Finding the �Hidden Hope of the �Lament Scriptures
Series Outline
2. Topic
3. Character
4. Gospel
1. Expository
Series Study Genre
Finding the �Hidden Hope of the �Lament Scriptures
In Review
How?
Lamentations 1:1
How lonely sits the city that was full of people! How like a widow has she become, she who was great among the nations! She who was a princess among the provinces has become a slave.
What’s the point?
What’s the point?
What’s the point?
What’s the point?
To lament is to struggle and then surrender.
Pain
Anger
Confusion
Lament Series:
Lesson 3: Lamenters of the Past
SCAN FOR SERMON POWERPOINT
SEARCH “LAMENT_03_Past Laments”
II. Psalm 77 Exposition
Psalm 77:1-15 | I cry aloud to God, aloud to God, and he will hear me. (2) In the day of my trouble I seek the Lord; in the night my hand is stretched out without wearying; my soul refuses to be comforted. (3) When I remember God, I moan; when I meditate, my spirit faints. Selah (4) You hold my eyelids open; I am so troubled that I cannot speak. (5) I consider the days of old, the years long ago. (6) I said, “Let me remember my song in the night; let me meditate in my heart.”
Then my spirit made a diligent search: (7) “Will the Lord spurn forever, and never again be favorable? (8) Has his steadfast love forever ceased? Are his promises at an end for all time? (9) Has God forgotten to be gracious? Has he in anger shut up his compassion?”
(10) Then I said, “I will appeal to this, to the years of the right hand of the Most High.” (11) I will remember the deeds of the LORD; yes, I will remember your wonders of old. (12) I will ponder all your work, and meditate on your mighty deeds. (13) Your way, O God, is holy. What god is great like our God? (14) You are the God who works wonders; you have made known your might among the peoples. (15) You with your arm redeemed your people, the children of Jacob and Joseph.
A “crying out” to God.
Communicated emotion and/or struggle.
A plea for help.
A declaration of trust in God.
Lament
Structure
Romans 15:4 | For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.
III. Six Lamenters of the Past
*3 Opening Observations
Job
Hanna
Tamar
David
Shunamite
Wailing Women
Bible characters show the lament process in real time.
Let’s observe the triumphs and shortcomings of their laments.
Boulders & Backpacks
Gal. 6:2 | Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.
Gal 6:5 | For each will have to bear his own load.
How does one get help for a boulder that they minimize as a backpack?
How does one get help to put on a backpack that they think is a boulder?
Job 3:1-4 | After this Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth. (2) And Job said: (3) “Let the day perish on which I was born, and the night that said, ‘A man is conceived.’ (4) Let that day be darkness! May God above not seek it, nor light shine upon it.
Job 6:2-4 | "Oh, that my grief were fully weighed, And my calamity laid with it on the scales! (3) For then it would be heavier than the sand of the sea—Therefore my words have been rash. (4) For the arrows of the Almighty are within me; My spirit drinks in their poison; The terrors of God are arrayed against me.
Job
Job 3:1-4; 6:2-4
1 Samuel 1:5-10 | 5 But to Hannah he [her husband] would give a double portion, for he loved Hannah, although the LORD had closed her womb. 6 And her rival [her co-wife] also provoked her severely, to make her miserable, because the LORD had closed her womb.
7 So it was, year by year, when she went up to the house of the LORD, that she provoked her; therefore she wept and did not eat. 8 Then Elkanah her husband said to her, "Hannah, why do you weep? Why do you not eat? And why is your heart grieved? Am I not better to you than ten sons?"
Hannah
1 Samuel 1:5-10
(9) So Hannah arose after they had finished eating and drinking in Shiloh. Now Eli the priest was sitting on the seat by the doorpost of the tabernacle of the LORD.
(10) And she was in bitterness of soul, and prayed to the LORD and wept in anguish.
Hannah
1 Samuel 1:5-10
2 Samuel 13:17-20 | He [Amnon] called the young man who served him and said, “Put this woman [Tamar] out of my presence and bolt the door after her.” (18) Now she was wearing a long robe with sleeves, for thus were the virgin daughters of the king dressed. So his servant put her out and bolted the door after her.
Tamar
2 Samuel 13
(19) And Tamar put ashes on her head and tore the long robe that she wore. And she laid her hand on her head and went away, crying aloud as she went. (20) And her brother Absalom said to her, “Has Amnon your brother been with you? Now hold your peace, my sister. He is your brother; do not take this to heart.” So Tamar lived, a desolate woman, in her brother Absalom's house.
Tamar
2 Samuel 13
David
2 Samuel 15, 18; Psalm 3
2 Samuel 15:30 | But David went up the ascent of the Mount of Olives, weeping as he went, barefoot and with his head covered. And all the people who were with him covered their heads, and they went up, weeping as they went.
