Turn Thou Unto Us

The Bible Dictionary says this about the Book of Lamentations: “The poems are acrostic, Lam. 1–2; 4 having each 22 verses beginning with the successive letters of the alphabet; Lam. 3 has 66 verses, every three beginning each with one letter.” Of course they aren’t acrostics for us in English but they were in Hebrew, a language which has 22 verses. In using this form, perhaps Jeremiah was trying to emphasize the comprehensiveness of his suffering and lament: he could express his feelings of sorrow starting with every letter of the alphabet. Or as we might say it in English, he had suffered everything from A to Z. He felt that his mourning was indeed great, writing: “Behold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is done unto me, wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger” (Lamentations 1:12). We get a glimpse of the comprehensiveness of his suffering in these words: “Mine eyes do fail with tears, my bowels are troubled, my liver is poured upon the earth, for the destruction of the daughter of my people” (Lamentations 2:11). He was overcome with grief at the awful destruction of Jerusalem that he witnessed, and in these chapters he poured out his heart unto God.

               In the book The Brothers Kamarazov, a grieving woman came to the celebrated priest in the monastery to discuss with him the death of her son. He gave her this counsel, “It is Rachel of old, weeping for her children, and will not be comforted because they are not. Such is the lot set on earth for you mothers. Be not comforted. Consolation is not what you need. Weep and be not consoled, but weep. Only every time that you weep be sure to remember that your little son is one of the angels of God, that he looks down from there at you and sees you, and rejoices at your tears, and points at them to the Lord God; and a long while yet will you keep that great mother’s grief. But it will turn in the end into quiet joy, and your bitter tears will be only tears of tender sorrow that purifies the heart and delivers it from sin.” To those who may be suffering with extreme difficulties I believe his invitation is a powerful one: weep and grieve and don’t hold it back, but those moments of sorrow will lead us healing and purification.

               At the end of Lamentations the prophet gave this final complaint: “Thou, O Lord, remainest for ever; thy throne from generation to generation. Wherefore dost thou forget us for ever, and forsake us so long time? Turn thou us unto thee, O Lord, and we shall be turned; renew our days as of old” (Lamentations 5:19-21). Understandably he felt that the Lord had totally abandoned them, but He had not. And, as he prayed, the Jews did return to Jerusalem and they were renewed as in days of old about 70 years later. Perhaps at some point Jeremiah found solace in this promise of his prophet predecessor: “Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee” (Isaiah 49:15). We have the Lord’s promise that even though we will pass through trials, He can never forget us and He did not forget Jeremiah or His people.