Jeremiah is lamenting in prayer. He is seeking the Lord to move, as he holds fast to the belief that God hears, cares and can act. In his prayer, he expresses their sorrow, confesses their sin and hopes for God to restore them. We learn that sorrow is powerful, it can wound or it can heal, it can enslave or it can lead you to freedom.

As Jeremiah is describing the horrific siege, he attributes the horrific siege to the wrath of the Lord, the sins of the leaders, which eventually became the sins of the people, and the power of the enemy. There is nothing the people could do as they looked in vain for help, longing for a savior, who is a better king, prophet and priest.

The Psalms help us understand what we are going through. They lead us to the meaning of new mercy and the mercy we experience helps us understand the Psalms. In the desperate, hopeless, lost and weak times, but not alone. This is when we reach for the psalms. As we find grace that comes with a melody. In Lamentations, we see a pattern of suffering and song. In our suffering, we sing: Great is His Faithfulness.

In the dark night, the people (author) experienced complete devastation. In His brokenness, this is where God finds him and this is where God works. In the darkness, the author remembers God’s faithful love and light begins to pierce the dark night, knowing that God’s mercies are new every morning.

Summary of Message: There is a dark night when the Lord rebukes his people as they sit in silence. When tragedy happens, we respond to God by crying out to Him for His great mercy in humility, because we do not know why it happened and we soberly examine ourselves.

Suffering is unavoidable when obedience is absent. We think obedience is too much of a hardship. We do not want to obey and we resent God for asking us to do so. Obedience is never easy, but the price of obedience is a bargain compare to the price of rebellion.  Avoiding sin cost less than repenting of sin. To ignore God’s prevention is to embrace God’s condemnation.