jesus Christ, so even now, even as we wait for him to return, even now that he will continue to prove to you that he is indeed your great High Priest who can sympathize with you in all of your weakness, yet without sin. And as your great High Priest, he is actually there to help you in your time of need. Let your laments lead you to Jesus Christ that He might comfort you even now, knowing that he actually does understand your pain. Because in his reincarnation he experienced all of our griefs, all of our sorrows. Let the Lord Jesus Christ comfort you even now with the hope of the eternal comfort that one day will come while he will reach out for his people with his nailed pierced hands to take us by our hand so that we will be with him in an eternal home where never again will there be a dirge for a funeral. But in this eternal life that is to come. And there will only be eternal wedding celebration where the only emotion we’ll have is great joy, where our mourning will be turned into eternal full laughter as the Lord Jesus Christ fills the eternal Jerusalem for all who trust in Him. Which, by the way, I do want to invite us to do so today. To simply to trust in Jesus, to trust in him in whatever situation maybe you’re currently lamenting over. To trust in him with even all of your sins. To trust that he’s there, he’s real, he’s present, he’s good friends. In this life, we’re often left with questions of how, why. Questions are hard to find, answers that sometimes just don’t fully satisfy. It doesn’t mean there’s not an answer to all of our life struggles. Answers are found one day fully satisfied when our Lord Jesus Christ returns. But until that day, the glory of God for our trust in Him. May we lament. May we lament in ways that we continue to circle back to by faith. To circle back, to continue to seek after him, to continue to go after him as we long for the day when he comes for us. Let’s pray. Thank youk for the Book of Lamentations Lord, it’s really hard to know how to lament. It’s hard to know how to lament in ways that are honoring to youo, Lord. The brokenness of life not only twists up in knots, but often leaves us with more questions than answers. So please help us to trust in you today, even with some of the questions that we do not have answers for. Lord, please help our church to know how to lament in ways that we are continuing to go to you, and help us to lament in ways that we are longing to be with you. Pray so in Jesus name, Amen.