God is Merciful – Lamentations 3

Posted on July 8, 2025 by dkoop

I don’t know about you, but I love to find references to Jesus in the Old Testament.  Like a kid in candy store or a miner panning for gold, when I uncover and discover passages that reveal our Savior; it is a real treasure to me.  I don’t know how I missed this passage in Lamentations 3, all these years.  Maybe I was rushing to get to verses 22-23, one of favorite passages.  But there,  jumping off the page in in verse 1, Jesus appears.

Let’s take a look.

  • “I am the man (3:1a)  “I am?”  Remember all the I am statements in John’s gospel?
  • “the man” (3:1a) Not only was the title, “Son of Man” most used by Jesus to refer to himself, but at the crucifixion, notice what Pilate calls Jesus, 5 Then Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. And Pilate said to them, “Behold the Man!”
  • “who has seen affliction under the rod of his wrath” (3:1b).  Surely He has turned His hand against me… 5 He has besieged me And surrounded me with bitterness and [a]woe. (3:2-5)  That’s what happened to Jesus on the cross – he bore the divine wrath for us.  Much like Psalm 22 or Isaiah 53, Can you hear these words in the mouth of Jesus?
  • “He has set me in dark places”  (3:6)  On the cross, what happened?  It got very dark,45 Now from the sixth hour until the ninth hour there was darkness over all the land. Matthew 27:45
  • Though I call and cry for help, he shuts out my prayer (3:8). That was the experience of Jesus when he cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” At the cross, God brings grief and loss to Jesus, and he brings compassion through Jesus.
  • “Like a lion in [b]ambush. He has turned aside my ways and torn me in pieces; He has made me desolate. 12 He has bent His bow And set me up as a target for the arrow.”  (3: 10-12)   The lion comment and being torn to pieces are more references to Psalm 22:13-17
  • He has filled me with bitterness, He has made me drink wormwood (or gall) 16 He has also broken my teeth with gravel, And [e]covered me with ashes. (3:15-16)  A sponge of  bitter drink was what Jesus was given on the cross.  The reference to “covered me with ashes” refers to being buried. 
  • I have become the laughingstock of all peoples, the object of their taunts all day long (3:14). You hear the mocking crowd as Jesus hangs on the cross. This is what happened to him.
  • Let him give his cheek to the one who strikes (3:30). That’s what Jesus did.

When we look at all that Jesus did for us, we cannot help but see God’s great mercy to us!

Christ suffered humiliation and darkness so that God’s mercy should reach us and God’s love should hold us, even in our greatest loss. In Christ we have the hope of God’s ultimate purpose, and the hope of God’s immediate presence.

In the previous posts, we saw that tears are a gift from God; God gave you tear ducts for a reason. The entire book of Lamentations puts sorrow into words. We have a Savior, the Man of Sorrows, to whom we can come in our sorrow.

The third poem in Lamentations is the pinnacle of the mountain of this book. You will notice that there are 66 verses instead of the 22 verses that the other poems in this book have. This third poem is still an acrostic, but there are three lines that begin with each successive letter of the alphabet, rather than one line like the previous two poems.

Life Application from Lamentations 3

 19 Remember my affliction and roaming, The wormwood and the gall. 20 My soul still remembers And sinks within me.21 This I recall to my mind, Therefore I have hope.   Lamentations 3:19-21(NKJV)

Look at verse 21 because what Jeremiah does here is very important for handling our times of deep despair and grief. “But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope.” Notice Jeremiah commits to an act of the will, rather than acting on his emotions and feelings. He does not say that all is hopeless and therefore he will give up in his hopeless despair. Not at all! He says that he will put something in his mind while he is in this state of pain and grief. He is going to put hope in his heart because he is going to put his mind on something in particular.

Verses 22-24 record what he is going to think about. Essentially, the author is going to preach to himself in his time of despair. Here is what he preaches to himself:

 1. The LORD is Faithful and Offers Mercy

 22 Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, Because His compassions fail not. 23They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness.  Lamentations 3:22-23 (NKJV)

 The first thing he preaches to himself is that the steadfast love of the Lord never ends. God’s faithful, covenant love never stops. His compassion and his mercies never come to an end. They never fail. The author recalls the multiple proofs of God’s faithful love. He calls to mind how God’s love never ends. Think about how God has been faithful to you. Think about how God has done good for you repeatedly in the past. His love never fails toward you. This is the knowledge we have to help us in our time of grief and despair.

