GREAT IS THY FAITHFULNESS!

Great Is Your Faithfulness

1 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.

7 He has walled me about so that I cannot escape;
    he has made my chains heavy;
8 though I call and cry for help,
    he shuts out my prayer;
9 he has blocked my ways with blocks of stones;
    he has made my paths crooked.

10 He is a bear lying in wait for me,
    a lion in hiding;
11 he turned aside my steps and tore me to pieces;
    he has made me desolate;
12 he bent his bow and set me
    as a target for his arrow.

13 He drove into my kidneys
    the arrows of his quiver;
14 I have become the laughingstock of all peoples,
    the object of their taunts all day long.
15 He has filled me with bitterness;
    he has sated me with wormwood.

16 He has made my teeth grind on gravel,
    and made me cower in ashes;
17 my soul is bereft of peace;
    I have forgotten what happiness^{1

3:17
Hebrew good} is;
18 so I say, “My endurance has perished;
    so has my hope from the LORD.”

19 Remember my affliction and my wanderings,
    the wormwood and the gall!
20 My soul continually remembers it
    and is bowed down within me.
21 But this I call to mind,
    and therefore I have hope:

22 The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases;^{2

3:22
Syriac, Targum; Hebrew Because of the steadfast love of the LORD, we are not cut off}
    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.

28 Let him sit alone in silence
    when it is laid on him;
29 let him put his mouth in the dust—
    there may yet be hope;
30 let him give his cheek to the one who strikes,
    and let him be filled with insults.

31 For the Lord will not
    cast off forever,
32 but, though he cause grief, he will have compassion
    according to the abundance of his steadfast love;
33 for he does not afflict from his heart
    or grieve the children of men.

34 To crush underfoot
    all the prisoners of the earth,
35 to deny a man justice
    in the presence of the Most High,
36 to subvert a man in his lawsuit,
    the Lord does not approve.

37 Who has spoken and it came to pass,
    unless the Lord has commanded it?
38 Is it not from the mouth of the Most High
    that good and bad come?
39 Why should a living man complain,
    a man, about the punishment of his sins?

40 Let us test and examine our ways,
    and return to the LORD!
41 Let us lift up our hearts and hands
    to God in heaven:
42 “We have transgressed and rebelled,
    and you have not forgiven.

43 You have wrapped yourself with anger and pursued us,
    killing without pity;
44 you have wrapped yourself with a cloud
    so that no prayer can pass through.
45 You have made us scum and garbage
    among the peoples.

46 All our enemies
    open their mouths against us;
47 panic and pitfall have come upon us,
    devastation and destruction;
48 my eyes flow with rivers of tears
    because of the destruction of the daughter of my people.

49 My eyes will flow without ceasing,
    without respite,
50 until the LORD from heaven
    looks down and sees;
51 my eyes cause me grief
    at the fate of all the daughters of my city.

52 I have been hunted like a bird
    by those who were my enemies without cause;
53 they flung me alive into the pit
    and cast stones on me;
54 water closed over my head;
    I said, ‘I am lost.’

55 I called on your name, O LORD,
    from the depths of the pit;
56 you heard my plea, ‘Do not close
    your ear to my cry for help!’
57 You came near when I called on you;
    you said, ‘Do not fear!’

58 You have taken up my cause, O Lord;
    you have redeemed my life.
59 You have seen the wrong done to me, O LORD;
    judge my cause.
60 You have seen all their vengeance,
    all their plots against me.

61 You have heard their taunts, O LORD,
    all their plots against me.
62 The lips and thoughts of my assailants
    are against me all the day long.
63 Behold their sitting and their rising;
    I am the object of their taunts.

64 You will repay them,^{3

3:64
Or Repay them} O LORD,
    according to the work of their hands.
65 You will give them^{4

3:65
Or Give them} dullness of heart;
    your curse will be^{5

3:65
Or place your curse} on them.
66 You will pursue them^{6

3:66
Or Pursue them} in anger and destroy them
    from under your heavens, O LORD.”^{7

3:66
Syriac (compare Septuagint, Vulgate); Hebrew the heavens of the LORD}

Footnotes

[1] 3:17 Hebrew good
[2] 3:22 Syriac, Targum; Hebrew Because of the steadfast love of the LORD, we are not cut off
[3] 3:64 Or Repay them
[4] 3:65 Or Give them
[5] 3:65 Or place your curse
[6] 3:66 Or Pursue them
[7] 3:66 Syriac (compare Septuagint, Vulgate); Hebrew the heavens of the LORD

This passage is one of my favorites. Right in the midst of despair, Jeremiah remembers the source of his hope: the faithful love of the LORD! One of the promises of Scripture states: "And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose." (Romans 8:28) You don't have to be a Bible scholar to know that "all things" in the original Greek means all things.

One of my all-time favorite hymns is the classic, "Great is Thy Faithfulness." It was written in the early 20th century and was inspired by Lamentations 3:22-23, which was also a favorite passage of its author, Thomas Chisholm. You might think it was born in reaction to God showing up in some extraordinary circumstance by some "super saint," but, in fact, it was originally a poem written because of the author's realization that, regardless of his circumstances, "morning by morning, new mercies I see."

Chisholm was an ordinary insurance salesman who wrote poems, the vast majority of which no one would ever read. However, he sent one to a friend who then set it to music, and the rest is history. From early in his life to its close, Chisholm suffered from debilitating health problems, but he nevertheless acknowledged in his writings "the unfailing faithfulness of a covenant-keeping God and that He has given me many wonderful displays of His providing care, for which I am filled with astonishing gratefulness." Can we say the same?

I love the dramatic irony: An honest, hurting man who sold insurance found his assurance not in men, earthly provision, or circumstances, but in Christ and in the gospel. We simply don't know the impact our lives may have!

The gospel is the declaration of God's love and faithfulness to us through Christ. It doesn't rest on our faithfulness, but His! Truly, we are ordinary people who serve an extraordinary God. Like Jeremiah, let's remember that even when we seem to have lost hope, our Hope has not lost us!

1. What circumstances have caused you to forget your hope?

2. How does the hope of the gospel and of God's faithfulness to you help you respond to life's curve balls?

3. In what ways can you creatively set up reminders of God's enduring love and faithfulness to you?

WEEKLY FAMILY ACTIVITY

LAMENTATIONS 3 – EZEKIEL 2 (JUNE 20-24)

Read Lamentations 3:19-33.

What do you learn about God's love in verse 22? What do you learn about His mercy for each day in verse 23?

In verse 27 you see the word yoke. Do you know what a yoke is? Look up on the Internet a picture of an ox in a yoke and talk about what the yoke does for the animal. If the animal tries to go its own way, what does the yoke do?

Why is it important for us to submit or to live under the yoke of God's guidance? From what you learned in verses 22 and 23, why can you trust God's yoke?

ACTIVITY: Let's simulate what it is like to be led by a yoke. Set up an obstacle course in your house or backyard. Have each person get a jacket from his closet. The first person to go through the obstacle course should put his jacket on backwards without his arms in the sleeves. Then blindfold him. Now have another member of the family guide him through the obstacle course without talking. She will take the sleeves behind the "walker" and will use them to guide him through. As you are doing it, talk about God as our guide and how we need to be paying attention to Him to recognize His efforts to guide us along the right paths.