Silence of the Lambs (7)
The Lord’s lovingkindnesses indeed never cease, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness. Lamentations 3:22-23 NASB
Faithfulness – We end at the beginning. This entire lament starts here, with a declaration of God’s faithfulness. But that’s what makes it so strange. Here, in the midst of a book of poems about the tragedy of Jerusalem’s destruction, is a shout of God’s unending compassion, ḥesed (in fact, multiple occasions of ḥesed) and faithfulness (ʾĕmûnâ). Here, in a poem about everything that has gone wrong, in a world destroyed by disobedience, the poet lauds God’s rāḥamay (compassions). How can this be?
It’s God who brings about this tragedy. It’s God who sends His people into captivity. It’s God who assists the Babylonians in the destruction of Jerusalem. How can the poet know all this and still extol His love, compassion, and faithfulness? Doesn’t it seem as though God’s actions speak just the opposite: wrath, vengeance, and judgment? It would be very difficult, I imagine, to sit on the hillside opposite the Eastern Gate, watch the city burn and its inhabitants being carried off to slavery, and pen words like these. If it were me, I suspect my poem would read more like an epitaph than a hymn of praise. I know the words that have formed themselves in my thoughts under far less traumatic circumstances, and I can assure you they were not paeans of praise. Why is this poet able to do something I can’t even pretend to mimic?
The answer, of course, is what we have already learned by doing backward exegesis. These two verses are not the beginning. They are the conclusion of the thoughts that come afterward. After the poet reflects on dûmām (alone), ki (since), ʿōl (yoke), tĕšûʿâ (salvation), dāraš (seek) and ḥēleq (portion), then he is able to speak about ḥesed, ʾĕmûnâ, and rāḥamay. Do you suppose it’s because until we have experienced real loss, real trauma, and tragedy, we really don’t know what ḥesed, ʾĕmûnâ, and rāḥamay are all about? It took the Babylonian captivity and the destruction of Israel’s civilization for the people to really understand the faithfulness of God. It took seventy years of slavery for them to understand His compassion. It took an enormous shock to their religious assumptions to understand what God means by ḥesed. Do you suppose we are capable of these great insights while we sit comfortably in front of our televisions?
Do you think that the real end of a life of praise must begin with the destruction of our expectations? Would you be willing if that were so?
Topical Index: ḥesed, ʾĕmûnâ, rāḥamay, Lamentations 3:22-23