Second, Jeremiah preaches to himself that the steadfast love and mercies of the Lord are renewed every morning. Every day presents a new opportunity to experience a fresh outpouring of God’s great love and compassion! Each day offers new hope for the compassion of God to be on display in your life. While the future looks dark and all seems hopeless, each day is another day to see the steadfast love of the Lord.  Jeremiah is calling upon himself to live one day at a time. Just see the mercy of God for today. Do not worry about tomorrow’s difficulties and issues. Live in the compassion and mercy of God today. Great is the faithfulness of God! He will get you through today. God is faithful toward us each and every day.

  1. The LORD Good to those who Hope in Him

 24   “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “Therefore I hope in Him!” 25   The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, To the soul who seeks Him.  Lamentations 3:24–25 (NKJV)

Next, you will notice that Jeremiah speaks to himself again in verse 24. His soul says, “The Lord is my portion.” A portion relates to the land allotted by God to each Israelite. Notice that Jeremiah says the Lord is his portion. He declares his dependence on the Lord for his provisions and his survival. God will take care of me is what he is preaching to himself; his conclusion is: “Therefore I will hope in him.” We have a saying in our culture: “Hope springs eternal.” If you have been in sorrow and grief then you will know that this is not the case. What is true is this, if we can modify the saying: Hope springs eternal only when hope is focused on the Lord. This is how we give ourselves the hope and courage we need in times of pain and grief.

Parents discipline children to produce right behavior. God disciplined Judah to produce right living and genuine worship. We must not complain about corrective or instructive discipline in our lives but learn from it, trusting God and being willing to change. We must allow God’s correction to bring about the kind of behavior in our life that pleases him

  1. The LORD is worthy of our Worship

39Why should a living man complain, A man for the punishment of his sins? 40Let us search out and examine our ways, And turn back to the Lord; 41Let us lift our hearts and hands To God in heaven. Lamentations 3:39-41 (NKJV)

Who are we to complain against God? We are the ones who are full of sins! God is in the right. God is always just. God is pure and holy. We are only getting what we rightfully deserve. In fact, we are not receiving what we should for our sins because of the steadfast love of the Lord toward us. This keeps our minds in the right frame of mind. This keeps us in humility when we see that we deserve nothing and everything we have in life is a grace poured out from God.

Lastly, Jeremiah reminds us that we need examine our ways, pray and worship the Lord. Any time we examine ourselves and look at our lives honestly, it should cause us to pray because we know that we have woefully fallen short of God’s glory. So we turn to the Lord, tearing our hearts before our God (Joel 2:13). 

 As God’s people, we recognize that our lives are not determined by some cold, impersonal fate or destiny. Our lives are in the hands of the living God, who is good, who hears our cries, and will act for his people. Our praise and hope are motivated by the knowledge of this truth: the Lord is good and the Lord is faithful. God’s goodness is intrinsic to his glory (cf. Exodus 34:6-7; Mark 10:18).  This is Jeremiah’s hope, and ours Even though he feels that all hope is lost, he is able to tell himself and others that God’s faithfulness is great and his mercies are new every day.

www.Upwards.Church

Message Audio/Video and Outline: https://upwards.church/leander-campus/watch-now-message-videos

Watch Messages: YouTube-Upwards Church

Facebook: Upwards Church

Read Along Daily Bible Reading: YouVersion (https://www.bible.com/organizations/370f8a6e-16bc-464f-8c43-0b7623fd2952)

Sources:

Albert N. Martin, Grieving, Hope and Solace: When a Loved One Died in Christ, Cruciform Press, 2011.

Brent Kercheville, Great is Your Faithfulness, Lamentations 3

Christopher Wright, The Message of Lamentations,  IVP Academic, 2015.

Life Application Bible Notes (Tyndale, 2007), 1301.

