Finding the �Hidden Hope of the �Lament Scriptures
Series Outline
Lament Series:
Lesson 1: Lament in the Scriptures (Expository)
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Why study this?
Narrative
Law
Wisdom / Poetry
Prophecy
Epistle
Lament
Consider Some of the Teachings of the New Testament
The Five Stages of Grief (A Modern Explanation)
Western culture can be unhelpful to Christian lament.
We study this because the discipline of lament is foundational to living in a world of sin and sorrow.
Lament in the Psalms
Psalm 13:1-6 �(1) How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? (2) How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day? How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?��(3) Consider and answer me, O LORD my God; light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death, (4) lest my enemy say, “I have prevailed over him,” lest my foes rejoice because I am shaken.��(5) But I have trusted in your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation. (6) I will sing to the LORD, because he has dealt bountifully with me.
How long?
Why?
I have my limits
I must have reasons
Lament in the Prophets
חבקּוּק chăbaqqûq
embrace
Habakkuk 1:1 (ESV) | The oracle that Habakkuk the prophet saw.
Habakkuk 1:1 (KJV) The burden which Habakkuk the prophet did see.
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What was Habakkuk’s burden?
What must Habakkuk “embrace”?
Injustice AND justice
God’s timing.
(2) O LORD, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not hear? Or cry to you “Violence!” and you will not save?
(3) Why do you make me see iniquity, and why do you idly look at wrong? Destruction and violence are before me; strife and contention arise.
(4) So the law is paralyzed, and justice never goes forth. For the wicked surround the righteous; so justice goes forth perverted.
How long?
Why?
I have my limits
I must have reasons
Habakkuk is instructed… to turn his eyes away from his own little world and watch God at work on the wider canvas. Like us, the prophet has become preoccupied, if not obsessed, with his own situation. (Motyer, p.215)
(5) “Look among the nations, and see; wonder and be astounded. For I am doing a work in your days that you would not believe if told.
1:12-17 Are you not from everlasting, O LORD my God, my Holy One? We shall not die.
O LORD, you have ordained them as a judgment, and you, O Rock, have established them for reproof. (13) You who are of purer eyes than to see evil and cannot look at wrong,
why do you idly look at traitors and remain silent when the wicked swallows up the man more righteous than he?
3:17 Though… [Even if]…
the fig tree should not blossom, nor
fruit be on the vines,
the produce of the olive fail
and the fields yield no food,
the flock be cut off from the fold and
there be no herd in the stalls,
18 yet I will rejoice in the LORD;
[yet] I will take joy in the God of my salvation.
19 GOD, the Lord, is my strength;
he makes my feet like the deer’s;
he makes me tread on my high places.
How could Habakkuk embrace such a tragedy?
חבקּוּק chăbaqqûq
embrace
3:17 Though… [Even if]…
the fig tree should not blossom, nor
fruit be on the vines,
the produce of the olive fail
and the fields yield no food,
the flock be cut off from the fold and
there be no herd in the stalls,
18 yet I will rejoice in the LORD;
[yet] I will take joy in the God of my salvation.
19 GOD, the Lord, is my strength;
he makes my feet like the deer’s;
he makes me tread on my high places.
Lament in Lamentations
How long?
Why?
I have my limits
I must have reasons
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.
1:1-3 | 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.
(2) She weeps bitterly in the night, with tears on her cheeks; among all her lovers she has none to comfort her; all her friends have dealt treacherously with her; they have become her enemies.
The Nation is Personified
1:8 Jerusalem sinned grievously; therefore she became filthy; all who honored her despise her, for they have seen her nakedness; she herself groans and turns her face away.
1:9 Her uncleanness was in her skirts; she took no thought of her future; therefore her fall is terrible; she has no comforter.
Lady Zion reflects on why tragedy happened
Lam 3:1-6 | I am the man who has seen affliction under the rod of his wrath; (2) he has driven and brought me into darkness without any light; (3) surely against me he turns his hand again and again the whole day long. (4) He has made my flesh and my skin waste away; he has broken my bones; (5) he has besieged and enveloped me with bitterness and tribulation; (6) he has made me dwell in darkness like the dead of long ago.
Lam 3:22-27 | The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; (23) they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. (24) “The LORD is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.”
(25) The LORD is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him.
(26) It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD. (27) It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.
Lament becomes the seed bed of hope.
(3:24) “The LORD is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.”
15 The joy of our hearts has ceased; our dancing has been turned to mourning. 16 The crown has fallen from our head; woe to us, for we have sinned! 17 For this our heart has become sick, for these things our eyes have grown dim, 18 for Mount Zion which lies desolate; jackals prowl over it.
19 But you, O LORD, reign forever; your throne endures to all generations.
Lam 5:19-22 | But you, O LORD, reign forever; your throne endures to all generations. (20)Why do you forget us forever, why do you forsake us for so many days? (21) Restore us to yourself, O LORD, that we may be restored! Renew our days as of old —
22) unless you have utterly rejected us, and you remain exceedingly angry with us.
Conclusion
When we lament (in a context of personal sin)
Matthew 5:4 | Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted
Faith
Belief
Repentance
Confession
Baptism
Faithful Living
*it better include
lament!
*it better include
lament!
*it better include
lament!
When we lament (in a context without personal sin)
2 Corinthians 1:3-4 | Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.�
Lament is the seed bed of hope.
(Lam 3:24) “The LORD is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.”
But what exactly is lament?!?
Series Outline