BibleProject | One Story That Leads to JesusSample

Today’s reading brings us to the last two poems of Lamentations. The fourth poem in the book follows the same design as the first two, a Hebrew acrostic poem with 22 verses. This poem draws a vivid contrast between Jerusalem in its glory days and the shattered shell of a city left behind after the siege.

In the final poem, the ordered acrostic structure we’ve seen in the rest of the book falls apart. There’s no alphabet pattern, just poetic chaos. The whole community pours out its grief before Yahweh in prayer: Don’t you see what’s happened to us? Can’t you do something?

The poem ends with a paradox. In the final lines of their prayer, the community praises Yahweh as the eternal king, then asks why God has forgotten about them. If Yahweh reigns over the universe, why do God’s covenant partners suffer and die? Have they been totally rejected?

It’s not a particularly satisfying conclusion to the book. But it is a conclusion that fits the human experience of suffering. Deep grief rarely comes to a tidy resolution. We can confess God’s goodness in the midst of our anguish and the next moment wonder if God has forsaken and forgotten us.

Like Job, the suffering community brings its anguish directly to Yahweh. The lament poems in the Bible—Lamentations, Job, many of the Psalms—show us that God honors the raw, honest wrestling of his people. In a broken world, prayers of tears and fury are every bit as faithful as songs of praise.

Reflection Questions

• Compare the descriptions of Israel’s suffering in today’s reading to the consequences of covenant disobedience in Leviticus 26:14-39. What parallels do you notice? According to Leviticus 26:40-45, what will happen to the Israelites after suffering these consequences if they decide to turn back to Yahweh? How might that passage offer hope for those suffering the results of rejecting God and feeling like their pain will never end?
• Review Obadiah 1:10-14 along with Psalm 137:7. What did the Edomites do to Jerusalem when Babylon invaded? How might this context help you understand Lamentations 4:21-22?