The following is the manuscript of the sermon preached last Sunday by Jase Hammock. You can read more from Jase at his blog here.

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In the introduction sermon, I made the point that Lamentations 1:1 and all of chapter 1 highlights the loss of Eden. A part of that loss was the loss of the image of God, or, more appropriately, the loss of an understanding of being image bearers and the loss of the ability to function as image bearers. Throughout the Old Testament, we can see the Lord working to bring back, to restore, His people to Himself. To re-Edenize them. Lamentations 5 shows a path of reformation—not through removing our discomfort and dissonance but by using the tension. We get a glimpse into the truth that everything the Lord does is to redirect our attention and reform our affections to depend upon and delight in Him. Another way to put it: the redemptive plan of the Lord is to glorify Himself by producing within His people the image of His Son. He does this through prayer, His people, embracing productive struggle, and the proclamation of His Word.

Every text has a structure. Every book of the Bible has a structure. This structure will reveal an emphasis, and that emphasis must shape our message. It’s important to remember that chapters 1-4 are structured as acrostics and with parallelism that uses each letter of the Hebrew alphabet. The use of an acrostic, some kind of rhythmic meter and the Hebrew alphabet (something familiar to them) is a way to bring order from chaos and give comfort and clarity to the grieving congregation. Yet, chapter 5 breaks the familiar and comforting order. It’s a free verse poem. It’s as if the poet and people of God have been trying to hold things together, but now their grief breaks back into chaos. They are undone. They are waiting in unsettling wonderment, as we can see from verse 22: “unless You have utterly rejected us, and You remain exceedingly angry with us.” This creates dissonance.

Dissonance can be described as creating a cacophony of harsh sounds and uneven rhythms to convey discomfort and tension. Another definition is that dissonance “means a lack of harmony or agreement between things. In poetry, [it] refers to a disruption in the harmonic sounds or rhythm of a verse. It is a deliberate awkwardness.” This is important to understanding the mysterious ways of God. This whole chapter is filled with dissonance or a lack of agreement. The first is the plea to “remember.”

Prayer

There’s a Matt Maher song, made famous by Chris Tomlin, titled “Your Grace is Enough.” The pre-chorus sings, “Remember Your people/Remember Your children/Remember Your promise, Oh God.” After singing it in high school one Sunday morning, another student asked me, “that song doesn’t make sense. Why would we tell God what to do? Why would we tell God to remember us?” This is a good question when considering that we believe the Lord knows all things and already sees all things, but on top of that, for the context of Lamentations, we are told it was the Lord who accomplished this pain and disgrace. This creates even more confusion and disagreement. Let us mine for gold a little deeper.

It is said that this word, in Hebrew, translated to “remember” has a layered meaning. It can mean “focusing your attention on something in order to act.” It is used in the fourth Commandment for humans to “Remember the Sabbath.” It is also used for the Lord.

Genesis 8:1, “But God remembered Noah and all the beasts and all the livestock that were with him in the ark. And God made a wind blow over the earth…” Exodus 2:23-25, “During those many days the king of Egypt died, and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God. And God heard their groaning, and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.” In both of these, the remembering of the Lord is not indicating He forgot something or someone, but it is Him directing His attention to His people and acting on their behalf in connection with His covenant. Then, we see this same language and idea in Leviticus. 

But if they confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their fathers in their treachery that they committed against me, and also in walking contrary to me, so that I walked contrary to them and brought them into the land of their enemies—if then their uncircumcised heart is humbled and they make amends for their iniquity, then I will remember my covenant with Jacob, and I will remember my covenant with Isaac and my covenant with Abraham, and I will remember the land. But I will for their sake remember the covenant with their forefathers, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations, that I might be their God: I am the Lord.” These are the statutes and rules and laws that the Lord made between himself and the people of Israel through Moses on Mount Sinai.

‭‭Leviticus‬ ‭26‬:‭40‬-‭42‬, ‭45‬-‭46‬ ‭ESV‬‬

Notice the covenantal language again. These are the words of the Lord to His people as a warning but also as a promise of His mercy and faithfulness to His people and Himself.

Therefore, this prayer in verse one is their hearts being aligned with the heart and will of God. They are trying to cash in on the promises of God. They are holding the Lord to His word. We have a model of how to pray in a way aligned with the will of God when we have sinned and feel lost, but we also have a mandate to pray and hold the Lord to His word, “7 “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. 9 Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? 11 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!” Notice, again, the emphasis on the character of God. He is a good Father who delights in His children calling out to Him what He has already said to us.

“Oh, what peace we often forfeit, Oh, what needless pain we bear, all because we do not carry everything to God in prayer!” I wonder: how often does our reformed theology hinder us from hard-fought, heart-felt prayers? Doctrinal clarity should not dampen or stifle passionate prayer. Quite the opposite! Proper theology is the pathway to proper living. The sovereignty and omniscience of God is to be an open door to our gracious Father willing to help us navigate our own ignorance, doubts and confusion. For the Israelites and Jeremiah, this covenantal knowledge of God was an invitation. So, they lay it all out, but notice the pronouns.

