Trusting God beyond the Why

Bible Passage: Lamentations 3:22–23

I. Introduction 

1. Lamentations 3:22–23
2. “Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail.
3. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.”
4. A beautiful theology that is forged and formed, and sprang out of suffering.

II. Background of Lamentations

1. Author: Traditionally attributed to Jeremiah
2. Context: After the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BC
3. Lamentations contains five poems of grief.
4. Chapters 1-4 are acrostics, grief expressed from A to Z.
5. But chapter 3 stands apart.

a. 66 verses

6. And verses 22–23 sit at the exact centre of the book –

a. Hope is not the reward at the end of suffering.
7. Hope is the anchor in the middle of suffering.

III. Read 17-20

17 I have been deprived of peace; I have forgotten what prosperity is.
18 So I say, “My splendor is gone and all that I had hoped from the Lord.”
19 I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall.
20 I well remember them, and my soul is downcast within me.

1. The adversity of Jeremiah was real. It seems unbearably humiliating and painful
2. Jeremiah does not deny God, but he brings despair to God
3. Chapter 1

a. The city so full of people, now so deserted – vs 1
b. Their friends and allies have betrayed them and have now become their enemy – vs 2
c. Her foes have become her master – vs 5
d. Even those who honour her now despise her because they have all seen her naked – vs 8
e. No one to comfort her, even though her fall was great – vs 9
f. They were starving and searching for bread to keep themselves alive – vs 11,19
g. 4:9 he says, “those killed by the sword are better off than those who die of famine.”

4. Chapter 2

a. Without pity the Lord has swallowed up all the dwellings of Jacob; in fact, it’s kindom, and princes are brought down to the ground in dishonour – vs 2
b. God has withdrawn his right hand – vs 3
c. The Lord is like an enemy, he has swallowed up Israel – vs 5

5. Lamentation 3:21: Yet this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope:
6. This verse is the hinge of the entire chapter.
7. Faith sometimes requires intentional remembering. Not based on feelings, emotions, but always on God’s character, what He has revealed in His Word.
8. “Because of the LORD’s great love”

a. Hebrew word: ḥesed
b. Covenant love
c. Loyal love
d. Love that does not withdraw when the other party fails

9. Love rooted in promise, not performance.
10. “We are not consumed”
11. We know that Jerusalem was ruined.
12. The nation was humiliated.
13. But they still existed.

a. Because God restrained judgment with mercy

14. Verse 22b “For His compassions never fail”

a. Hebrew: raḥamim
b. Womb – It speaks of deep, parental tenderness.

15. Verse 23a “They are new every morning”
16. The word “morning” implies rhythm, continuity, dependability.
17. God does not wake up tired of being gracious.

a. God’s mercy works the same way. He gives us what we need for today, teaching us to return to Him each morning rather than relying on our own stored-up resources.

18. Verse 23b “Great is Your faithfulness”
19. It did not rise from abundance, from favours, and victory, but from the lowest of the lowest experience.

a. Jeremiah makes a personal confession of trust in the middle of his own circumstances.

20. Faithfulness means that:

a. God keeps His word, all of it. He kept His word about judgment when Israel persisted in sin.
b. He keeps His word about mercy when His people cry out in need.
c. He does not promise one thing and deliver another. He does not adapt His character to circumstance or change His nature based on what would be convenient.

21. Jeremiah anchors his hope in who God is, not in his surroundings.

a. Faith does not require closure to move forward.

22. It requires confidence that the God who was faithful yesterday will be faithful tomorrow even if today still hurts.
23. v24 I say to myself, the LORD is my portion… therefore I will wait for him.”
24. Jeremiah is saying:

a. I may have lost land
b. I may have lost security
c. I may have lost status

25. But I still have God.

IV. Theological Reflection

1. Mercy is not the absence of discipline, but the presence of God’s loving restraint and redemptive purpose within discipline.
2. Hope is not the denial of pain, but the deliberate trust in God’s character while pain remains unresolved.
3. Faith matures not in the removal of tension, but in learning to trust God faithfully while living within it.

V.   2 Corinthians 4:16–18

1. “Therefore, we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day…”
2. Paul echoes Lamentations:

a. Outward decay
b. Inward renewal
c. Temporary affliction
d. Eternal weight of glory

VI. God’s faithfulness does not prevent suffering, but it gives suffering meaning.

1. But Paul knows something Jeremiah could not yet fully see. Because of Christ, mercy is not just renewed daily. At the cross, we see the full expression of God’s steadfast love.
2. The compassion that was new every morning for Israel find their fullest expression in Jesus. He is God’s faithfulness made flesh.
3. He is proof that God’s love is not fickle or conditional but steadfast and sure.
4. Today, as we stand at the end of 2025 and confess “Great is Your faithfulness,” we stand on this side of the resurrection.
5. Our hope is not based on optimism/positive thinking about human potential or our ability to pull ourselves up.
6. Our hope is rooted in the empty tomb, in the risen Christ, in the demonstrated faithfulness of God who keeps His promises no matter what stands in the way.

Takeaway:

1. Examine your ways, return to the LORD through Jesus, and begin a new year with Him as your portion and inheritance.
2. Anchor your future in God’s faithfulness, not in the memory of your ruins.