The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul,“therefore I will hope in him.” ~ Lamentations 3:22-24
This is a familiar text. Many of us know and have heard this passage quoted before. The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases! His mercies are new every morning! What awesome promises of the Word! But I think we lose the full weight of this truth when we don't consider the context. We picked up in verse 22 of chapter 3, however verses 1-21 look a lot different. Jeremiah, in this passage, is describing his circumstances; he's explaining what his life looks like and it's not pretty. How many of us can relate to circumstances in life that aren't pretty? In verse 2 he speaks of being "in darkness without any light". Jeremiah describes himself as being "enveloped in bitterness and tribulation" in verse 5. In verse 14 Jeremiah tells us that he is mocked; he says that he is "the laughingstock of all peoples". Jeremiah's situation in life seemed so dark and hopeless that he even says, in verse 17, that he's "forgotten what happiness is".
I don't know about you, but I can relate to Jeremiah. I've had times when it seemed as though nothing in my life was good. My circumstances have been so dark, that it seemed like there was no light to be found. There have been times in my life where I have forgotten what it was like to be happy because it had been so long since I had experienced that emotion. You don't have to live in this world very long before you realize that life isn't easy. As a matter of fact, there are going to be times when the circumstances of this life beat you down and leave you feeling like Jeremiah describes in this passage.
We are going to have dark and difficult times in our lives; the question is, how will we deal with them? How will we deal with "the valley"? How will we respond to the "dark night of the soul"? We get the example of how to deal with these times from Jeremiah in this passage. After saying all of this about his very troubling circumstances Jeremiah makes a transitional statement in verse 21; "But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope:" and then comes the text we're looking at today, "The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. 'The Lord is my portion,' says my soul, 'therefore I will hope in him.'” Jeremiah found hope in a hopeless situation by "calling to mind" the truth of God's love for him. Jeremiah couldn't help but recognize what was going on all around him; he didn't ignore it. The thing about Jeremiah was that he made a decision to view his circumstances in light of God's steadfast love and never ending mercy. He reminded himself that, although each day seemed to beat him to the ground, God was going to give him new mercy tomorrow to deal with what tomorrow would bring. He reminded himself that although he was mocked and laughed at by men, God loved him.
I don't normally hear these verses quoted by people whose circumstances look like Jeremiah's. I usually hear them quoted by "happy people" with "happy lives" that are devoid of suffering at the time. And the passage, at that point, doesn't hold the weight that it holds in light of it's context.
So the question still remains; how will we deal with these times in our lives? We can lose hope and lose faith and embrace depression; we can give up and take our own lives; or we can call to mind the steadfast love and unending mercy of God and find hope! Don't lose sight of God's love for you! Don't forget that God grants you new mercy for every day! Don't look for hope in this lost and dying world. The Lord is your portion...therefore hope in Him!
~ Issac
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