DISCOVER
Lamentations

The title of Lamentations in the Hebrew Bible is a Hebrew word translated “How,” which is the first word of Lamentations and begins chapters 2 and 4 as well. This term is an exclamation of how much Jerusalem has suffered. Although this suffering is overwhelming, the author pours out his heart beautifully. The book of Lamentations is structured in five poems, which align with the five chapters in our English Bible. The first four poems are acrostics; that is, each new line begins with the next letter in the Hebrew alphabet. The author of the book is not specifically identified, yet some believe him to be the prophet Jeremiah, who “uttered a lament for Josiah” (2 Chronicles 35:25 ESV). Regardless of who put the lament to the scroll, the voice is corporate and expresses the suffering of the people. Lamentations is a eulogy for the death of the kingdom of Judah, which has been taken away into exile. The situation is stark and bleak, yet there is hope in God, whose mercies are new every morning. He is the faithful and compassionate one who forgets not his people—even as they suffer justly for what they have done. 

—Camden Bucey 

Source: Content taken from Lamentations, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah: A 12-Week Study © 2018 by Camden Bucey. All rights reserved. Used by permission of Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

Lamentations invites us to meet God in the midst of our suffering and teaches us the language of prayer. Instead of offering a set of techniques, easy answers, or inspiring slogans for facing pain and grief, Lamentations gives voice to our pain, reorients our focus to the faithfulness of God, and affirms that he alone is our portion. 

—CSB She Reads Truth Bible

Source: Quoted from the Introduction to Lamentations in the She Reads Truth Bible, published by Holman Bible Publishers in 2017, p.1333. 

Suffering is in the Bible. It’s clear. In Scripture, real haziness is seen more than pretend clarity. Nothing hidden. A whole book dedicated to regretful weeping, Lamentations is not an appendix to Scripture; it is Scripture. Lamentations is Scripture because lament is not tacked on to our lives as something to be hidden. It’s right out there in the middle. God chose not to hide the plaintive cries of the confused. This illustrates that the inspired Word of God is bent toward human suffering. 

—Steven Smith

Source: Smith, Steven. Edited by David Platt and Dr. Daniel Akin. Exalting Jesus in Jeremiah and Lamentations. Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary. Nashville, TN: B&H Publishing Group, 2019.

The elaborate artistry of these five laments communicates something important about their purpose. The lamentations are not simply cries from the heart, although they certainly are that. They are rather an attempt to reflect on the meaning of human suffering. The book of Lamentations is a theodicy, an attempt to explain the ways of God to humanity. The writer wants to do something more than vent his feelings. He also seeks to gain perspective on suffering, and to share that perspective with his fellow sufferers. The book of Jeremiah ended with a factual account of the last, desperate days of the Jerusalem Jeremiah knew and loved. The book of Lamentations is an attempt to interpret the meaning of that catastrophe.  

Since this catastrophe was shared by an entire society, the identity of the person who wrote the five laments is relatively unimportant. Lamentations is not about the sufferings of an individual. The five poems that make up the book are communal rather than personal laments. This is what distinguishes Lamentations from another Biblical theodicy, the book of Job. Whereas Job deals with the problem of personal suffering, Lamentations deals with the problem of national suffering. There is a further difference as well: Job’s sufferings were undeserved, whereas Jerusalem deserved her desolation.  

The communal focus of Lamentations makes its message continually relevant for the church and the world. The book of Job helps people make sense of personal losses and tragedies. The book of Lamentations helps people make sense of national disasters like famine, warfare, and genocide.  

—Philip Graham Ryken  

Source: Content taken from Jeremiah and Lamentations: From Sorrow to Hope © 2016 by Philip Graham Ryken. All rights reserved. Used by permission of Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

The sin that brought the residents of Jerusalem to this low point is rehearsed throughout the book of Jeremiah. This is not a case of suffering without a reason. This is not like what happened to Job. This is a circumstance that they created. The evidence of this is the existence of the prophet Jeremiah. A prophetic voice is the evidence that God did not want this. He sent Jeremiah to help prevent it. But they passed up the possibility of prevention… 

Suffering is inevitable. We think obedience is too much of a hardship. We don’t want to obey, and we resent God for asking us to do so. Following God is not easy, but the price of obedience is a bargain compared to the price of rebellion. Prevention costs less than destruction. Avoiding sin costs less than repenting of sin.  

—Steven Smith  

Source: Smith, Steven. Edited by David Platt and Dr. Daniel Akin. Exalting Jesus in Jeremiah and Lamentations. Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary. Nashville, TN: B&H Publishing Group, 2019.

God is not an impersonal force. God is not an entity void of reason and relationship. We can communicate with him, and we are compelled to initiate communication with him. The people [in Lamentations] respond to God by crying out to him. The activity of prayer is at once reflexive and right. It is our impulse and our only hope. Some impulses can harm you; other impulses can save you. In prayer, ironically perhaps, they are suggesting that the one who is destroying them is the only one who can save them. The one who is the enemy is now their only hope and salvation. Thus we see this beautiful cry come from this destitute wasteland. [Lamentations 2] Verse 18 is a powerful plea for a gut talk with God: do not let yourself rest until you have prayed all of this through. Pour yourself out like water to God. 

