The book of Lamentations is made up of five poems expressing grief over the fall of Jerusalem after Judah was overtaken by the Assyrian Empire. Like a funeral eulogy, these poems express immense pain and mourn the loss of the once glorious city that was home to the temple where Yahweh, the God of Israel, promised to dwell with his people. As we reflect on the poems of Lamentations, we are reminded that there is still much in our world worthy of grief: division and hatred, violence and warfare, sickness and death. Perhaps above all of these, it is our own sin and brokenness that has separated us from God that demands grief and cries of lament. But, the season of lament does not call us to grief that leads to self-loathing and nihilism; it is a grief that anticipates the perfect work of Jesus for us. It is in these cries of lament that we discover not only the reality of our sin but also the hope we find in the gift of the Gospel.
His Mercy is More // A Series on Lamentations