CHARGED POETRY - The book of Lamentations emerges from unspeakable suffering. As one commentator writes, they emerge from "a deep wound, a whirlpool of pain, toward which the images, metaphors, and voices of the poetry can only point."   [1] Rawness of hurt, stinging cries for help, these five poems speak for the millions of human beings around the globe who also suffer from violence, abandonment, imprisonment, displacement, and poverty.

CONTEXT - These five poems may come from the tragedy of the Babylonian invasion and subsequent deportation of Israel in 587 bce. However, the book does not allow enough internal evidence to point conclusively to that time. Freed from historical context allows this poem to speak to all the human tragedies that have befallen humanity throughout its checkered history, especially the horrific holocaust.

FROM DESPAIR TO HOPE - In the midst of crushing, shocking grief, the writer unexpectedly reverses the theme and instead recalls God’s loving kindness and steadfast love. Such words lifts the countenance and gives hope. The writer remembers those good qualities of God and that God is faithful-they are new every morning (v. 23).

Survival is a process-halting, reversible, yet ultimately trustworthy for those willing, at least, to look to, to wail at, to stand before the God who sees.

connections

The passage just prior to our lesson ends with, "my homelessness is wormwood and gall! My soul continually thinks of it and is bowed down within me" (v. 19-20). What images come to mind when you hear those words . . . a bitter encounter, a soured relationship? A depressing remembrance of a past tragedy?

In stark contrast, the writer moves to God’s faithfulness and steadfast love: that’s the turning point. Read these verses again and again, pausing between readings to meditate on what they mean for you today. Let the words seep deep within you until you feel ready, no matter what happens in your life, to proclaim, "But the LORD is good to those who wait for him." [2]

gambits

This lesson raises for some, the question of theodicy-how can such unimaginable suffering be allowed by a loving God?

You might begin a homily on this passage by acknowledging human pain as experienced in the bloodshed, the holocaust, ethnic cleansing, not to mention the nuclear and ecological threats that we face daily. Such evil may lead some to resist the belief that God is present and has steadfast love. Where faith in God is weak, these poems will not reassure!

But . . . the "strong man" of this book raises some of our post-modern questions: is God the source of or able to prevent historical tragedy? Is God self-limited in God’s involvement in the world? The strong man, like others of his time believes intrinsically two things about God: that God is the source of such tragedies, but also that God is good. Thus, he comes to the conclusion that the catastrophe must be the result of human sinfulness (3:39-41). Like Job, the strong man resists easy answers to the tragedies he has observed in his lifetime. Thus, he questions and doubts conventional wisdom about God.

In the end, "the strong man’s doubt may point to a God who suffers with, who empathizes with, who is pained by the destruction of the people. [3]

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[1] The New Interpreter’s Bible VI (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2001), page 1013.
[2] Spiritual Formation Bible (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1999), page 1081.
[3] Ibid, page 1058.