Openthebible.org Hope and Healing

 

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Good Grief – Lamentations 2

Posted on July 2, 2025 by dkoop

Have you ever thought about how many tears you have cried?  If you were to collect them, how many would there be?   That’s a great question.  As we continue in Lamentations chapter 2, we’re reminded that this is a book of lament, sorrow, tears and grief.   Not only, does God knows the number of hairs on your head; God also knows the number of tears you have cried. I love this passage in Psalms that describes God’s care and knowledge of us.

8 You keep track of all my sorrows. You have collected all my tears in your bottle. You have recorded each one in your book. Psalms 56:8

Every single tear you have cried matters to God.  Tears matter to God, our grief matters.  Some people think that tears are bad.  We have many misconceptions about grief and tears.

Grief is an emotion every one of us has felt. It is an inevitable hurt because loss or death itself cannot be avoided. Yet it is not something we talk about. It is one of those subjects that we avoid. Our culture begins teaching us to turn away from our grief very early on. Although God gives each of us ways to heal these emotional wounds, most all of us got messages early in life that we should not express those feelings. And it was from then on that many of us got so good at suppressing them, until something happens that forces us to face them.

From our earliest days we were taught that sad, painful or “negative” feelings were to be avoided at all costs. And if we were unable to avoid feeling them, we were not to show them in public. Most all of us have heard words like “Don’t cry, it will be alright.” “Laugh and the world laughs with you, cry and you cry alone.” “Just get over it!” Or maybe even “Stop that crying or I’ll give you something to cry about.” Most all of our tools for handling those kinds of emotions were developed when we were quite young. So we usually are trying to manage the most difficult times in our adult lives with the limited perceptions and skills we learned as children.

Our misperceptions and fears keep us from learning healthier perspectives. That little child in us thinks things like:
· People will think I am weak, or immature, or out of control or crazy if I show my feelings.
· I shouldn’t burden others with my troubles.
· I have to be strong for others.
· I should be over this by now. What’s the matter with me?

God created us with the capacity for the same feelings he has. Our depth of feelings originates from being created like God. The Bible records God’s emotions of sadness and grief.   Grief matters to God because He grieves too.

We look at almost every experience in life from the perspective of , “How does this impact me?” I’m not saying that is altogether wrong- I’m just saying that is usually our frame of reference.

But briefly I want us to think about how God feels.   The Scripture actually has a lot to say about that and in the process of saying it gives us insight as to what God is really like.

For example, in Genesis 6  we are given a powerful glimpse into heart of God.
5 The Lord observed the extent of human wickedness on the earth, and he saw that everything they thought or imagined was consistently and totally evil. 6 …It broke his heart. Genesis 6:5-6   Then he acted in just judgement.

I hope that when we read verses like this in the Bible we don’t picture a hard, distant deity who is simply hacked off because people won’t cooperate with Him or do what He wants them to do. Nothing could be further from the truth.

The Hebrew word used to describe God’s Sorrow in this passage is “Nacham”  means to  “draw the breath forcibly.” It is a deep SIGH of painful sorrow.   Have You ever hurt so bad inside that you could hardly get your breath?

That’s the kind of sorrow God is experiencing here. It’s as if God is saying “Oooh, Oooh…” -such grief that only groans because it is beyond words.   This is the broken heart of God. This is love disappointed & wounded.   This is God experiencing a deep, piercing sorrow  over His loved & lost creation.   Today is the same as in Noah’s day.  For every soul that goes own way and insists upon its own destruction, there is a deep, deep sigh of sorrow in heart of God for that soul.

Why would an omniscient, omnipotent God position Himself to experience such sorrow & grief?  Because love by its very nature Is vulnerable to grief.  Because love by its very nature is impacted by choice of others.   To grant free will is to grant possibility of love.   But, is also to grant capacity to reject love, wound, refuse love.

We see that when God became a person by the name of Jesus and stepped foot on our planet.  He experienced grief.

7 While Jesus was here on earth, he offered prayers and pleadings, with a loud cry and tears…Hebrews 5:7

Does God care when we hurt? One of Bill Clinton’s famous lines is, “I feel your pain.” Does God feel our pain? Does He understand what we’re going through? Does He care? Or is he just sitting up there in heaven, watching as we suffer and struggle, serenely unmoved and emotionless?

