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Lamentations 3:22-23
Mercy and Faithfulness
Lamentations 3:22-23
It is because of Yahweh’s loving kindnesses that we are not consumed, because his mercies don’t fail. They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness.
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Why it is worth knowing
- God’s love is not dependent on our faithfulness: it never ceases
- Mercies being “new every morning” suggests God’s constant renewal
- This verse was written in the midst of Jerusalem’s destruction, not from comfort
- Faithfulness is one of God’s core attributes: he cannot be otherwise
Where it sits: Lamentations 3:19-26
Remember my affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the bitterness. My soul still remembers them, and is bowed down within me. This I recall to my mind; therefore I have hope. It is because of Yahweh’s loving kindnesses that we are not consumed, because his mercies don’t fail. They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness. “Yahweh is my portion,” says my soul. “Therefore I will hope in him.” Yahweh is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. It is good that a man should hope and quietly wait for the salvation of Yahweh.
Hear the passage it sits in, sung word for word, on BibleDo's Lamentations page.
Background
Lamentations is a collection of poems written in the aftermath of Jerusalem’s fall to Babylon in 586 BC. The city had been burned, the temple destroyed, and thousands carried into exile. These verses are perhaps the most remarkable in the book: in the dead center of grief, the writer chooses to call to mind the mercies of God. Hope is not the absence of pain: it is a decision made in the middle of it.