CS Lewis wrote of his wife’s death – “her absence is like the sky, spread over everything.” Maybe you know a similar all encompassing loss. What do you do when you’re facing such hard times? God in his mercy has given us not only Psalms of lament to sing and pray, but a whole book called Lamentations.
The first 4 chapters are 4 poems, and each one goes through the 22 letters of the Hebrew Alphabet expressing grief with each letter. It is an A-Z showing how their suffering has affected everything. It’s written by Jeremiah to express the pain that God’s people faced when they lost their homes, their temple, their freedom and loved ones.
The year was 588BC, King Nebuchadnezzer and his armies came and began attacking Jerusalem, most of God’s people were carried off as slaves to Babylon. Then after 18 months, the Babylonians totally destroyed Jerusalem, the temple, the palace, the walls of the city. All the gold and silver was taken.
Once a place full of wealth and people, now empty, in sadness like a widow. Once the greatest place on the earth “the queen” (1v1)—now a slave. No wonder she sobs through the night, when others are sleeping, she finds no rest, she is devastated. No place of rest, nowhere to call home.
Why has all this happened? The surprise is in 1:5, “the LORD has afflicted her”. This all happened because of their sin. God had warned them time and again about their going after other lovers, worshipping other gods, ignoring the God who gave them everything. They continued to ignore Him and the results are devastating.
What can you do when you’re facing such devastating all encompassing loss? Right at the heart of the book, we’re given a branch to hang onto as we face getting swept away down a river. Something changes, Jeremiah dares to hope. Why? Because he remembers something.
Grieving focusses on what we’ve lost, faith focusses on what we have—God’s people need to remember that. Even though their relationship with God was broken because of sin, His mercies are new every morning (3:22). If they turn to Him and say sorry they will have God himself.
The same is true for us today. Our losses may or may not have been caused by our sin, the sin of others, or simply by living in a broken world. But whatever the cause, we can turn to a gracious God and remind ourselves that we do not need to go through this without Him. And that if we belong to Jesus, we can confidently wait for His salvation (3:26), the day when He will wipe away every tear.
Light and Momentary Troubles 
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