It is a common theme in the Old Testament that when God’s people are suffering, and cry out to Him for help, He hears them and comes to their aid.

Let me ask you a question. Are you suffering? Are you wondering if God cares, if He even knows? Are you wondering if your suffering matters to God, if you matter to God? The answer to that question is “Yes.” You do matter to God. You matter more than you know. God understands what you’re going through, whether it’s physical suffering, or emotional suffering, or mental anguish. Whether your pain is caused by disease, or troubled relationships, or inner turmoil,  or even the hand or judgement of God, He understands. He cares. He cares about your suffering and He cares about you. You matter to God.

Does that mean that God will immediately relieve all of our suffering? No. God can relieve suffering. He can heal bodies, reconcile relationships, change circumstances. But sometimes He doesn’t. Sometimes, for His own good and wise and loving purposes, He allows our suffering to continue. But if that’s the case, it doesn’t mean He doesn’t understand or care. It doesn’t mean He’s abandoned us. It means that He has a purpose for us in that suffering. And He is going to stay with us and walk with us and strengthen us and comfort us as long as He allows that suffering to continue.

With this in mind, let’ pick back up in Lamentations 2

5He has destroyed her strongholds, and has increased mourning and lamentation. 11 I have cried until the tears no longer come; my heart is broken. My spirit is poured out in agony as I see the desperate plight of my people. Lamentations 2: 5,11 (NKJV)

  • Sorrow and Sadness are the right Responses to Loss

“Her strongholds?”   The walls of the city, the king, the palace, the temple, and the priests were all brought under judgement.

The people thought they had the temple and therefore they were safe. Jeremiah records what the people were saying in that day.

Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Amend your ways and your deeds, and I will let you dwell in this place. Do not trust in these deceptive words: ‘This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord.’ Jeremiah 7:3–4 ESV

“Behold, you trust in deceptive words to no avail. Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, make offerings to Baal, and go after other gods that you have not known, and then come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, ‘We are delivered!’—only to go on doing all these abominations? Jeremiah 7:8–10 ESV

The people thought that their sinning was acceptable because they had the temple. God was with them and therefore God was fine with their sins. But we learn that we must never think that God is not wrathful against sin. Listen to what the New Testament says about the wrath of God against sin.

Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him. John 3:36 ESV

For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Ephesians 5:5–6 ESV

We cannot make the same mistake as them and hold religion or going to church as our good luck charm that we think will cause us to avoid the wrath of God. Just because we are the people of God does not mean, we can sin as much as we want and that the wrath of God will not affect us. This should be the obvious lesson we learn from the nation of Israel in the scriptures. God’s anger is never explosive, unreasonable, or unexplained. We do not begin to understand the restraint and the longsuffering of God. God’s anger is his firm expression of real displeasure with our sins. God is not indifferent toward sin. Even though we experience the benefits of God’s patience (which is not to be confused as apathy or complete indifference), the restraint God shows will finally end when we refuse to change our ways.

When we refuse to change our ways, this grieves God and He will take just action.  forgiveness but the fearful expectation of judgment. As Israel was seeing, God carries out his word. “The Lord has done what he purposed; he has carried out his word, which he commanded long ago” Lamentations 2:17. God said he would bring judgment for this behavior over and over and over again. But the people rejected God’s warning. Listen to what they were saying in the days of Jeremiah.

Now, therefore, say to the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem: ‘Thus says the Lord, Behold, I am shaping disaster against you and devising a plan against you. Return, every one from his evil way, and amend your ways and your deeds.’ “But they say, ‘That is in vain! We will follow our own plans, and will every one act according to the stubbornness of his evil heart.’ Jeremiah 18:11–12 ESV

God said disaster was coming. The people said that there was no point to changing their ways. They will follow their own plans and follow their own stubborn hearts. Friends, we must never think that God will not execute judgment.

But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed. Romans 2:5 ESV

But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly. 2 Peter 3:7 ESV

For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil. 2 Corinthians 5:10 ESV

Our sins will be judged if we have stubborn, unrepentant hearts. We must turn our hearts back to the Lord. God’s judgment is to bring us to our knees in our sorrow for our sins and the consequences we pay because of what we have done. It is important to see that the author of this poem understands this. He understands that what has happened is because God is right and just and they are deserving because of their sins.

