“The way things are are not the way things have to be.” ~ The Justice Calling This message was given on April 9, 2017 at New City Church in Calgary by Pastor John Ferguson. For more info, please visit: www.newcitychurch.ca

1. Restore Us To
Yourself, O LORD
~ Lamentations 5 ~

2. A Sacred Sorrow
Studies in
the book of
Lamentations
~ The Season of Lent 2017 ~
Finding Your Voice When
Life Doesn’t Make Sense

3. “Look and see if there is
any sorrow like my sorrow…”
~ Lamentations 1:12

4. …it is critical to name
the source of all that
has gone wrong. The
name of the source is
sin—a term that is
one of the most
avoided and yet
compelling aspects of
the Christian faith.

5. Sin is routinely
denied in many
societies today, and
yet it can be life-
giving to understand
and acknowledge it.

6. Invoking the reality of
sin gives us language
to describe and
protest all that is
wrong in this world
and in our lives…

7. “The way things are is not
the way things have to be.”

8. Restore Us To
Yourself, O LORD
~ Lamentations 5 ~

9. Structure of Lamentations
Ch. 1: Jerusalem’s Lament
Ch. 2: Jerusalem’s Fall
Ch. 3: Jerusalem’s Hope
Ch. 4: Jerusalem’s Seige
Ch. 5: Jerusalem’s Prayer

10. Acrostic Poems: Chapters 1 & 2
01 - A
02 - B
03 - C

11. Acrostic Poems: Chapter 3
01 - A
02 - B
03 - C
A
A
B
B
C
C

12. Acrostic Poems: Chapter 4
01 - A
02 - B
03 - C

13. Acrostic Poems: Chapter 5
01 - K
02 - Z
03 - F
04 - S
05 - C

14. “And it came to pass after Israel had
gone into captivity, and Jerusalem
was laid waste, that Jeremiah sat
weeping and composed this lament
over Jerusalem….”
Introduction to the Septuagint
(the Greek Translation of the OT in 2BC)

15. 01 Remember, O LORD, what has befallen
us; look and see our disgrace.
02 Our inheritance has been turned over
to strangers, our homes to foreigners.
03 We have become orphans, fatherless;
our mothers are like widows.
Lamentations 5

16. 01 Remember, O LORD, what has befallen
us; look and see our disgrace.
02 Our inheritance has been turned over
to strangers, our homes to foreigners.
03 We have become orphans, fatherless;
our mother are like widows.
Lamentations 5

17. “…the people of Israel
groaned because of their
slavery and cried out for
help. Their cry for rescue
from slavery came up to
God. And God heard their
groaning and remembered
his covenant with Abraham,
with Isaac, and with Jacob.
God saw the people of
Israel—and God knew.”
~ Exodus 2:23-25

18. “Behold, the days are coming, declares the
Lord, when I will make a new covenant… I will
put my law within them, and I will write it on
their hearts. And I will be their God, and they
shall be my people…. For I will forgive their
iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”
~ Jeremiah 31:31ff

19. “For thus says the Lord: When seventy years
are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I
will fulfill my promise and bring you back to this
place. For I know the plans I have for you,
declares the Lord, plans for wholeness and not
for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then
you will call upon me and come and pray to me,
and I will hear you. You will seek me and find
me. When you seek me with all your heart, I will
be found by you, declares the Lord….”
~ Jeremiah 29:10-14

20. 04 We must pay for the water we drink;
the wood we get must be bought.
05 Our pursuers are at our necks;
We are weary; we are given no rest.
06 We have given the hand to Egypt, and
to Assyria, to get bread enough.
Lamentations 5

21. 09 We get our bread at the peril of our
lives, because of the sword in the
wilderness.
10 Our skin is hot as an oven with the
burning heat of famine….
Lamentations 5

22. 11 Women are raped in Zion,
young women in the towns of Judah.
12 Princes are hung up by their hands;
no respect is given to the elders.
13 Young men are compelled to grind
at the mill, and boys stagger
under loads of wood….
Lamentations 5

23. 07 Our fathers sinned, and are no more;
and we bear their iniquities….
15 The joy of our hearts has ceased;
our dancing has turned to mourning.
16 The crown has fallen from our head;
woe to us; for we have sinned…!
Lamentations 5

24. The slightest sin is an
act of defiance against
cosmic authority. It is a
revolutionary act, a
rebellious act where we
are setting ourselves in
opposition to the One
to whom we owe
everything.

25. [These] Hebrew words…
(‘Woe-indeed to-us for we-
have-sinned’) may be the
shortest, simplest and
deepest moment of self-
awareness in the book.
Indeed, they are perhaps
the most concise condens-
ing of the essence of
repentance in Scripture…

26. On the foundation of this
clear-eyed but tear-filled
acknowledgement, the
Poet will lead the people to
appeal to God, for the
grace of repentance and
restoration.

27. 17 For this our hearts have become sick,
for these things our eyes have grown
dim,
18 for Mount Zion lies desolate;
jackals prowl over it.
Lamentations 5

28. 19 But you, O LORD, reign forever;
your throne endures to all generations.
Lamentations 5

29. 20 Why do you forget us forever;
why do you forsake us for so
many days?
Lamentations 5

30. 21 Restore us to yourself, O Lord,
that we may be restored!
Renew our days as of old—
Lamentations 5

31. “Whom have I in
heaven but you?
And earth has
nothing I desire
besides you.”
~ Asaph in Psalm 73

32. 21 Restore us to yourself, O Lord,
that we may be restored!
Renew our days as of old—
22 unless you have utterly rejected us,
and you remain exceedingly angry
with us.
Lamentations 5

33. My God, my God,
why have you
forsaken me?

35. “Come, Lord Jesus.”
~ Revelation 22:20 ~

36. image credits
Image Credit: Hoach Le Dinh
https://unsplash.com/@hoachld?photo=5DJqsjAYlmk
https://unsplash.com/license
Unsplash
other images used for educational purpose
http://www.yorww.com/607bce_files/image2981.jpg