The Faithfulness of God

Lamentations 3:22-24 highlights the faithfulness of God. To be faithful means to be true, able to be counted on, solid, trustworthy. To be known as unfaithful is to be marked as untrustworthy. Those who are or have been unfaithful find it hard to overcome the label. It sticks. It has to do with trust. Once it is broken it’s sometimes nearly impossible to regain what was lost. The issue of Lamentations is Israel’s unfaithfulness to God which led to Jerusalem’s downfall. God had fixed His covenant love on Israel, chosen her, betrothed her to himself; His choice not based on past or foreseen performance but solely on His matchless grace. He laid out the stipulations. He marked out the boundaries, and Israel transgressed over and over again. It was not simply a one time lapse, which would have been reason enough to reject them; this was serial unfaithfulness of the most heinous kind, continual rejection of their Sovereign. God kept reaching out to His beloved based solely on his unilateral love and promises, and still, fallen sinful man made a shambles of their situation. Jerusalem fell in 586 BC and with it the hopes of a nation gone wrong. And so the writer of Lamentations, which means 'loud wailing' or 'loud cries’ rightly laments. This is a dirge, a funeral song for a city that fell due to the sins of her people.

Lamentations is the saddest book in the Bible. The writer, most likely Jeremiah, was so overwhelmed by grief over the destruction of Jerusalem, and the sin that caused it, and the suffering that resulted that he could barely contain himself. Jeremiah was singing the blues. Most likely he was a witness to the seige, the famine, the flight of the army and the king, the burning of the palace, temple and city, the breaching of the city walls, the exile of the people, the looting of the temple, the execution of the leaders. He was reliving the memory of the awful experience as He wrote. Stuck in a moment he could not get out of; his thoughts consumed by the somberness of the situation. He recounts the anguish he felt as he saw the judgment foretold 800 years earlier through Joshua unfold. For 40 years he prophesied of coming judgment but the people continually rejected God’s Word. When judgment finally came on the unbelieving, unrepentant people, Jeremiah responded in sorrow and compassion for his countrymen. A true shepherd.

We must read 3:22-24 in the context of all of chapter 3, as well as the whole book. Sin brings misery and Jeremiah recounts it. In Ch. 1, Jeremiah appeals to God for deliverance. He owns that God is righteous 1:18 and we are sinful. Their captivity was of their own making. They had no one to comfort them 1:2, 17, 21. Ch. 2, they were swallowed up 2:5, God had become their opponent due to their sin against Him. He was right in doing what He did and He fulfilled His Word – there is no argument re the judgments of God & those afflicted due to their unrepentant hearts 2:17. He appeals to God’s compassion. Ch. 3, bitterness was their lot 3:15 and even that was not as bad as it could have been. Ch. 4, the sins of the leaders were acknowledged, the prophets and priests that should have led them righteously had led them blindly away form God and into His judgments. Therefore they were devoured 4:11. Ch. 5 is a prayer for mercy, knowing all their woes were due to their own sin and God was righteous in it, they could not argue but only plead for mercy. They had no rest 5:7, 15. Back to Ch. 3, bad as things were it would have been worse if not for God’s faithful mercies.

In the midst of the rubble, smoke and fog rises Lamentations 3:22-24. Out of the ashes comes one of the most hopeful, pristine, beautiful statements of faith found in the entire Bible. It is the high point of Lamentations. Everything ascends to it or descends from it. In it we see, like a diamond that comes from blackest coal, God’s glory shines brightest in the deepest pit made by man’s sin.

In 3:22-23 we see the heart and anguish of a man who loves God and His people and in it we see 3 Reasons to Praise God: rationale for returning thanks, for expressing our gratitude to Him.

The 1st reason is His covenant love. 3:22 says The Lord’s lovingkindnesses (steadfast love, mercies, lovingkindnesses.) never cease (never completed, never finished). The Hebrew word for lovingkindnesses is used almost 250 times in the OT, referring to God’s gracious love. It means much more than one thing: in one word it captures and combines the ideas of love, mercy, grace, goodness, forgiveness, truth, compassion and faithfulness. God’s covenant love enables our love for Him. We love because He first loved us – that is reason to praise Him.

The 2nd reason to praise God we see in v. 22. His compassionate mercy. 3:22 mercies, compassions. His compassions never fail (never done, completed, finished, consumed, destroyed…the job is never done, God’s compassions are always at work.). They are new every morning. Every day there is a fresh supply. The supply is never-ending because God is never-ending. God’s mercy alleviates the suffering we endure due to sin. Reason to praise Him.

V. 23 highlights the 3rd reason to praise God: His consistent character. 3:23 says "Great is Your faithfulness." Faithfulness is a covenant word...tied to the keeping or breaking of covenantal commitments. When we say God is faithful we mean He is everything faithfulness entails and does everything faithfulness demands. v. 23 says that His faithfulness is great. We think in terms of status, like Alexander the Great. Great in terms of ability and performance. Or even in terms of quality, beyond anything we could imagine as great. Better than you could do or think. Far beyond anything. Amazing. Awesome. But the Hebrew word for "great" refers to quantity not quality. It is a quantitative not qualitative word, meaning much, many, abundant. Quality is there, it is assumed, this is not cheap stuff in bulk, this is the finest stuff imagineable en masse. "Great is Your faithfulness" means that God's faithfulness is plentiful and abundant. There is a lot of it to go around. Mass quantities of God's faithfulness are shown to us. Our issue is our unfaithfulness to God, cosmic treason of gargantuan proportions, which leads to our downfall. But in the lives of those who believe God intervenes. John Stott says "the way God chooses to forgive sinners & reconcile them to Himself is fully consistent with His own character. It is not only that He must overthrow and disarm the devil in order to rescue his captives. It is not even only that He must satisfy His law, His honor, His justice or the moral order; it is that He must satisfy himself." In satisfying Himself God appeases His holy and just wrath against sin, and opens the door to untold blessing for those who repent and believe. He is absolutely consistent. Great reason to praise Him.

Tomorrow we'll focus on the promises of God.