Lament is a gift that helps up turn to God in hope when there is nowhere else to turn. This message was given on March 26, 2017 at New City Church in Calgary by Pastor John Ferguson. For more info, please visit: www.newcitychurch.ca

1. His Mercies Never
Come to an End
~ Lamentations 3 ~

2. A Sacred Sorrow
Studies in
the book of
Lamentations
~ The Season of Lent 2017 ~
Finding Your Voice When
Life Doesn’t Make Sense

3. When peace like a river attendeth my way
When sorrows like sea billows roll
Whatever my lot, Thou has taught me to say
It is well, it is well with my soul

4. His Mercies Never
Come to an End
~ Lamentations 3 ~

5. The Destruction of Jerusalem
by the Babylonians in 587/6 BC

6. Structure of Lamentations
Ch. 1: Jerusalem’s Lament
Ch. 2: Jerusalem’s Fall
Ch. 3: Jerusalem’s Hope
Ch. 4: Jerusalem’s Seige
Ch. 5: Jerusalem’s Prayer

7. 1 Hope fading to darkness, 3:1-20
2
Be on the lookout for...
Hope rising to new light, 3:21-66

8. “And it came to pass after Israel had
gone into captivity, and Jerusalem
was laid waste, that Jeremiah sat
weeping and composed this lament
over Jerusalem….”
Introduction to the Septuagint
(the Greek Translation of the OT in 2BC)

9. 01 I am the man who has seen affliction
under the rod of his wrath;
02 he has driven and brought me
into darkness without any light;
03 surely against me he turns his hand
again and again the whole day long.
Lamentations 3

10. 04 He has made my flesh waste away;
he has broken my bones;
05 he has besieged and enveloped me
with bitterness and tribulation;
06 he has made me dwell in darkness
like the dead of long ago.
Lamentations 3

11. “The Lord bless you and
keep you; the Lord make
his face shine upon you
and be gracious to you;
the Lord lift up his
countenance upon you
and give you peace.”
~ Numbers 6

12. “O Lord, God of my salvation, I cry out day
and night before you. Let my prayer come
before you; incline your ear to my cry…!
You have put me in the depths of the pit, in
the regions dark and deep…. But I, O Lord,
cry to you; in the morning my prayer
comes before you.
~ Psalm 88

13. “O Lord, why do you cast my soul away?
Why do you hide your face from me….?
You have caused my beloved and my
friend to shun me; darkness is my
closest friend.”
~ Psalm 88

14. 16 He has made my teeth grind on gravel,
and made me cower in ashes;
17 my soul is bereft of peace;
I have forgotten what happiness is;
18 so I say, “My endurance has perished;
so has my hope in the LORD….”
Lamentations 3

15. Woven throughout Scripture
is an unguarded type of
prayer known as lament. To
lament is to ask ‘Why?’ and
‘Why not?’ as well as ‘What
are you doing God?’ and
‘Where are you?’ To lament is
to pour out our hearts, holding
nothing back. It is to pray
without trying to be more full
of faith than we actually are.

16. 16 He has made my teeth grind on gravel,
and made me cower in ashes;
17 my soul is bereft of peace;
I have forgotten what happiness is;
18 so I say, “My endurance has perished;
so has my hope in the LORD….”
Lamentations 3

17. “The Lord” =
The Covenant Lord of History
Yahweh = YHWH
The Creator turned Redeemer

18. “…to name YHWH in the same
breath as lamenting the loss of
future and hope is oxymoronic
—a contradiction in terms.
With YHWH in the picture…
there cannot not be a future.
There cannot not be hope.
And so, having sunk to its very
lowest point, if the poem is to
continue, the only way is up.

19. “And this is indeed where the
Man begins a painful climb, in
which for every inch upwards
he has to strain every sinew
and muscle of faith to grasp
hold of the truths deeply
embedded in that one word—
the LORD.”

20. Key Thought
Lamenting to the Lord
roots us in a story
that is larger than ourselves,
our sin, and our pain.

21. 21 But this I call to mind,
and therefore I have hope:
22 The steadfast love of the LORD
never ceases;
his mercies never come to an end;
23 they are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
Lamentations 3

22. Key Thought
With this God—with YHWH—
pain and suffering are never
the end of the story.

23. “You have kept count
of my tossing, put my
tears in your bottle.
Are they not in your
book…? This I know,
that God is for me.”
~ Psalm 56:8-9

24. Whate’er my God ordains is right
Here shall my stand be taken
Though sorrow, need, or death be mine
Yet I am not forsaken

25. My Father’s care is round me there
He holds me that I shall not fall
and so to him I leave it all.
~ Samuel Rodigast (1649-1708), Whate’er My God Ordains

26. 24 “The LORD is my portion,” says my soul,
“therefore I will hope in him.”
Lamentations 3

27. ~ Psalm 73:25-2
“Whom have I in heaven but you?
And there is nothing on earth
that I desire besides you.
My flesh and my heart may fail,
but God is the strength of my heart
and my portion forever.”

28. 31 For the LORD will not cast off forever,
32 but, though he cause grief,
he will have compassion
according to the abundance
of his steadfast love;
33 for he does not willingly afflict
or grieve the children of men….
Lamentations 3

29. 40 Let us test and examine our way,
and return to the LORD!
41 Let us lift up our hearts and hands
to God in heaven:
42 “We have transgressed and rebelled,
and you have not forgiven….”
Lamentations 3

30. 55 I called on your name, O Lord;
from the depths of the pit;
56 you heard my plea, “Do not close
your ear to my cry for help.”
57 you came near when I called to you;
you said, “Do not fear!”
Lamentations 3

31. Lament is a gift that helps us
turn to God in hope
when there is nowhere else to turn.

32. My sin—O the bliss of this glorious thought—
My sin not in part but the whole
Is nailed to the Cross, and I bear it no more
Praise the Lord, Praise the Lord, O my soul

34. “In and through and by faith in Jesus
Christ…, we can praise, lament, petition,
and discover that the story of our loss is
not the only story, or most important, story
that encloses our lives…. Our lives are not
our own, and our stories have been
incorporated into the great drama of God’s
gracious work in the world in Jesus Christ.

35. “As we come to sense our role in this
drama, we find that it is a path of lament
and rejoicing, protest and praise, rooted in
trust in the Triune God, the central actor;
we can walk on this path even while the fog
is thick. For God is bigger than cancer.
God is bigger than death.

36. “The God of Jesus Christ is the God of life,
whose loving promises will be shown true
in the end. Until that time, we wait with the
psalmist [and the Poet of Lamentations]
for the Lord and hope in his Word.”

37. That I belong — body and soul, in life and
in death — not to myself but to my faithful
Saviour Jesus Christ….
What is your only comfort in life and in death?

38. other images used for educational purpose
Image Credit: Hoach Le Dinh
https://unsplash.com/@hoachld?photo=5DJqsjAYlmk
https://unsplash.com/license
Image Credit
http://www.yorww.com/607bce_files/image2981.jpg