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Lamentations – Making Lamentations Practical
Lamentations is one of the books that is not part of our normal readings, few sermons are preached from it. And yet it is a helpful book for how to handle great losses.
- Have you ever lost someone you loved?
- Have you ever lost someone you loved who deserved to die?
- How did you handle your emotions?
- How did you express your emotions?
To Jeremiah, Jerusalem is “someone” he loved, whom he lost. Speaking as Jerusalem, Jeremiah says she deserved to die. Emotions, both positive and negative ensue, with hope being in the middle (3:21-26). Lamentations is how he decided to express his emotions. Looking at Lamentations we see chapters 1-4 are an acrostic containing the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet. The last chapter is not an acrostic although it divides nicely into 22 verses. The point is that when life is chaos, we need order and structure. Expressing ourselves to God and others, whether in prayer, prose or poetry, is a positive emotional and spiritual outlet.
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