Introduction

Ever been up against a wall—progress comes to a halt, going nowhere, stuck? Maybe you’re single with no prospects for a relationship, looking for work, desperate for change, stuck in a job you can’t stand, waiting for God to do something.

Here’s the real question for a lot of people—Why does it seem like, when I need God the most, he’s not there?

The book of Lamentations is a collection of 5 poems expressing grief, confession, and hope in response to total devastation, locked in a spiritual dungeon. Remember how we explained that the poems are all acrostic poems? Each line begins with a letter from the Hebrew alphabet, which has 22 letters, so each chapter has 22 verses—except for this one. This chapter has 66 verses: it still goes through the Hebrew alphabet, but in this chapter, each letter of the alphabet gets 3 lines. It makes this chapter the artistic highlight, the climax of the message. And what is this chapter about? Hope. God’s mercies. His goodness.

Every Morning

Here’s how it goes, every Sunday morning. The alarm is going to go off at 6:00, but it’s actually 5:47, because Kacy keeps her clock set 13 minutes ahead, just to add stress to her own life. She turns it off, lets the dog out, and moves into the shower. I steal her pillow, flip it over to the cool side, and lay on my stomach for exactly 30 minutes. At 6:30, I get up. I go into the kitchen and pour exactly one cup of Cinnamon Toast Crunch into a bowl with skim milk. I pour half a glass of Tropicana orange juice, take a multi-vitamin, a Glucosamine tablet, and an allergy pill. I review the morning sermon as I eat my cereal. At 7:00, I let the dog back in and go get in the shower as Kacy comes out. I shower, shave, and dress for church. At 7:40 I look at the clock and think of Ron Duvall (He used to always be at church when I would arrive, waiting to pray with me, so I’d look at the clock at 7:40 and think, Ron’s waiting for me. I still do, though he’s been gone 8 years.) I step back into the bathroom, where Kacy is finishing her hair, and I ask her how I look. She says, Fine. We grab our bags and drive to church.

We are all, to a certain degree, creatures of habit. We like to have things predictable, in their place, as we have come to expect. This text tells us something vitally important, that of all the things that are utterly predictable, the most important is this: Every morning you awake, God will be there for you.

But why doesn’t it always feel like he’s there? Obviously, this is a real, nagging question for people. Why does it seem like you are not always there for me, Lord? Where are you, God, when I am in trouble? It bubbles up from the depths of our hearts; we knock on heaven’s door until our knuckles bleed. Why doesn’t God always seem to answer us?Sometimes, it feels like God has abandoned us—or even worse, like God has turned against us. How?

The Spiritual Dungeon

(7) “He has walled me in, and I cannot escape.”

Look again at this text. It’s true that we may sometimes honestly feel that God has left us in a spiritual dungeon. You may sometimes feel that God has turned against you, but it will never be so. Jeremiah says also in this same passage, “His love never ends … great is his faithfulness.” If God never leaves me, why can he sometimes seem far away? There are several reasons:

Some people do not know God at all. They do not recognize or respond to his presence. (Ephesians 2.13), “Once you were far away from God, but now you have been brought near to him through the blood of Christ." God has come most near us in the person of Christ; he calls out to save us through Christ. Knowing God’s love and closeness begins with knowing Christ personally, daily.

Some people know God but prefer to keep him at a distance. A distant God, you imagine, will not get in the way of your life as you intend to live it; he will not command obedience or demand sacrifice. You keep God at a comfortable distance, then in time of trouble, wonder why you do not feel him close, why you feel so inept at prayer. Be not surprised, and do not blame God. He’ll never leave you, but he may give you a sense of distance so you learn to reach for him.

Some people imagine God is not there, because no one else is. People will forsake you, and the feeling of being forgotten by others adds to one’s sense of being forgotten by God. Do all you can for the people within your reach so that they might never feel that way.

Forgetting and Remembering

(20) “I will never forget this awful time.” The memory of grief and suffering will be a part of you, perhaps as long as you live. Some things are simply impossible to forget.

(21) “I recall this to my heart, so I dare to hope.” Some things you must make yourself remember: God loves me … He is faithful to me … His mercies are new every morning. Every morning you awake, God will be there—that part is predictable. But God himself is not predictable. Every day with God is an adventure in discovering new mercies. You must learn that God will work in whatever way he pleases, and that his ways will often defy our expectations. If we only see the stuff God does in the ways we expect, we will miss all the stuff God does in ways we never expected.

Maybe in the mystery of what God is doing in the world, it is necessary for you to wait. Obedience to God’s will demands patience, submission, faith. (26) “It is good to wait quietly for salvation from the LORD.” What God has for you at the end of this waiting is far greater than what you might grasp now for yourself.

Conclusion

We like to have things predictable, in their place, as we have come to expect. This text tells us something vitally important, that of all the things that are utterly predictable, the most important is this: Every morning you awake, God will be there for you.

Questions for Discussion

1. How would you describe your own ability to wait? How long are you willing to wait to be seated at a restaurant? How do you pass the time in a doctor's waiting room? What feelings do you experience, the longer you wait?

2. Who is doing the speaking in the opening verses of today's passage? How has God treated them? How are they feeling? Is it good for the soul to voice such bitter thoughts? What are the dangers of being so honest? Have you ever felt some of the things expressed in verses 1 to 9? Were you free and able to pour out your feelings to God? What kept you from giving up completely during that awful time?

3. Within the space of a few lines, this passage says both that God is like a bear ready to attack and that his compassions never fail. How do you account for the tension between these simultaneous declarations? Pastor Tim suggests 3 reasons why God can seem far away: What are they? How do you understand the idea of being far away from God in Ephesians 2:13? Explain why Pastor Tim would say that certain believers actually prefer keeping God at a distance.

4. Pastor Tim says, "Some people imagine God is not there, because no one else is." Why does the sense of being forgotten by others add to a person's sense of being forgotten by God? Is there anybody in your life right now, who may feel so abandoned? What might you do to remind them that you are there for them, and God is, too?

5. Verse 20 emphasizes the way bitter memories linger. Is it always a bad thing to remember your trials and suffering? Which do you find easier to remember: your great suffering or God's great love? Look back at verse 21. How would you define the word dare, and what does hope have to do with daring? If daring involves a certain risk, what must a person risk in order to find hope? In what (or whom) must we learn to anchor our hope? Are there any other options or sources of true hope?

6. In verses 22 and 23, the Hebrew word translated mercies literally means "compassions." What beautiful gift of God do these words try to convey? What does it mean to say his mercies are "new every morning"? In what way are God's daily mercies predictable? In what ways are they unpredictable? Why does God not simply provide for you the same things in the same way every single day? Explain what Pastor Tim means when he says, "If we only see the stuff God does in the ways we expect, we will miss all the stuff God does in the ways we never expected."

7. In verse 26, why does it say that it is good to wait on God? For what things from God are you waiting right now? What mercies and compassions has the Lord shown you in the course of this very day? How might you show your gratitude to him before the day is done? What new mercies are you hoping for tomorrow? How can group members support and strengthen you in the waiting?