(By David Giarrizzo)
[Part 1 and Part 2]

Having understood the misery of man and the goodness of God and having observed the scene of hope amid affliction in Lamentations 3, let me conclude my thoughts on the subject by offering some practical application. All humans wrestle through times of depression, pain, doubt, or despair at different points in their lives. When those times come for you, allow me to suggest three specific sources of encouragement.

Sources of Encouragement

1. God’s Word is the greatest balm to a troubled soul. Sometimes doubt and depression can stem from a lack of being in the Word. The words on the pages of Scripture can breathe fresh air into a dry and stale heart because they are the very words of God Himself. The wonder of the Word of God is that it is God speaking directly to man. But if you get so overwhelmed that you can’t even think where to turn, simply open up to the book of Psalms and begin reading. Psalms is a perfect place to start because David expresses the same human emotions we feel in our pilgrimage through life. These words of Psalms also remind us that Christ, as our great High Priest, knows our weaknesses and ailments. Remember the words of Hebrews 4:15-16—For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
   
   And don’t neglect prayer. The same Christ Jesus who bore the weight of your sins and died in your place rose again and is now interceding before the Father in glory on your behalf. Pray as you read the wonder of this Gospel that the Holy Spirit will minister His Word to your heart.




2. Pick up a good book like the Valley of Vision, a collection of Puritan prayers, or sing to yourself a hymn. I have so much appreciation for hymn-writers, both new and old. One man in particular, William Cowper, wrote a number of hymns in the mid-to-late 1700’s that have blessed the people of God ever since. In one of his hymns, “God Moves in a Mysterious Way,” we read these words:
   
   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.




3. Seek out the encouragement and counsel of a dear Christian friend. Maybe it’s a spouse, maybe it’s a parent, maybe it’s a church elder, or other Christian friend. But remember the words of Proverbs 27:9…“Oil and perfume make the heart glad, and the sweetness of a friend comes from his earnest counsel.” There have been a number of times in my life when one of these dear saints has been of tremendous blessing to my aching mind and heart. At these times I think of the wise words of Solomon: “Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up!” (Ecclesiastes 4:9-10) Find friends like the kind of friend Jonathan was to David, or John was to Jesus. But in the end, even if all of your friends fail you in your time of greatest need, remember this: “There is a friend that sticks closer than a brother.” (Proverbs 18:24)

These three sources of encouragement are important to the life of a Christian. Of course our Savior Jesus Christ is ultimately the only Rock our hope can be anchored to. But maybe there are additional means of encouragement that have been given to us by God to find rest in Him. Where do you turn to find your encouragement?

(By David Giarrizzo)

[Hope for All Time, Part 1]

When I read this part of Scripture here in Lamentations, I can’t help but wonder whether our Reformed Baptist predecessor, John Bunyan, had Lamentations 3 in mind when he penned a part of his classic work, Pilgrim’s Progress. The scene I’m thinking of finds Christian and Hopeful imprisoned in the dungeon of Doubting Castle, the residence of Giant Despair. The two pilgrims had strayed from the Narrow Way when they found themselves in this dark, dark place. It was after numerous beatings and torture and mocking by Giant Despair that Christian spoke these words to his friend Hopeful:

“Brother, said Christian, what shall we do? The life that we now live is miserable. For my part, I know not whether it is best to live thus, or to die out of hand. My soul chooseth strangling rather than life, and the grave is more easy for me than this dungeon. Shall we be ruled by the giant?”

We know that this illustration is meant to be an allegorical picture of the Christian life. We have all probably found ourselves trapped in Doubting Castle, in the dungeon of Giant Despair at some point in our Christian lives. But think back to the story of these two men and do you remember how this part resolves? They had talked and prayed all night when by morning Christian remembered something very important. Bunyan writes,

“Now, a little before it was day, good Christian, as one half amazed, brake out into this passionate speech: What a fool, quoth he, am I, thus to lie in a stinking dungeon, when I may as well walk at liberty! I have a key in my bosom, called Promise, that will, I am persuaded, open any lock in Doubting Castle. Then said Hopeful, That is good news; good brother, pluck it out of thy bosom, and try.

Then Christian pulled it out of his bosom, and began to try at the dungeon-door, whose bolt, as he turned the key, gave back, and the door flew open with ease, and Christian and Hopeful both came out.”

We all have been given that Key of Promise; it is the Word of God!

If God has shown us His mercy through salvation, we have nothing to fear. The importance of the first part of Lamentations is to give us the bad before the good so that the good can rightly be understood in light of the bad. We see this in our own theology. The glory of God’s grace and the importance of Christ’s atonement cannot be completely realized until we consider the state of man’s total depravity and rebellion against God. And when we seek to evangelize the lost, we must give them the bad news about themselves before we can give the good news of Jesus Christ.

The same is true with the way we look at our own lives. We must think back to our days before God extended His mercy to us. We were God’s enemies, living under His wrath. But here’s the good news for us today: God tells us in Romans 8:1 that there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. And later in verse 18 we see that there is no suffering in this world worth comparing to the glory that is to be revealed to us in the world to come. Finally, Romans 8 closes with this classic assurance:

For I am sure that neither death nor life,

nor angels nor rulers,

nor things present nor things to come,

nor powers,

nor height nor depth,

nor anything else in all creation,

will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

So what have we to worry about? From the biggest calamities in life to the smallest cares, God is good to those who fear Him. (Ps. 146:3-7; Lam. 3:31-32; Matt. 6:25-30)

Matthew Henry writes, “…Bad as things are, it is owing to the mercy of God that they are not worse. We are afflicted by the rod of his wrath, but it is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed. … Things are bad but they might have been worse, and therefore there is hope that they may be better.”

