The Lord Is Your Hope!

6th Sunday after Pentecost, 7/4/21 Lamentations 3:22-33 The Lord Is Your Hope! I. Because he is always faithful to you II. Because he is always loving towards you Imagine being a relative of one of the persons listed as missing in the collapse of the condo in Surfside, FL. You would have initially received the news of the catastrophe early Thursday, June 24. Immediately you were hopeful that your loved one somehow would be found alive. Perhaps you even felt certain that, with our modern engineering technology and the expertise of the rescue teams, you would see your loved one again. But as Friday came, then Saturday, then last Sunday, your hopes began to fade. You heard the fire chief there on the scene insist that his team members were still conducting a search and rescue mission, but as the hours passed, you began to wonder if he really believed what he was saying. How could your loved one still be alive days after the tragedy occurred? How could anyone still be alive? And, as you watched the rescue team pick through the rubble, your heart and mind were fogged over with hopelessness. Picking through the rubble of a building is a mind-numbing, dire situation in which hope quickly fades. The writer of these words of our text from Lamentations knew that situation firsthand. We don’t know the name of the author of Lamentations for certain, but internal and external evidence points us to Jeremiah, God’s prophet. Jeremiah lived during and through the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians in 586 BC. And while the Babylonians deported many of the Jews into exile—prophets such as Daniel, Ezekiel, Ezra, and Nehemiah—the Babylonians left some of the Jews behind in Jerusalem. And their situation was deplorable. The Babylonian invasion had destroyed the crops, so there was little to eat. Lamentations hints that cannibalism was under consideration by the inhabitants of Jerusalem. Portions of the once-glorious walls of Jerusalem had huge gaps in them through which the Babylonian army had poured into the city in chariots and on foot. And, perhaps worst of all, the Temple—the place where God’s glory had once resided like no other place on earth—was nothing but a mound of charred wood and broken stone. And this was what was left for God’s people—the people whom he had promised to love and protect, the people he had formed for himself in order to bring a Savior into the world. As individual Jews looked around them, they had to come to the conclusion that all was lost. Their hopes were gone. In that chasm of hopelessness, the writer injects a dose of spiritual reality. He doesn’t sugar-coat his words. He readily admits that the Jews brought this disaster on themselves when they rejected the Lord and his word. But there was still hope. There was still hope for these people and they could find it where it’s always been—in the Lord. And that’s where it is for you as well. The Lord is your hope. I’m guessing you already knew that, but it would be good for you and me to review why that’s true. The writer of these words gives us the reasons. Let’s see what he has to say. Part I. “You didn’t get that in writing.” That response to an issue you’re facing can be devastating. You thought you had everything covered. You figured things were going to turn out as you expected them to and even paid good money for them to, but you didn’t get that in writing. It’s not in the contract. You’re out of luck. The Jews living in the rubble of Jerusalem might have wondered just who their God was and what his plans for them were now that all their hopes had been dashed. Were they out of luck? Indeed, they weren’t, because they had it in writing just what they could expect from their God. The writer reminds them, “Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” “Great is your faithfulness.” That’s what they had in writing from the Lord. Nine centuries earlier, after the disaster of the Children of Israel worshipping the golden calf at the foot of Mt. Sinai, Moses wondered just who the Lord was, what he was all about, what his plans were. And this is what the Lord proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin” (Ex. 34:6-7). There you have it. He had put it in writing. He was, is, and always will be faithful to his people. In fact, that’s what his name, LORD,—all upper case letters—indicates. He is the God who is faithful to his covenant with his people. For the Jews living in the rubble of Jerusalem, that meant he was still going to use them to bring a Savior into the world, because that’s what he had promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He was all about forgiving his people and showing his love to them. In spite of the ruins surrounding them, that was still true. Christian, in spite of what you might be facing right now in your life, that’s true for you as well. And it will still be true during the next crisis to hit you. The Lord has made his promises to you, and he must remain faithful to every one of those promises. He put it in writing for you. He has promised to be with you always. He has promised to guide you with his word. He has promised to comfort and console you. He has promised to make all things work out for your good. He has promised never to give you more than you can handle. He has promised to keep you in your faith through his word. He has promised to call you home to the heaven he has prepared for you. You have that in writing from the Lord. The Lord is your hope, because he is always faithful to you. But that’s difficult to remember and, perhaps, even to believe, when you’re in the midst of a crisis or a string of setbacks. In fact, when life’s hardships have pounded you to a pulp, when you have long since forgotten that the Lord is always faithful to you, you get the impression that he has forgotten you at best and has something against you at worst. That’s when you need to recall what you have in writing from the Lord. He declares to you, “See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands” (Is. 49:16). You are right there in front of his eyes at all times. And, instead of looking at your current situation as evidence that he is not faithful to you, look at the palms of your Savior’s hands again and notice the nail scars. God promised to send a Savior to die for you. Jesus came and did die for you so that can live in the daily hope of your forgiveness and the sure hope of eternal life with him. Nothing that is happening to you or will happen to you can change the Lord’s eternal plan for your relationship with him. He has been faithful to all of his promises to you, and he always will be. The Lord is your hope. Part II. I’m sorry if this is painful for you, but I want you to think back to one of the difficult or tragic things you’ve faced in your life. In the days and weeks after that difficult event, as you progressed through the various emotional and psychological stages, did you ever think, “God must hate me for this to have happened to me”? I hope not, but I do know that some people have thought and felt that way. The Lord had just allowed one of the greatest tragedies to occur in Jewish history—the destruction of Jerusalem and the deportation of his people. It would have been easy for them to come to the conclusion that God must hate them for him to have allowed this to happen. But these words before us don’t even hint at such a thing. Instead, they declare the opposite—that God is love and that he is filled with love for his people. Listen again to those words, “Though he brings grief, he will show compassion, so great is his unfailing love.” The Hebrew word in that verse translated “unfailing love” is interesting. It’s a love that’s rooted in a natural bond flowing from a superior to an inferior. It’s used for the love a father or mother has for his or her child. It conveys the idea of mercy flowing out of that love because the object of that love is helpless. In that love of God is your hope. His love isn’t earned or conditional. He loves you knowing fully how fickle and frail—how helpless—you are. And from that love flows his mercy and compassion for you. That’s why the writer could encourage his people to wait in hope for the Lord. Ultimately, the Lord will use every difficulty in your life for your good. Perhaps that good thing will become apparent in your lifetime. You’ll be able to see how the Lord kept his promise and brought you blessings out of tragedy. But, perhaps, it won’t be apparent until he calls you into the bliss of heaven with him. Then you will dwell in the presence of his eternal love. That’s what he has in store for you. The Lord is your hope, because he is always loving towards you. Life is full of troubles. That truth doesn’t deny that God loves you, it underscores it. Your God doesn’t want you ever to think that this life is so wonderful, that you fail to recall the life in heaven he has won for you. Your God doesn’t want you to think that you can make this life so wonderful for yourself that you’ll never want to give it up. Instead, he allows daily troubles to enter your life so that you long for the life he has prepared for you in heaven. And along the way, as we deal with each one, we know that “he will show compassion, so great is his unfailing love.” God’s love for you is shown most amazingly in the sacrifice of his Son for you. If he already showed that amazing love to you in the past, won’t he also love you today, tomorrow, forever? Indeed, he will! The Lord is your hope, your hope forever! Amen.