So what are we to do? Notice what the author says to do.

19 “Arise, cry out in the night, At the beginning of the watches; Pour out your heart like water before the face of the Lord. Lift your hands toward Him… Lamentations 2:19 (NKJV)

 Cry out to the LORD in Repentance, He will forgive.

Chapter 1 describes Jerusalem’s desolation and the reasons why it happened. Chapter 2 includes a call for God’s people to pour out their hearts in the Lord’s presence. The people must turn from their sins; they must sincerely mourn over their wrongs against God (3:40–42). The people had much to cry about. Because of their stubborn rebellion against God, they had brought great suffering to all, especially to the innocent. Was this suffering God’s fault? No, it was the fault of the wayward people. Sinful people brought destruction on themselves, but tragically, sin’s consequences affected everyone—good and evil alike.

The people’s suffering and sin should have brought them to the Lord, weeping for forgiveness. Only when our prideful, independent hearts are broken over sin can God come to our rescue. Just feeling sorry about experiencing sin’s consequences does not bring forgiveness. But if we cry out to God in repentance, he will forgive us.

www.Upwards.Church

Message Audio/Video and Outline: https://upwards.church/leander-campus/watch-now-message-videos

Watch Messages: YouTube-Upwards Church

Facebook: Upwards Church

Read Along Daily Bible Reading: YouVersion (https://www.bible.com/organizations/370f8a6e-16bc-464f-8c43-0b7623fd2952)

Sources: Biblesoft’s New Exhaustive Strong’s Numbers and Concordance with Expanded Greek-Hebrew Dictionary. Copyright (c) 1994, Biblesoft and International Bible Translators, Inc.)

Life Application Bible Notes (Tyndale, 2007), 1298.

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God is Righteous – Lamentations 1

Posted on July 1, 2025 by dkoop

Have you ever looked at the moon or the stars with a telescope?  Its amazing to see how vast and large our universe is.   Have you ever seen the unseen world of cells and bacteria?  Again truly astonishing the world of the unseen!  It takes these tools, the telescope to see far away and the microscope to see the microscopic.   We fail to see the large things clearly without a telescope and we fail to see the small things clearly without a microscope.  Its all about the lens we look through isn’t it?  The lens makes all the difference.  What I found out about our tears of sadness, loss or grief is they are a powerful lens to see God.  We see God more clearly through our tears than almost anything else.  We don’t see God as well through the eyes of lust or pleasure. We don’t see God as well through the lens of prosperity.  Often we see ourselves through prosperity and success.  Tears are a powerful way tool that causes us to look for something outside ourselves.  How many of you began to seek God as a result of some painful experience?

Lamentations is about finding hope in times of deep sorrow. And this is a skill, it is also a determination that we need to learn as a people. How do we suffer biblically? What does that look like? We all have times of great sorrow and deep despair. Some things that linger on for our entire lives that we remember, sad memories. Other times, sadness comes and goes, and it’s overwhelmed by happiness and joy and laughter. Lamentations follows the book of Jeremiah and it is about the destruction and the fall of Jerusalem, which was prophesied many times in Scripture.

The book of Lamentations is a funeral song (dirge). We read five poems written about the author’s grief and pain over the destruction of Jerusalem and the destruction of God’s temple. Yet these poems are not the ramblings of one man’s pain. The structure of this poetry reveals a carefully thought response to grief in which the author takes us on his journey through grief and pain. This brings us to the first poem, Lamentations 1, an acrostic where each verse begins with the successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet. As we study, please remember that the first poem does not have all the answers but is the starting point for a godly handling of grief and pain.

1 How lonely sits the city That was full of people!

How like a widow is she, Who was great among the nations!

The princess among the provinces Has become a slave!

2 She weeps bitterly in the night, Her tears are on her cheeks;

Among all her lovers She has none to comfort her. Lamentations 1:1–2 (NKJV)

The city is in deep misery and all that is left to do is to remember the former days of happiness. This is what disaster and despair do to our lives. Our grief and our pain become so overwhelming that life seems helpless and hopeless. All one feels that they can do is remember the good days in the past for it seems that there will be no more good days ahead. Verse 12 continues this thought where the question is asked if anyone has sorrowed more than them. This is also what intense grief does. The person feels like no one has gone through what you are going through. No one is sorrowful like me! No one is sorrowful like us! It is a time when we look and see the joy of the wicked and wonder why we are in agony while trying to be righteous. There is no one to comfort.

