Prayer: Almighty God, heavenly Father, whose mercies are new to us every morning: You abundantly provide for all our wants of body and soul, even though we have in no way deserved Your goodness. We pray You, give us Your Holy Spirit, that we may heartily acknowledge Your merciful goodness toward us, give thanks for all Your benefits, and serve You in willing obedience. For Jesus’ sake we pray. Amen!
Sermon Text: Lamentations 3:22-25.
Dear fellow redeemed, citizens not only of this country but of the heavenly country: Grace, mercy, and peace to you from our merciful God.
Isn’t it strange that the Old Testament reading for the Thanksgiving celebration is from a book of the Bible called Lamentations?

The book is “The Lamentations of Jeremiah.” Jeremiah was the prophet when the people of Israel were taken into captivity in Babylon by King Nebuchadnezzar, which included the destroying of the city of Jerusalem, including the temple of Solomon. Jeremiah sat in the empty streets, and he wept many tears, and he wrote the five sad poems that make up the book of Lamentations. Because of this book he is called “the weeping prophet.”

But this book is in the Bible not as a relic of history but because it has something important that God wants to teach people of all times. So the question is what this has to teach us at Thanksgiving? Well, the truth is that we rather easily talk in a shallow way about “our blessings.”

It is tempting to judge from the up-and-down circumstances of life – sometimes down and getting downer – that we don’t have as many blessings for which to be thankful. “We cry because some inconvenience, comfort, or seeming necessity is no longer there. The Lord wants to warn [us] against this trend of human nature.” (Abraham Calov on Jeremiah 45:5)

So we must enter the world of Lamentations to understand why God is giving these words to us. We have to gaze with Jeremiah at what he was seeing – or not seeing – that filled his eyes with tears.

When Jeremiah wrote these words he was looking where the temple used to be. It’s important for us to picture in our minds the temple he was no longer seeing. The Bible says that “King Solomon surpassed all the kings of the earth in riches.” The riches were seen especially in the temple.

But Solomon’s riches also included many wives given to him by pagan rulers. These were not among the blessings God gave him; this was against God’s command. We’re not to delude ourselves into thinking that things God forbids are among His blessings to us. The Bible says: “His wives turned his heart after other gods.” Israel kept getting worse, turning to idols, worshiping power, and not listening to prophets who preached repentance.
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The book of Jeremiah is full of this. It’s a noisy book. Jeremiah warns them of God’s judgment. The people laugh and mock. The Babylonians attacked. Jeremiah urges repentance. The people shout him down and try to kill him. The Babylonian army comes into Jerusalem. They have no mercy on anyone, kill all the men of war, turn the temple into ashes, and take the people away

Lamentations is not a noisy book. Where the temple was, it is silent. Where there were homes, there is stillness. The streets are empty. The only sound is Jeremiah weeping: “How lonely sits the city that was full of people! Behold and see if there is any sorrow like my sorrow, which has been brought on me, which the Lord has inflicted in the day of His fierce anger.” (Lam 1:1, 12)

Jeremiah does not say that God just allowed this evil to happen to them. God did it to them, the Babylonian army was His instrument, but not because He had stopped loving them. God’s decision to do all this to them is called “chastening.” The Bible says this is what a loving father does: “Whom the Lord loves he chastens …” (He 12:6). God’s chastening of Israel was to show them they did not need armies, gold or power. They needed Him.

This leads us to our own situation, when we are tempted to weep or to complain bitterly about what’s in front of us, what or who we are painfully aware we have lost or is absent from our life, and we think we don’t have as many blessings to give thanks for. The fact that we know we don’t deserve anything good from God still doesn’t prevent us from moaning and sighing.

These verses from Lamentations 3 help cure us of this. God gives us His promise through the words of the prophet: Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness.

These words help us adjust our vocabulary. I still like the word blessings. That is what they are. But Jeremiah redefines the blessings with two lovely words: mercies and compassions. Our blessings are daily mercies and daily compassions from God.

Mercy is something given to someone who can’t offer anything in return. Another word for God’s mercy is “loving-kindness.” But Jeremiah writes not, “through the Lord’s mercy,” singular, but instead it’s: “Through the Lord’s mercies,” plural, that “we are not consumed.” God’s tender mercies, every little kindness, which is a sign of His grace.

The other word, compassion, is given to a suffering person. It’s the word used so often to describe Jesus, how He felt people’s suffering not just in His spirit but also in His body. Again Jeremiah does not write, “His compassion,” singular, but instead: “His compassions,” plural, “fail not,” they don’t end. Every tiny bit of your suffering, the Lord feels, and He offers you separate and distinct outpourings of compassion to cover every single episode of suffering which you undergo. He even says they do not end. Wow.

What’s amazing is that you find this in the middle of the great book of laments. In fact you find it right in the middle. It’s the absolute center of Jeremiah’s little book, which is a message in itself.

In the middle of your laments, sufferings, and crises what do you find? God’s mercies and lovingkindnesses. God’s compassions and expressions of understanding. This is portraying the cross of Christ. In the midst of sins and sorrows and the misery of a fallen world, He planted His cross. In the midst of the thieves He was crucified. There is Jesus – in the midst of you.

There are five chapters in Lamentations, two shorter ones to begin with, lament after lament; two shorter ones to end, lament after lament; but right in the middle one long chapter 3, and right in the middle of that chapter: “the Lord’s mercies … His compassions … great is Your faithfulness.”

All God’s promises are kept in Jesus. His faithfulness is Jesus. These words are about Jesus. The mercies, compassions, are centered in Jesus. From Him flow forth all the daily mercies, daily compassions, daily blessings that are showered by God upon you.

In the midst of sufferings we give thanks, because that’s where Jesus is: in the midst of our sufferings with His mercies and compassions. It is good to give Him thanks and praise! Amen.