Lamentations 1:17-22: in context

Jerusalem, in the ruin of her destruction, spreads out her hands with no one to comfort her. But amid her lament comes a striking confession. The LORD is righteous, she says, for I have rebelled against his commandment. Even in the depth of her suffering, even as she pours out her distress, she acknowledges that God is just and that her suffering is the fruit of her own rebellion. She does not blame God for her ruin, but confesses that she brought it on herself by her sin, and that God is righteous in what he has done.

The confession, the LORD is righteous, for I have rebelled, is remarkable coming from the depth of suffering. It would be easy, in such ruin and distress, to blame God, to protest the injustice of the suffering, to rail against the God who allowed it. Jerusalem does not. Even in her anguish, she acknowledges that God is righteous, that her suffering is just, that she brought it on herself by her own rebellion against God's word. She takes responsibility for her sin and vindicates God's justice, even as she suffers. This is an honesty and humility that suffering rarely produces. This holds a hard but important honesty for our own times of suffering, especially when our suffering is the consequence of our own sin or folly. Our instinct, in suffering, is often to blame others, to blame circumstances, or even to blame God, to protest the injustice of our pain. But where our suffering is the fruit of our own sin, honesty and humility acknowledge, as Jerusalem did, that God is righteous and that we have brought this on ourselves. This does not mean all suffering is deserved, or that we must always blame ourselves; much suffering is not the consequence of our sin. But where it is, the honest response is not to blame God but to confess, as Jerusalem confessed, the LORD is righteous, for I have rebelled. You are just, Nehemiah prayed, in all that has come upon us, for we have done wickedly. The humble heart vindicates God's justice even in suffering. This searches how we respond to suffering that flows from our own sin. Do we blame others, circumstances, or God, protesting the injustice of our pain, when our suffering is the fruit of our own rebellion? Or do we, like Jerusalem, acknowledge honestly that God is righteous and that we have brought this on ourselves? Against you, you only, have I sinned, David confessed, so that you are justified when you speak. The honest heart takes responsibility for its sin and vindicates God's justice, even in suffering its consequences. This calls us to the honesty and humility that acknowledges God's justice and our own fault, even in affliction. Jerusalem, in the depth of her ruin, confessed, the LORD is righteous, for I have rebelled; and where our own suffering flows from our sin, we are called to the same honesty, not blaming God or others but acknowledging that God is just and that we have brought this on ourselves. This is not despair but honest humility, and it is the doorway to repentance and to God's mercy; for the one who honestly confesses, the LORD is righteous, for I have sinned, is on the way back to the God whose justice is joined to his mercy toward the penitent.

When my suffering is the fruit of my own sin or folly, do I blame others, circumstances, or God, protesting the injustice of my pain, or can Jerusalem, who in the depth of her ruin confessed, the LORD is righteous, for I have rebelled against his commandment, move me to the honesty and humility that acknowledges God's justice and my own fault even in affliction, not blaming God but confessing that I have brought this on myself, and finding in that honest confession the doorway to repentance and to God's mercy?