Over the past couple of weeks we’ve looked at the biblical book of Lamentations, and seen that the poet finds reason for hope in the midst of the trauma of the destruction of Jerusalem. The poet declares that the ‘steadfast love of the Lord’ which never ceases gives hope, and that declaration is right in the middle of the book.
But, of course, it’s considerably more complicated than that. The position of this declaration of hope as “the monumental centre of the book” has been challenged by commentators who suggest that the voice of hope is eclipsed by the trailing off of the book in the disheartened voices (and breakdown of the acrostic structures) in the final two chapters of the book. It seems that there is no “swift resolution or easy dismissal of the enormous sense of abandonment and injustice expressed in these poems.”
One writes that “hope does not triumph in the book; it is merely one point of view” and sees “speeches that move across trauma, rage, hope, and tired dismay. No single speaker, no particular viewpoint silences the others. Instead, multiple speakers try to find expression.”
Trauma, rage, hope and tired dismay – I wrote last time about children finding hope when they are aware of their carer showing love and consistency. I think that’s true, but only to the extent that the voice of hope is not drowned out by other voices of trauma, rage, and tired dismay.
We reached the centre of chapter 3. Reading on through Lamentations, we can hear this mix of voices and how they fight for prominence in the poet’s mind. Even after the strong declaration of hope that we’ve seen, later in chapter 3 the poet despairs of God’s inaccessibility: “You have wrapped yourself in anger… you have wrapped yourself with a cloud so that no prayer can pass through” (3.43-44).
Chapter 4 laments the Zion’s punishment, which has happened, in the poet’s eyes, at the hands of the Lord.
Much of chapter 5 is a catalogue of “what has befallen us… our disgrace!” (5.1) Bad things have happened; good things have ceased. A final flicker of hope appears in 5.19 – “But you, O Lord, reign for ever; your throne endures to all generations” – before the book closes on a note of despair – “Restore us to yourself, O Lord, … unless you have utterly rejected us, and are angry with us beyond measure” (5.22).
It seems that there is no response from God in Lamentations, which is about absence and the community’s desolation and abandonment.
And yet the end of the book does not feel like the end of the matter; it asks a question of God, seeking an answer. Are there parallels here with our own experience and expression, or of people we know?
Firstly, there is the low self-worth in the poet’s belief that he should be utterly rejected and deserves anger beyond measure.
Second, we see the hopeful flicker of recognition that God is good and whose love is steadfast and everlasting, even though the writer is undeserving of it.
Third, there is a reality in the desire to connect with that steadfast love, through all the difficulty and self-sabotage, that is expressed even in those closing words, which hang in the air and invite a response from the faithful source of love and comfort.
Lamentations then, along with the psalms of lament and other parts of scripture such as the book of Job, expresses a potent mix of emotions and validates the bringing of that mix to God. As has been written of the psalms of lament, “What is said to Yahweh may be scandalous… but these speakers are completely committed, and whatever must be said about the human situation must be said directly to Yahweh, who is Lord of the human experience and partner with us in it.”
In the midst of everything that Lamentations expresses, the poet (or poets) does not turn away from God, however silent God seems to be.
Lamentations does not offer easy answers, but the book does demonstrate how hope can exist among trauma and despair. And it encourages us to keep the conversation with God open. Lamentations shows the importance of expressing trauma, rage, and despair even while also seeking the flickers of hope towards which Christian theology as a whole points.
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