The People of God

Us. We. Our. This is a joint effort. Pursuing the Lord for restoration requires unity. Our sanctification requires the whole church. When explaining the restoration of the image of God, Joel Beeke asserts, “This is no individualistic, private holiness, but a life of unity and peace as the ‘one body’ of Christ, ‘for we are members one of another” (p. 171, Vol. 2 of R.S.T.) Maybe even better is Sam Emadi’s words about the use of metaphors in the Bible, 

“The Bible doesn’t simply command us to join a church—it does something far better. It unfurls the relationship between the church and its members with a series of metaphors that shape our identity and challenge our near constant sinful inclination to individualism, self-sufficiency, pride, and I-got-this-ness. If the Bible simply said, “join a church,” we could treat membership like checking a box on a to do list. But by portraying the church and its members as a body, a temple, a flock, and a family, the Bible forces us not only to join a church but to consider how well our lives fit with that biblical imagery.” 

How well does your life fit with the biblical imagery? Simply showing up on Sunday morning or Wednesday night is not sufficient for sharing one another’s burdens. What does this look like?

It starts with taking church membership seriously. Being a member of a church is not simply attending. This may look like showing up an hour earlier on Sunday morning to pray with others. This can look like being committed to a Wednesday night Community Group. This could look like making it a priority to not be out late Saturday night but instead preparing for the Lord’s Day by having a meal with others in the church. This could look like, as the disciples in Acts 2:42-46, gathering with other Christians in your house or out in the community. 

The point is that we now center our lives around the local church instead of our preferences, hobbies, job, children’s extracurricular activities, or, even, our biological families. Remember, the redemptive plan of the Lord is to glorify Himself by remaking us into the image of His Son. He does this through prayer and His people. Next is productive struggle through the examination of their ways.

Productive Struggle

You would think, “Okay. We get it. You have sinned. You’re in a horrible condition. Why mourn even more?” We have a tendency to rush through the pain or try to get a quick fix. Within the education field, there’s this concept called “productive struggle.”

Productive struggle can be defined as “the process of grappling with difficult tasks and persisting through obstacles to achieve mastery, productive struggle is not merely a hurdle to overcome but a cornerstone of academic growth and personal development.” This can apply to any field that requires learning and progress. 

Essentially, there is a need for healthy doubt or feeling incompetent that is needed to grow. Like letting my son learn how to cast out his own fishing line and sometimes twisting the line, or letting our children fall and get frustrated when learning how to ride a bike. To put it in Gen Z terms, “Let ‘em cook.” Paul learned this when he cried out to the Lord three times about a thorn in his flesh, and how did the Lord respond? “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” ‭‭(2 Corinthians‬ ‭12‬:‭9‬ ‭ESV‬). As Charles Spurgeon once said, “The holier a man becomes, the more he mourns over the unholiness that remains in him.”

As the people of God continue to restate their pain and have remorse over their grace, their vision is being dialed in to see reality more clearly. It’s like the Lord uses pain, discomfort, and honest examination as an eye doctor asking us, “One or two? Two or three?” Once we see ourselves as we truly are, that opens the door to seeing God as He truck is. God is God, and we are not. Remember, everything the Lord does is to redirect our attention and reshape our affections to depend upon and delight in Him.

I think of an old SkitGuys video. It’s one of their most famous ones titled, “God’s Chisel.” It’s a wonderful analogy of how the Lord is progressively chiseling or modeling to look more like His Son. Here’s a key to embracing progressive struggle in our sanctification and pursuit of holiness: recovery and restoration doesn’t happen overnight. Healing doesn’t happen in one counseling session or one lament session, or as the Roman poet Ovid said, “Dripping water doesn’t create a hole in a rock through force but persistence.” What does this look like?

First, this is practiced through daily intake of God’s Word. As we sit in front of the mirror of the Lord’s statutes, pray for the Lord to search and know us (Ps. 139:23-25), the two-edged sword will discern our thoughts and intentions (Heb. 4:12). Second, we see in the model of the lamenters in Lamentations 5 the power of testimony. A part of our testimony is remembering the bad parts. It is a good habit to regularly share with someone or write out what the Lord has saved us from and what He is saving us from.

I would add to Spurgeon’s quote, that not only do we come to see how unholy we are but the more we progress in our examination of ourselves, the more we rejoice at the holiness and love of our Lord and Savior. This happens through the Word of the Lord. In this larger passage—verses 2-18–we also see the proclamation of God’s Word as true.

Proclamation of His Word: Reign and Restoration

Take time to read through Leviticus 26. You will see that the Lord declares a warning to His people. If they don’t keep their ways pure by guarding it according to His word, then He will discipline them with all kinds of curses. The curses and discipline He warns is essentially everything listed in Lamentations as what has befallen on them. They are honestly examining their ways. They proclaim the hard truths of God’s Word about their sin and rejection of Him. They are in agreement with the Lord that He is true to His word. 

