Boy, is Lamentations a sad book! In one of the devotions in my Daily Walk Bible, it says “you can almost wring out the pages, so soaked are they with Jeremiah’s tears.” After all the guy has just spent years upon years warning his countrymen what is about to happen: the Babylonians are coming! And of course it does happens (otherwise Jeremiah wouldn’t be a very good prophet).
If you grew up in the church, you’ve probably heard the wonderful old hymn “Great is thy Faithfulness”. The concept behind that old hymn is even more ancient, coming straight from Lamentations. Calamity has come as God foretold through Jeremiah and yet there is hope. There is praise to be given to the Lord (as there always is):
I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall. I well remember them, and my soul is downcast within me. Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: 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. I say to myself, “The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.” The LORD is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him; it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD. – Lamentations 3:19-26