Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
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The title―Lamentations ― suggests human sadness.
There is, however, something else here ― divine faithfulness.
At the heart of this short book, we find this great declaration ― ‘Great is thy faithfulness’ (3:23).
Knowing God as the God of great faithfulness involves looking beyond our circumstances and our feelings.
Israel’s circumstances were depressing.
Jerusalem had fallen.
The Temple had been destroyed.
Depression seemed to be the mood of the moment.
Humanly speaking, things did not look good.
Israel had known better times.
The Lord’s people had wandered from the Lord.
The people of God knew little of the power of God.
This was not, however, the whole story.
The faithful God had not given up on his wayward people.
He assured them that they would again have good reason to say ― ‘Great is thy faithfulness’.
We could easily miss the five chapters of Lamentations.
Hidden away between the fifty two chapters of Jeremiah and the forty eight chapters of Ezekiel, they hardly catch the eye.
The title ― Lamentations ― hardly grabs our attention.
It would be a great pity ― for us ― if we overlooked this testimony to God’s faithfulness.
Here, we have a message of great contemporary relevance.
Lamentations was written at a time, strikingly similar to our own day.
God’s people had been taken captive.
They lived in an alien environment.
This is the story of our own nation in the twenty-first century.
We live in a secularized society, a society in which there is little sense of God’s presence.
Our society is a materialistic society, a society which has made money its ‘god’.
The people of God are a people under pressure.
We are tempted to become prisoners of our circumstances, prisoners of our feelings.
We look at our circumstances, and we feel ‘desolate’ (1:4) and ‘despised’ (1:11).
In our discouragement, we cry to God: ‘O Lord, behold my affliction, for the enemy has triumphed!’
(1:9).
What did God say to Israel in their time of distress?
He spoke to them of his great faithfulness, his readiness to revive his work.
This is the message which we must hear in our day.
It is a message which will draw out from our hearts that great confession of faith ― ‘Great is thy faithfulness’.
How are we to live for Christ in the twenty-first century?
We must live with realism, and we must live by faith.
We need realism if we are to look honestly at our present circumstances.
Looking beyond those circumstances calls for faith ― faith in the God of great faithfulness.
The Church’s present situation is aptly yet sadly described in the words ― ‘How the gold has grown dim’ (4:1).
We can come to God only in confession of sin ― ‘O Lord ... see our disgrace’ (5:1).
We look at our secularized society, and we acknowledge that ‘our inheritance has been turned over to strangers’ (5:2).
We look at the secularization of the Church, and we acknowledge that ‘our homes (have been turned over) to aliens’ (5:2).
We look into our own hearts and lives, and we acknowledge that ‘the joy of our hearts has ceased; (and) our dancing has been turned to mourning’ (5:15).
In the world of today and the Church of today, it is not easy to rejoice in our hearts.
It is even more difficult to be joyful in testifying for the Lord.
We must seek a positive answer to the question, ‘How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land?’
(Psalm 137:4).
Israel’s difficulty in singing the Lord’s song is emphasized by the sad fact that ‘Mount Zion ... lies desolate’ (5:8).
This is the situation, which is described in Psalm 137:1 ― ‘By the waters of Babylon, there we sat down and wept, when we remembered Zion’.
In this situation, the ‘tormentors’ of God’s people mockingly say, ‘Sing us one of the songs of Zion!’ (Psalm 137:3).
When we are faced with similar circumstances, we are forced to ask, ‘How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land?’
How are we to do this?
Are we to hide our heads in the sand, run away from our difficult circumstances and escape into pious emotion?
This is what we must not do.
We must face our circumstances honestly.
This is realism.
We dare not ignore the reality of our situation.
There is, however, another reality of which we must take account ― the reality of God, the God concerning whom we say, with faith, ‘Great is thy faithfulness’.
By faith, we look beyond our circumstances to our God: ‘But thou, O Lord, dost reign for ever; thy throne endures to all generations’ (5:19).
To believe in God’s faithfulness is to believe that his ‘throne endures to all generations’.
God is still on the throne.
There is no question of ‘God used to be on the throne, but now he is no lnger on the throne’.
We have heard what the so-called ‘Death of God’ theologians have had to say for themselves.
We have also heard what the book of Lamentations says for God: ‘Great is thy faithfulness’.
Having heard the voice of God, in the midst of the voices of unbelief, we affirm our faith in the living God.
God is still on the throne.
For ever, he reigns.
His throne endures to all generations.
This is the faith which inspired Israel in their captivity.
This is the faith with which we move forward in the twenty-first century.
It is the faith which transforms our feelings.
By faith, we bring our feelings to God.
Like Israel, we may feel forgotten and forsaken (5:20).
In God’s presence, we exchange our feelings ― forgotten and forsaken ― for his blessings ― restoration and renewal: ‘Restore us to thyself, O Lord ... Renew our days as of old!’ (5:21).
In the Lord’s presence, we become convinced of God’s faithfulness.
He has not forgotten us, and he will not forget us.
He has not forsaken us, and he will not forsake us.
In our prayer for restoration and renewal, we bring our circumstances and feelings to God, refusing to be overwhelmed by them.
We pray with urgency, conscious of our great need of restoration and renewal.
Prisoners of circumstances and feelings, we pray ― with faith ― that the chains will start falling and the changes will start happening.
In prayer, we look back ― with thanksgiving ― to past blessings, and we look forward ― in hope ― to future blessing.
We remember what God has done in ‘days ... of old’, and our faith grows ― God reigns for ever and his throne endures to all generations.
Strengthened in faith, we pray, ‘Renew our days as of old!’
The restoration and renewal for which we must pray is the restoration of our walk with God ― 'He restores my soul.
He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake’ (Psalm 23:3) ― and the renewal of our witness for God ― ‘Wilt thou not revive us again, that thy people may rejoice in thee?’ (Psalm 85:6).
Walking with God and witnessing for God, we are sustained by the joy of the Lord.
In this Book with such an unpromising name ― ‘Lamentations’ ― the joy of the Lord comes shining through.
Looking beyond our circumstances to the Lord, we are able, with joy, to affirm our faith: ‘The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end’ (3:22).
The steadfast love of the Lord may also be described as his faithful love.
His love is love, unchanged, unchanging and unchangeable.
Rejoicing in such love, we praise God’s faithfulness: ‘Great is thy faithfulness’ (3:23).
Through the faithful love of God, we are given a testimony: ‘The Lord is my portion’.
With this testimony, we face the future with the courage of faith: ‘I will hope in him’ (3:24).
In our walk with God, this testimony ― ‘The Lord is my portion’ ― is an expression of the joyful faith which finds its true satisfaction in the Lord.
We speak of 'a good portion’ and ‘a satisfying meal’.
Those who have found that ‘none but Christ can satisfy’ have this testimony: ‘The Lord is my portion’.
Assured of God’s faithful love ― a love which is completely trustworthy, utterly reliable and entirely dependable, we confidently affirm, ‘The Lord is my portion’.
This faith is no secondhand faith.
It may be a faith which reflects on the Lord’s dealing with the whole body of his people but it is, nevertheless, a personal faith ―‘The Lord is my portion’.
In Christ, we have received the full portion of God’s blessing.
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