More than that, though, we see it is again the knowledge of God and His character that creates the tension and dissonance. Look at verses 16-19. They see their disgrace, but they are holding on to what they know or believe about God, and this causes them to have raw, honest questions. They are able to agree with the psalmist in Psalm 119:71, “It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn Your statutes.”

Is it not also the knowledge of God and His character that is keeping them rooted and grounded? The fact that they know the Lord is eternal and has made these covenantal promises to not forsake or reject forever is what keeps them coming back and asking these questions. The proclamation of God’s Word is what is redirecting their attention and reshaping their affections. As Mark Dever and Paul Alexander state, “Preaching the content and intent of God’s Word is what unleashes the power of God on the people of God, because God’s power for building His people is in His word, particularly as we find it in the gospel. Therefore, a healthy church has a primary diet of expositional preaching.” To put it simply, our desire to know the will of God and be restored into the image of His Son is satisfied in the discipline of delighting in His law. 

Ultimately, it is the Word of the Lord and their knowledge of Him that gives them the light of hope. As Calvin teaches, “When we concentrate on the present, nothing but adversity clouds our eyes; the remedy is to raise our eyes to God, for no matter how terrible things are in this world, he remains the same.” We primarily do this through His words, preserved for us in the Bible.

Hope in the Dissonance

But what’s up with this ending? “…unless You have utterly rejected us, and You remain exceedingly angry with us.” This is another element of dissonance. Remember, every text has a structure. Every book of the Bible has a structure. This structure will reveal an emphasis, and that emphasis must shape our message. The ESV Study Bible explains, “Chapter 5 is to the community what chapter 3 was for the individual, in that the whole community has come to accept what the individual in chapter 3 advised.” And what did the poet advise in chapter 3? Verses 25-29, “The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul who seeks Him. It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord. It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth. Let him sit alone in silence when it is laid on him; let him put his mouth to the dust–there may yet be hope;” But for how long? The Lord ended up allowing some Israelites to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the walls and the temple. Yet, there comes 400 years of silence. God’s presence seemed to be gone. Israel fell to the Romans. Where would hope come from?

William Cowper was a hymn writer who lived at the same time as John Newton, the hymn writer of Amazing Grace. Cowper wrote a poem that speaks to the wrestling of God’s mysterious ways and wrestling with the darkness under which we live. It goes like this: 

God moves in a mysterious way
His wonders to perform;
He plants His footsteps in the sea,
And rides upon the storm.
Deep in unfathomable mines
Of never-failing skill,
He treasures up His bright designs,
And works His sovereign will.
Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take,
The clouds ye so much dread
Are big with mercy, and shall break
In blessings on your head.
Judge not the Lord by feeble sense,
But trust Him for His grace;
Behind a frowning providence
He hides a smiling face.
His purposes will ripen fast,
Unfolding every hour;
The bud may have a bitter taste,
But sweet will be the flower.
Blind unbelief is sure to err,
And scan His work in vain:
God is His own interpreter,
And He will make it plain.

How? How did the Lord make it plain to the Israelites that He had not utterly rejected them? How did He make it plain that, as Lamentations 3:31-33 teaches, “the Lord will not cast off forever, but, though He cause grief, He will have compassion according to the abundance of His steadfast love; for He does not afflict from His heart or grieve the children of men”?

Even more than Gandalf the Gray, the Lord is neither late nor early, but “when the fullness of time had come,” on a starry night in Bethlehem, the city of David, “God sent forth His Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.” “Woe to us, for we have sinned,” but praise the Lord that He reigns forever and His throne endures to all generations. Praise the Lord that “There is a fountain filled with blood/Drawn from Immanuel’s veins;/And sinners, plunged beneath that flood,/Lose all their guilty stains.” Praise the Lord that on a Sunday morning long ago, “the angel said to the women, ‘Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, for He has risen, as He said. Come, see the place where He lay.” This is where the hope comes from, and this is how the Lord made it plain. What is our response now? Fervent prayer, devotion to the people of God, embrace the productive struggle, and…

Here’s the reality: we are also still in a waiting period. God sent His Son, and Jesus died and rose from the grave. Before His crucifixion, Jesus told His disciples, “In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to Myself, that where I am you may be also.” What does He expect us to do in the meantime? 

As the Lord who reigns, Jesus said to them and us, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matt. 28:18-20). These are our marching orders. This is His command and His comfort. We are not only reformed into the image of Christ by receiving the proclamation of the Word but also doing the proclamation of the Word. A disciple and a church that does not evangelize will fossilize. A disciple and a church that does not evangelize will be a disciple and a church that becomes hardened and not fully transformed into the image of Christ. If what we do in the four walls of this building and our houses doesn’t spread to influence our neighbors and the surrounding community, like we see in the book of Acts, does it really matter?

As we come to the Table of the King to examine our ways, let us “Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, the offspring of David, as preached in Paul’s gospel” (2 Tim. 2:8). We also remember that we come not as finished people, but as people being re-formed into the image of Christ, praying: “Remember us, O Lord” and “Come, Lord Jesus! Come, quickly!”