David
Psalm 3:1-3 | A Psalm of David
(*when he fled from Absalom his son.)
(1) O LORD, how many are my foes! Many are rising against me;
(2) many are saying of my soul,
“There is no salvation for him in God.” (3) But you, O LORD, are a shield about me, my glory, and the lifter of my head.
2 Samuel 15, 18; Psalm 3
David
2 Samuel 18:33 | And the king was deeply moved and went up to the chamber over the gate and wept. And as he went, he said, “O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! Would I had died instead of you, O Absalom, my son, my son!”
2 Samuel 15, 18; Psalm 3
Jeremiah 13:17 | But if you will not hear it, My soul will weep in secret for your pride; My eyes will weep bitterly And run down with tears, Because the LORD's flock has been taken captive.
Jeremiah
Shunamite Woman
2 Kings 4:22-24 | Then she called to her husband and said, “Send me one of the servants and one of the donkeys, that I may quickly go to the man of God and come back again.” (23) And he said, “Why will you go to him today? It is neither new moon nor Sabbath.” She said, “All is well.”
(24) Then she saddled the donkey, and she said to her servant, “Urge the animal on; do not slacken the pace for me unless I tell you.”
2 Kings 4
Shunamite Woman
2 Kings 4:25-26 | So she set out and came to [Elisha] at Mount Carmel. When the man of God saw her coming, he said to Gehazi his servant, “Look, there is the Shunammite. (26) Run at once to meet her and say to her, ‘Is all well with you? Is all well with your husband? Is all well with the child?’”
And she answered, “All is well.”
2 Kings 4
Shunamite Woman
2 Kings 4:27-30 | And when she came to the mountain to the man of God, she caught hold of his feet. And Gehazi came to push her away. But the man of God said, “Leave her alone, for she is in bitter distress, and the LORD has hidden it from me and has not told me.”
(28) Then she said, “Did I ask my lord for a son? Did I not say, ‘Do not deceive me?’” …
… (30) Then the mother of the child said, “As the LORD lives and as you yourself live, I will not leave you.” So he arose and followed her.
2 Kings 4
Shunamite Woman
2 Kings 4:36-37 | Then he summoned Gehazi and said, “Call this Shunammite.” So he called her. And when she came to him, he said, “Pick up your son.”
(37) She came and fell at his feet, bowing to the ground. Then she picked up her son and went out.
2 Kings 4
Wailing Women
Jeremiah 9:17-20 | Thus says the LORD of hosts: “Consider, and call for the mourning women to come; send for the skillful women to come; (18) let them make haste and raise a wailing over us, that our eyes may run down with tears and our eyelids flow with water. (19) For a sound of wailing is heard from Zion: ‘How we are ruined! We are utterly shamed, because we have left the land, because they have cast down our dwellings.’” (20) Hear, O women, the word of the LORD, and let your ear receive the word of his mouth; teach to your daughters a lament, and each to her neighbor a dirge.
Jeremiah 9:17-20
See also: 2 Sam. 1:24; 2 Chron. 35:25; Jer. 16:5-9; Ezek. 24:15-24; 32:16–18; Amos 5:16-17;
Luke 8:52; 23:27–28; cf. Matt. 11:17; perhaps even
Acts 9:37-39… consider Matthew 9:23-25
Psalm 77 Refrain
Psalm 77:9 | Has God forgotten to be gracious? Has he in anger shut up his compassion?” (10) Then I said, “I will appeal to this, to the years of the right hand of the Most High.” (11) I will remember the deeds of the LORD; yes, I will remember your wonders of old. (12) I will ponder all your work and meditate on your mighty deeds.
(16) When the waters saw you, O God, when the waters saw you, they were afraid; indeed, the deep trembled. (17) The clouds poured out water; the skies gave forth thunder; your arrows flashed on every side. (18) The crash of your thunder was in the whirlwind; your lightnings lighted up the world; the earth trembled and shook. (19) Your way was through the sea, your path through the great waters; yet your footprints were unseen. (20) You led your people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron.
God
cares
for
His
people.
Psalm 77:16 | When the waters saw you, O God, when the waters saw you, they were afraid; indeed, the deep trembled … (19) Your way was through the sea, your path through the great waters; yet your footprints were unseen…
We believe that God is great enough to harbor our little lives with all their grievances, and that he can lead us through darkness to the other side. �Then the light can begin to reveal dimly pinned to a cross the words of the apostle Peter, “cast all your anxiety upon him because he cares for you,” 1 Peter 5:7. (Waltke et al., The Psalms as Christian Lament: A Historical Commentary, p.5)