This is a fact about grief and pain. There is little another person can do. As much as we enjoy having the sympathy of others, when you get down to it, it is not comfort. Yes, it is nice to know that you have friends and family. Yes, it is wonderful to know that people care. But there is little that a person can do.  When you are going through pain and grief, there are no words that can help. There are no quick fixes. There is no comfort. Not only is there little comfort, but those who you thought were your lovers and helpers become enemies (1:2). Jerusalem speaks of those who were supposed to be her allies and supporters, yet they have turned their backs on her. We put a false hope in people. People are going to let us down. They cannot be our comforters because they do not have the power to do so. They cannot help. They are just as helpless as you are.

Listen to the pain that the author describes for himself and for those who lived in Jerusalem. The physical grief that they are feeling is intense and overwhelming. In verse 13 the author describes the pain as fire in his bones. The intensity of his grief causes his body to ache all over. Further, in verse 13 he says that he is stunned and faint. In verse 16 he declares that he is crying and that his eyes flow with tears. Have you been afflicted with pain so great that your eyes just overflow with tears? Sleepless nights filled with tears. His body hurts with the grief he is enduring. In verse 20 the author says that because of his distress his stomach churns and his heart is wrung within him. He feels like his insides have been twisted and turned over. Grief is physically painful. Grief hurts.

As we study through these poems in Lamentations we are looking for critical truths that are to help anchor our lives through grief and pain. The author expresses a truth that is his first anchor in his grief. “The Lord is in the right” (1:18). God is always in the right.

18“The Lord is righteous, For I rebelled against His commandment. Hear now, all peoples, And behold my sorrow; My virgins and my young men Have gone into captivity.  19“I called for my lovers, But they deceived me; Lamentations 1:18–19 NKJV

  • The LORD is Righteous and will Judge

 Deuteronomy 32:4 also expresses this truth.

“The Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are justice. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is he.  Deuteronomy 32:4 ESV

Whatever is happening, we have no place to charge God with wrongdoing. This is the mistake that I believe we see Job commit that he must be corrected in. No one can charge God with wrong or making a mistake. This is when we are tempted to fail in our grief. We begin to think that God has done something wrong. The Lord is always in the right, whatever happens to us. We are the ones who are not in the right. Even though we are seeing the author exclaim in pain, “How could God do this?” we also see him saying, “The Lord is in the right.” Hold on to this truth in pain and grief.

We noted earlier that one of the difficulties with pain and grief is there are no comforters. There is nothing another person can do. We feel helpless in our grief and others feel helpless in your grief. What can a person do? But this does not mean that we are left helpless and hopeless. God describes himself as the one who gives comfort and relief.

Think about how miserable the people are in their grief for all they had lost. Listen to the opening words of Isaiah’s prophecy after depicting the fall of Jerusalem.

Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins. Isaiah 40:1–2 ESV

God is right, He judges sin and God will comfort his people. God is coming and he is coming to comfort his people. Though there was no one to comfort Jerusalem for her sins and for her loss, God speaks tenderly to his people and brings comfort.

This is true for us today also. Listen to what the apostle Paul says to the Christians in Corinth.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. 2 Corinthians 1:3–5 ESV

4 He comforts us in all our troubles… . 2 Corinthians 1:4a

This word ’comfort’, is the Greek is the word  “parakletos” which means “helper.”

Jesus uses the same word to describe the Holy Spirit in John 14-16.  He refers to the Holy Spirit as the ““parakletos ” the helper.  God is our helper.

