Suffering and Hope in God's Steadfast Love (part 1)
Lamentations 3:1-44
1I am the man who has seen affliction by the staff of his fury.2He led me and made me walk in darkness and not light.3Surely against me he turns his hand again and again all the day.4He wore out my flesh and my skin; he broke my bones.5He built against me and surrounded me with poison and hardship.6He made me dwell in darkness like those long dead.7He walled me up so that I cannot come out; he made my chains heavy.8Even when I cry out and call for help, he has stopped my prayer.9He walled up my ways with hewn stone; he twisted my paths.10He is a bear lying in wait for me, a lion in hiding places.11He turned my ways aside and tore me; he made me desolate.12He bent his bow and set me as a target for the arrow.13He shot into my kidneys the arrows of his quiver.14I became a laughingstock to all my people, their song all the day.15He filled me with bitterness; he made me drink wormwood.16He ground my teeth with gravel; he made me cower in ashes.17He thrust my soul far from peace; I forgot prosperity.18And I said, "My endurance has perished, and my hope from the LORD."19Remember my affliction and my wandering, wormwood and poison.20You surely remember, and my soul sinks down upon me.21This I call to mind; therefore I have hope.22The steadfast loves of the LORD never cease; his compassions never end.23They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.24The 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 that seeks him.26It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD.27It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.28Let him sit alone in silence when it is laid upon him.29Let him put his mouth in the dust; perhaps there is hope.30Let him give his cheek to the one who strikes him; let him be filled with insults.31For the LORD will not cast off forever.32Though he cause grief, yet he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love.33For he does not afflict from his heart or grieve the children of men.34To crush under his feet all the prisoners of the earth,35to deny a man justice before the face of the Most High,36to subvert a man in his cause—the LORD does not approve.37Who has spoken and it came to pass, unless the LORD commanded it?38Do not both evil and good come from the mouth of the Most High?39Why should a living man complain, a man, about the punishment of his sins?40Let us test and examine our ways and return to the LORD.41Let us lift up our hearts and hands to God in heaven.42We have transgressed and rebelled, and you have not forgiven.43You have wrapped yourself with anger and pursued us; you have killed without pity.44You have wrapped yourself with a cloud so that no prayer can pass through.