Lamentations 5
by Pastor David Groendyk

This book closes with the whole of the community crying out to God for restoration. These people have been brought very low, but it’s also brought them to the place where they need to be—a place of prayer. Let’s consider just the last four verses of this chapter and how it teaches us to cry out to God for mercy after being brought low by sin and suffering.

Verse 19 shows us that we ought to confess God’s everlasting kingship. It’s only in light of who God is that we can truly know ourselves. God is from everlasting to everlasting, he reigns over all people and all things, he is sovereign and all-powerful, and therefore he is our only hope. In our deepest despairs—whether it’s the throes of our own sin or some other hardship in your life—the bigness of God reminds us that he is the only one who can do anything about our problems. It is good and right to remember how big God is and to praise him for it in our prayers, not just to magnify God but also as a way of humbling ourselves before we make our requests. Do you spend time reflecting on and meditating on and reveling in God’s power and majesty as your everlasting king?

Verse 20 is a shockingly bold question, isn’t it? We’ve just confessed that our only hope is in God alone for salvation and relief and restoration, and we’ve admitted that we deserve the woe brought about by our own sin (vv. 16–17), so how can we ask the question, “Why do you forget us forever?” Isn’t this what our sins deserve? Isn’t that what this book is all about? But one of the beautifully shocking truths in Scripture is that, if we really are in a covenant relationship with God, we have the right to plead the covenant promises God has made to us. Deuteronomy 31:8, Joshua 1:5, 1 Chronicles 28:20, Psalm 94:14, and Hebrews 13:5 are just a few reminders of one of the privileges of being God’s special people: he will never leave us nor forsake us. We have the right to invoke that promise if we really are sons and daughters of the King whose Holy Spirit dwells inside of us. Don’t be shy about asking God for his own promises, especially if they involve forgiveness, cleansing, and restoration, as they are here.

Verse 21 is the request proper: Restore and renew! And these two imperatives get at the heart of confessing sin to God. “Restore” carries with it the idea of “turning around” or “returning”, while “renew” is basically what it sounds like—“to make new again”. If we really do want to be delivered from our sin, we need both restoration and renewal; in other words, we must metaphorically (and maybe sometimes literally) make a 180-degree turn away from our sin and toward God, and we need to be given a brand new life. That’s why Jesus calls being saved being “born again” in John 3. That’s why Paul calls being saved being raised from the dead in Ephesians 2. We can’t turn from our sin and live for God all on our own. We need God to bring us back to life himself. And this is true any time we fight sin as Christians. It is never in our own power that we put sin to death; it’s God himself working in us through his Holy Spirit. He gives us the energy and the power to be more Christ-like. Therefore, pray all the more earnestly that God would work in you to sanctify you.

Verse 22 is another case of Israel pleading God’s promises. God cannot remain angry with sons and daughters if in fact they really do belong to him. Fortunately, since we all live on this side of the cross, we see plainly the reason why this is the case. We have become the righteousness of God through Christ’s obedience given to us (2 Cor. 5:17). It is no longer we who live, but Christ who lives in us (Gal. 2:20). When God looks at us, he sees perfection. That’s not to say that our sin doesn’t matter. It most certainly does, and God is displeased with us when we do sin. But if you are struggling under the burden of your sin, remember that God’s wrath has been exhausted, and he is no longer “exceedingly angry” with you. Praise God that he so lovingly accomplishes salvation for us. At the end of a book filled with the horrors and consequences of sin, what a beautiful reminder of God’s deliverance.