Bible Soap

Scripture

Lamentations 1:20

“See, O LORD, how distressed I am! 
       I am in torment within, 
       and in my heart I am disturbed, 
       for I have been most rebellious. 
       Outside, the sword bereaves; 
       inside, there is only death.”

Observation

Here the writer of Lamentations (many think this is Jeremiah, who also wrote the book of prophecy that bears his name) is speaking from the point of view of the city of Jerusalem which has been left desolated by the invasion of the Babylonians and their taking its inhabitants into exile. The verse jumped out at me because of its utter despair (no different in that respect to many of the verses around it), especially in the last couplet – death is in everything, surrounding the city/writer, and the outside/inside comparison works on several levels.

Application

The Bible isn’t big on despair on the whole. Joy and praise feature much more highly in its pages, but the great thing is that that doesn’t mean that despair and hopelessness are not allowed to be present. The inclusion of books like Lamentations, and the Psalms of lament, shows us that God is not so small as to not be able to handle those kinds of emotions, or anger at Him, or disappointment in what He has or hasn’t done. And what we see in Lamentations is the grief of the nation’s destruction leading people to a repentant response, understanding their own guilt and doing something about it. Though it is rare that I personally feel angry at God, or blame him for disappointments in my life, in the past year I have spent some time shouting at Him about certain issues, and I know that as long as I don’t stay in that place, that kind of response is fine.

Prayer

Thank you Lord for the example of these writers who trusted you enough to be able to write their true feelings down; I pray that I can always be honest with you, especially as there’s no point doing otherwise!