Therefore, have hope! May we be reminded that no matter how terrible things are in the world around us—how terrible things may seem even in our own physical bodies, our homes, and our lives—our sovereign God is still on His throne reigning over all as the King of the universe. And if that was not enough to cheer our hearts, that same God died to save His own—a sick and wicked and rebellious people, but His elect from every tribe, tongue and nation—Jesus died for these and presents them clean and spotless in His righteousness before the Father who adopts them as His own beloved children for all eternity. What a joy, what a comfort, what a Savior!

May we be renewed with a sense of God’s greatness, a sense of His love, a sense of His presence in our lives—from hour to hour—as we seek to glorify Him above all else.

(By David Giarrizzo)
[I’m taking a break this week and next from the series on “Christians and Culture.” The following is based on a sermon I delivered a few weeks ago from Lamentations 3.]

There’s no doubt that we live in dark times. Even a quick glance at the evening news reminds us of this fact. Every one of us has concerns that weigh us down from week to week. The economic recession, social and political hostility, and violence and strife here and around the world are only a reflection of the deeper spiritual problem that is sin. This world is a sad place—a sin-filled, moral cesspool of unrighteousness reminiscent of the days of Noah. And we all have our own struggles, don’t we? We struggle daily with our flesh, with fighting the sin that remains. We struggle with physical bodies that are wasting away little by little every day. And we struggle with our finances and with our careers, with our houses and our cars, with our marriages and families and our other relationships. These are difficult times, but not completely unsimilar to the days of the prophet Jeremiah.

In Lamentations 3 we read about Jeremiah in a time of true discouragement. This chapter can be divided simply under two headings:

1. The Misery of Man
2. The Goodness of God

The Misery of Man (Lam. 3:1-20)
Jeremiah begins in verse 1 by explaining his condition as a man who has seen affliction. It’s enough here in this one verse to make us feel for the man. And it is a terrible place to be—under the affliction of God’s wrath. By verse 4, as if things weren’t bad enough, it begins to get more graphic: “He has made my flesh and my skin waste away; he has broken my bones.” Think about that for a moment. Does your stomach begin to turn? But this is the metaphorical description that Jeremiah is giving us of his current condition. The prophet describes himself as enveloped with “bitterness” and “tribulation;” other versions use words like “anguish,” “distress,” and “woe.” The point is clearly made: this is a terrible state the writer finds himself in.

“…He has made me dwell in darkness like the dead of long ago. He has walled me about so that I cannot escape; he has made my chains heavy; though I call and cry for help, he shuts out my prayer; he has blocked my ways with blocks of stones; he has made my paths crooked.” (Lam. 3:6-9)

Imagine being laid in a grave while you are still alive and forgotten like the dead. What a dark, chilling place. These verses bring to mind the picture of a prison, or an old castle dungeon. The writer feels trapped and without any signs of escape. And in verses 8 and 9, though he cries for help from this pit of despair, his cries go unheard. What an utterly terrifying thought that must be! Something like this we would think to only read about in an Edgar Allan Poe story or see in a Hollywood thriller: A man who is beaten and broken and wasting away, dwelling in darkness like a man alive in a grave, with chains hanging from his limbs, and walled in like a forgotten prisoner with no means of escape, and even when he cries out for help, there is no one to hear him.

The dire situation as it is described gets even worse so that by Lamentations 3:17, the prophet has been in this predicament so long that he says his soul has no peace and he has forgotten what happiness is. But how many of us have been in similar situations where it seems like there’s this dark cloud hanging over us for days or weeks or months on end and the hits just keep on comin’? To have no peace; to forget what happiness is. How sad is this misery of man, a misery that accompanies a loss of hope in God.

But then we read these transitionary words in verse 21: “But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope…” What exactly is it that Jeremiah called to his recollection in these darkest of circumstances?…

The Goodness of God (Lam. 3:21-32)

Even in this deepest of pits, Jeremiah is granted the ability to recall God’s truth to mind and find hope in it. One of the things that I love most about this little piece of Scripture is how refreshing it is to the believer’s heart. Just when things in life seem their darkest, God sends the light of His Word.

It wasn’t until Jeremiah remembered the words of God to saints since past that he regained his hope and happiness. Jeremiah could have referred back to the words of God to Joseph when he was in prison in Genesis  39:21—“But the LORD was with Joseph and showed him steadfast love and gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison.” Or the words spoken to Moses at Sinai in Exodus 34:6—”The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin…” Maybe these words of the Old Testament were what came to Jeremiah’s mind in his time of distress because they were hidden deep within his heart and the Holy Spirit brought them to bear upon his thinking at that moment. The Word of God is powerful because by God’s Spirit, it lives and acts. It has the ability to convict and encourage. And here Jeremiah experiences the encouragement of the Lord because he had knowledge of Him through His Word. What an important reminder this is to us that true encouragement in dark, dark times does not just come by thinking happy thoughts which lead to warm, fuzzy feelings. No, true encouragement from God comes through His Word and His promises therein.

“Your steadfast love, O LORD, extends to the heavens, your faithfulness to the clouds.” Ps. 36:5

“I will sing of the steadfast love of the LORD, forever; with my mouth I will make known your faithfulness to all generations.” Ps. 89:1

And how much we should love these verses as they can be applied to all of our lives. God’s love is steadfast. His mercies are endless. His faithfulness is great.