S25E1029 - Hope in the Ash Heap

Lamentations 3:21-23 (NRSV)

But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.

We sing the wonderful hymn “Great Is Thy Faithfulness” with such warmth that it’s easy to imagine it coming from a quiet, sunny morning. It didn’t. Those words grew out of destruction and rubble.

Almost the whole book of Lamentations is raw grief. In 586 BC, the Babylonians took Jerusalem, and it wasn’t just a wal...