Why do You forget us forever?
Why do You forget us forever?
Lamentations 5:19-20 We can often feel like Jeremiah, thinking in our human mindset that God is ignoring our pleas for His justice, mercy, and grace.
Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn, “Jeremiah Lamenting The Destruction of Jerusalem”, 1630, Public Domain.
“You, O Lord, rule forever; Your throne is from generation to generation. Why do You forget us forever? Why do You forsake us so long?”
Lamentations 5:19-20 NASB1995
Today’s random pick by God pointed me to Lamentations. This is a short book in the Old Testament attributed to the prophet Jeremiah. Paul Apple’s commentary on Lamentations from Precept Austin includes this short description by someone named “Baxter” (perhaps Batsell Baxter, Dorian Baxter, Irvin Baxter Jr., or J. Sidlow Baxter — all are theologians):
This pathetic little five-fold poem, the Lamentations, has been called “an elegy written in a graveyard.” It is a memorial dirge written on the destruction and humiliation of Jerusalem by the Babylonians in 587 B.C. It is a cloudburst of grief, a river of tears, a sea of sobs.
Lamentations describes many of the same events as 2 Kings and Jeremiah, but in a much more poetic manner. The first four chapters of the book are a recalling of the sad state of affairs of Jerusalem at the time, while chapter 5 (the source of today’s verses) is a prayer to God pleading for the restoration of Zion.
Those first four chapters are unique in that they are acrostics — in other words, the first letter of the first word of each verse (22 in total in chapters 1, 2 and 4; 66 in chapter 3) forms the Hebrew alphabet from א (alef) to ת (tav). Why did Jeremiah take the time to write the acrostics? Probably because showing that each chapter went from the beginning to the end of the alphabet, signifying completeness the way that we now refer to something as “going from a to z” in English. The fifth chapter is not an acrostic, but still has 22 verses.
Why is the chapter written differently? British theologian Adam Clarke wrote that
“Though this chapter consists of exactly twenty-two verses, the number of letters in the Hebrew alphabet, yet the acrostic form is no longer observed. Perhaps any thing so technical was not thought proper when in agony and distress (under a sense of God’s displeasure on account of sin) they prostrated themselves before him to ask for mercy.”1
Enough about the wordplay used by Jeremiah while writing Lamentations. What about today’s verses? In Lamentations 5:19, Jeremiah prays for the eternal God to remember His people, so he focuses on God’s unchanging nature. God’s reign is eternal, His throne surviving through the generations. From Adam Clarke again,
THOU sufferest no change. Thou didst once love us, O let that love be renewed towards us!”
The same focus on God’s eternal nature is echoed in the New Testament as well. In Hebrews 13:8, we are told that “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.”
To Jeremiah and the remnants of Jerusalem, they knew that God remains forever, but they felt as if He had forgotten them forever (Lamentations 5:20). Their situation was still a long ways from being resolved, so the book ends with a sincere plea for the restoration of His people.
We can often feel like Jeremiah, thinking in our human mindset that God is ignoring our pleas for His justice, mercy, and grace. In our time, though, we have knowledge of the redeeming sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, a fact that brings us assurance and hope.
Heaven On Wheels Daily Prayer:
Lord, sometimes our human nature brings us to the same despair felt by the prophet Jeremiah in his time. For those of us in the United States of America who are lamenting the fallen state of our once-great nation, we can pray the words found in Lamentations 5:21 — “Restore us to You, O Lord, that we may be restored; Renew our days as of old.” We pray this in the name of Your Son and our Savior, Jesus Christ, AMEN.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org.
Clarke, Adam "Clarke's Commentary: The Holy Bible Containing the Old and New Testaments with a Commentary and Critical Notes" Volume 4 (Isaiah-Malachi) (New York: Eaton and Mains, 1827)