Lamentations 3:17-32: a reflection

17You have removed my soul far away from peace. I forgot prosperity. 18I said, “My strength has perished, along with my expectation from the LORD.” 19Remember my affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the bitterness. 20My soul still remembers them, and is bowed down within me. 21This I recall to my mind; therefore I have hope. 22It is because of the LORD’s loving kindnesses that we are not consumed, because his mercies don’t fail. 23They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness. 24“The LORD is my portion,” says my soul. “Therefore I will hope in him.” 25The LORD is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. 26It is good that a man should hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD. 27It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth. 28Let him sit alone and keep silence, because he has laid it on him. 29Let him put his mouth in the dust, if it is so that there may be hope. 30Let him give his cheek to him who strikes him. Let him be filled full of reproach. 31For the Lord will not cast off forever. 32For though he causes grief, yet he will have compassion according to the multitude of his loving kindnesses.

This is the turning point of Lamentations. For chapters, the poet has poured out unrelieved grief, even saying my endurance has perished, and so has my hope from the LORD. And then, in the middle of the darkness, comes a deliberate act: but this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope. He chooses to bring something to memory, and it changes everything. The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.

Notice how the hope arrives. Not because the circumstances changed, they had not, but because the poet deliberately called something to mind. In the grip of despair, he turns his thoughts, on purpose, to what he knows is true about God, that his mercy does not run out, that it is renewed every single morning, that his faithfulness is great, and hope is rekindled from that remembering. Hope here is not a feeling that happened to him; it is chosen, by recalling God's character in the dark.

That is a lifeline worth holding. When grief has convinced you that hope is gone, you are not helpless. Like the poet, you can deliberately call to mind what is true of God, that his steadfast love has not ceased, that his mercies will be new again tomorrow morning, that his faithfulness is great even when you cannot feel it. Hope can be rekindled not by waiting for your feelings to change, but by turning your mind, on purpose, to the God whose mercies are new every morning. Call it to mind, and take hope.

Lord, when grief tells me my hope is gone, help me do what the poet did: deliberately call to mind what is true of you, that your steadfast love never ceases, that your mercies are new every morning, that your faithfulness is great even when I cannot feel it. Rekindle my hope, not by changing my feelings first, but by turning my mind to you.