I heard a story that I think describes this well.  A little girl was late in coming home. Her mom asked her why she was late, she said she was helping her friend.  “What happened?” the mom asked.  “She lost her doll”  the girl said.  “Did you help her find her doll?” the mom asked.  “No, I just helped her cry”   That is what God is doing.  He helps by crying with me.  He IS there.  We often ask God for answers when God actually gives HIMSELF.  We don’t get the answers but we DO get GOD himself.  I love the passage in Psalms that says “The LORD is close to the brokenhearted”   Is your heart broken?  God has never been closer to you.  Or  in the 23rd Psalm, “Even when I walk through the darkest valley, YOU ARE WITH ME” 

Our God is the Father of mercies. He is the God of all comfort. There may be little comfort in this world. But God is the one over all comfort. He is the giver of comfort. He comforts us in our pain and affliction and we comfort others through that comfort. God gives the comfort we need!

This is why prayer is the first place to turn in our grief and pain. When Jesus is in anguish, moments before he is about to be betrayed, what is Jesus doing? Jesus is praying! Prayer to God is the first step forward. Prayer is the only way forward. God is the only one who can comfort. We are taught to pour out our complaint, sorrow, and anguish to the God in whose presence we not only live but also grieve. Notice that this is exactly what the author of Lamentations does in his grief.

“O Lord, behold my affliction!” (1:9)
“Look, O Lord, and see, for I am despised.” (1:11)
“Look, O Lord, for I am in distress.” (1:20)

This is all we need for turning to God. You may not know what to say. You may not know what to ask for. You may not know what help you need. But you can turn to the Lord in prayer and say, “Lord, look!” See my pain! Look at what has happened to me! You are the God of all comfort and all that you do is right! Please comfort me in my distress. These are the first steps for a godly response to pain and grief in our lives, looking to God who gives mercy and comfort.

In the next post, we will look at Lamentations 2

www.Upwards.Church

Message Audio/Video and Outline: https://upwards.church/leander-campus/watch-now-message-videos

Watch Messages: YouTube-Upwards Church

Facebook: Upwards Church

Read Along Daily Bible Reading: YouVersion (https://www.bible.com/organizations/370f8a6e-16bc-464f-8c43-0b7623fd2952)

Sources: (Biblesoft’s New Exhaustive Strong’s Numbers and Concordance with Expanded Greek-Hebrew Dictionary. Copyright (c) 1994, Biblesoft and International Bible Translators, Inc.)

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You’re Invited: Grace in Grief – Lamentations

Posted on June 27, 2025 by dkoop

You’re invited to our new series!

Lamentations (Grace in Grief)

 Description:  Our three-week series in Lamentations, directs us to hope in the face of extraordinary adversity. In this Old Testament book of we find the admission of sin, the need for repentance, the value of lament, and the reality of hope, all resting on the foundation of faith in the righteousness of God. Through a biblical perspective, we discover grace, trust and hope from the rubble of large-scale calamity.

Dates    Titles                                                                       Events

June 29 – The Righteousness of God (Lam 1-2)

July 6 –   The Mercy of God (Lam 3)                                     July 4th Weekend

July 13 – The Sovereignty of God (Lam 4-5)

Introduction: 

Tears are defined simply as “drops of salty fluid flowing from the eyes.” They can be caused by irritation or laughter but are usually associated with weeping, sorrow, and grief. When we cry, friends wonder what’s wrong and try to console us. Babies cry for food; children cry at the loss of a pet; adults cry when confronted with trauma and death.
Jeremiah’s grief ran deep. He is remembered as the “weeping prophet,” and his tears flowed from a broken heart. As God’s spokesman, he knew what lay ahead for Judah, his country, and for Jerusalem, the capital and “the city of God.” God’s judgment would fall and destruction would come. So Jeremiah wept. His tears were not self-centered, mourning over personal suffering or loss. He wept because the people had rejected their God—the God who had made them, loved them, and sought repeatedly to bless them. Jeremiah’s heart was broken because he knew that the selfishness and sinfulness of the people would bring them much suffering and an extended exile. Jeremiah’s tears were tears of empathy and sympathy. His heart was broken with those things that break God’s heart.
Jeremiah’s two books focus on one event—the destruction of Jerusalem. The book of Jeremiah predicts it, and Lamentations looks back on it. Known as the book of tears, Lamentations is a dirge, a funeral song written for the fallen city of Jerusalem.
What makes a person cry says a lot about that person—whether he or she is self-centered or God-centered. The book of Lamentations allows us to see what made Jeremiah sorrowful. As one of God’s choice servants, he stands alone in the depth of his emotions, broken by his care for the people, his love for the nation, and his devotion to God.
What causes your tears? Do you weep because your selfish pride has been wounded or because the people around you lead sinful lives and reject the God who loves them dearly? Do you weep because you have lost something of value or because people all around you will suffer for their sinfulness? Our world is filled with injustice, poverty, war, and rebellion against God, all of which should move us to tears and to action. Read Lamentations and learn what it means to grieve with God.