—Steven Smith  

Source: Smith, Steven. Edited by David Platt and Dr. Daniel Akin. Exalting Jesus in Jeremiah and Lamentations. Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary. Nashville, TN: B&H Publishing Group, 2019.

The idea is clear: sin brings ruin. Sin ruins individuals; sin ruins families; sin ruins churches; sin ruins cities. The weight of destruction is heavier still in light of the warnings: the prophets, the metaphors, the miracles. All the things God did in the past to prevent this from happening are now clear… Since all Scripture is given for our benefit (2 Timothy 3:17), we have to ask what the benefit is of reading of the destruction of Jerusalem. Well, perhaps the reader should be warned. A nation disobeyed God after several warnings. God punished them. God allows suffering as corrective discipline. However, this does not mean all suffering is corrective. 

—Steven Smith 

Source: Smith, Steven. Edited by David Platt and Dr. Daniel Akin. Exalting Jesus in Jeremiah and Lamentations. Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary. Nashville, TN: B&H Publishing Group, 2019.

Here is another of the Bible’s exquisite books of poetry. It is commonly attributed to Jeremiah. Five beautiful, distinct poems are bound together in the book. It is not all sorrow. Above the clouds of the poet’s weeping over the sins of his people, God’s sun is shining. In Lamentations 3:22-27, the light breaks through to throw a shining rainbow across the murky sky. God’s grace always shines above the clouds of sin (see Romans 5:20), and it will always shine in the hearts that trust in God through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, who desires “to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair” (Isaiah 61:3 NIV).

—Henrietta Mears

Source: This content is from What the Bible Is All About, written by Henrietta Mears. Copyright © 1953, 2011 by Gospel Light. Copyright assigned to Tyndale House Publishers, 2015. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, a division of Tyndale House Ministries, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Since it was in keeping with his decree, the fall of Jerusalem revealed many of the perfections of God. It was an act of divine justice, intended to repay a wayward people for their rebellion. Yet it was also an act of divine love, intended to chasten God’s people and thus to turn them away from their sins. Through the sufferings of defeat and exile, God’s people finally learned not to place their confidence in kings or temples, but only in God himself.   

Extreme hardship often plays a similar role in the life of the Christian. Suffering is one of the benefits of belonging to God by adoption in Jesus Christ. Indeed, it is one of the surest proofs of sonship: “For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives” (Hebrews 12:6 ESV). Being chastened by suffering draws the believer into closer fellowship with God the Father.   

 —Philip Graham Ryken  

Source: Content taken from Jeremiah and Lamentations: From Sorrow to Hope © 2016 by Philip Graham Ryken. All rights reserved. Used by permission of Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

Christians who suffer do more than suffer. They also wait. This is not the passive waiting of stoic endurance. It is rather an active resting in the goodness of God, with the hopeful expectation that someday one’s trials will come to an end. There are times when the only thing a sufferer can do is wait for God. But waiting is good because God is worth waiting for. His salvation will come in due course, provided one surrenders to his will and to his timing.   

 —Philip Graham Ryken  

Source: Content taken from Jeremiah and Lamentations: From Sorrow to Hope © 2016 by Philip Graham Ryken. All rights reserved. Used by permission of Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

As we have seen, Lamentations does not have all the answers to the problem of suffering. One thing it does do, however, is raise some of the kinds of questions God has answered in Jesus Christ. In this case, Lamentations helps to show why Jesus is the true prophet, the holy priest, and the servant king God’s people have always needed. Unlike Judah’s lying prophets, he always gives God’s true Word. Unlike her unholy priests, he has offered perfect atonement for sin, once and for all. And unlike her selfish kings, he bravely defends his people from all their enemies.   

. . . 

The book ends the way God intended it to end, with the kind of unresolved anguish we have come to expect from the Weeping Prophet. Yet Lamentations was never intended to have the last word. The questions it raises were ones Jeremiah could not fully answer.   

There are many times when Christians find themselves asking the same kinds of questions: Has God rejected me? Can I still be saved? Is there any hope? Will my sufferings ever come to an end? In this troubled world, similar questions often need to be asked about the sufferings of others: Why does God allow persecution and oppression? What purpose does he hope to accomplish through warfare and famine?   

Unlike Jeremiah, we can do more than ask such questions. We can trust the answer God has provided through the atoning death of Jesus Christ, who makes this promise: “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted” (Matthew 5:4 ESV).   

 —Philip Graham Ryken  

Source: Content taken from Jeremiah and Lamentations: From Sorrow to Hope © 2016 by Philip Graham Ryken. All rights reserved. Used by permission of Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.