Vital Statistics

Purpose: To teach people that to disobey God is to invite disaster, and to show that God suffers when his people suffer

Author: Jeremiah

Original Audience: The exiled people of Judah

Date Written: Soon after the fall of Jerusalem in 586 B.C.

Setting: Jerusalem had been destroyed by Babylon and her people killed, tortured, or taken captive.

Key Verse: “I have cried until the tears no longer come; my heart is broken. My spirit is poured out in agony as I see the desperate plight of my people. Little children and tiny babies are fainting and dying in the streets” (2:11).

Favorite Verse! Or a Great Verse to Memorize:  22 Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. 23 They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. Lamentations 3:22-23 (NIV)

Key People:  Jeremiah, the people of Jerusalem

Key Place: Jerusalem

Special Features:
Three strands of Hebrew thought meet in Lamentations—prophecy, ritual, and wisdom. Lamentations is written in the rhythm and style of ancient Jewish funeral songs or chants. It contains five poems corresponding to the five chapters.

Outline

1. Jeremiah mourns for Jerusalem (1:1–22)
2. God’s anger at sin (2:1–22)
3. Hope in the midst of affliction (3:1–66)
4. God’s anger is satisfied (4:1–22)
5. Jeremiah pleads for restoration (5:1–22)

Jeremiah grieves deeply because of the destruction of Jerusalem and the devastation of his nation. But in the middle of the book, in the depths of his grief, there shines a ray of hope. God’s compassion is ever present. His faithfulness is great. Jeremiah realizes that it is only the Lord’s mercy that has prevented total annihilation. This book shows us the serious consequences of sin and how we can still have hope in the midst of tragedy because God is able to turn it around for good. We see the timeless importance of prayer and confession of sin. We will all face tragedy in our life. But in the midst of our afflictions, there is hope in God.

Megatheres of  Lamentations

Destruction of Jerusalem
Lamentations is a sad funeral song for the great capital city of the Jews. The Temple has been destroyed, the king is gone, and the people are in exile. God had warned that he would destroy them if they abandoned him. Now, afterward, the people realize their condition and confess their sin.
God’s warnings are justified. He does what he says he will do. His punishment for sin is certain. Only by confessing and renouncing our sin can we turn to him for deliverance. How much better to do so before his warnings are fulfilled.

God’s Mercy
God’s compassion was at work even when the Israelites were experiencing the affliction of their Babylonian conquerors. Although the people had been unfaithful, God’s faithfulness was great. He used this affliction to bring his people back to him.
God will always be faithful to his people. His merciful, refining work is evident even in affliction. At those times, we must pray for forgiveness and then turn to him for deliverance.

Sin’s Consequences
God was angry at the prolonged rebellion by his people. Sin was the cause of their misery, and destruction was the result of their sin. The destruction of the nation shows the vanity of human glory and pride.
To continue in rebellion against God is to invite disaster. We must never trust our own leadership, resources, intelligence, or power more than God. If we do, we will experience consequences similar to Jerusalem’s.

Hope
God’s mercy in sparing some of the people offers hope for better days. One day, the people will be restored to a true and fervent relationship with God.
Only God can deliver us from sin. Without him there is no comfort or hope for the future. Because of Christ’s death for us and his promise to return, we have a bright hope for tomorrow.

I hope you can join us!

Darrell

www.Upwards.Church

Message Audio/Video and Outline: https://upwards.church/leander-campus/watch-now-message-videos

Watch Messages: YouTube-Upwards Church

Facebook: Upwards Church

Read Along Daily Bible Reading: YouVersion (https://www.bible.com/organizations/370f8a6e-16bc-464f-8c43-0b7623fd2952)

Source: Life Application Bible Notes (Tyndale, 2007), 1292–1293.

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