2I have said this many times before: Christians so often deny the dark realities of life that we don’t know how to deal with someone who is in the valley. We think that a belief in Jesus means that we are not going to experience truly horrible things, that we will never be plagued by doubts, that we will never despair.

We read the New Testament books so filled with hope and confidence that we fail to realize two crucial things. First, since the books were written to encourage and give hope, they quite naturally focus on that. They do not linger on the doubts and uncertainties of faith. Second, we read only what the authors – Peter or Paul or James for example – have written. We do not have access to their inner struggles, which must necessarily have preceded their reaching a state in which they had an unassailable faith.

What do we think when we see the struggle in Lamentations. Written in the context of a series of devastating defeats the kingdom of Judah faced at the hands of the Babylonians, leading to exile and captivity, the book describes the horrors experienced by the Israelites as they saw their beloved Jerusalem utterly destroyed. And finally even the Temple is demolished.

This is rock bottom and the author of Lamentations describes his own inner thoughts and despair in such a situation. The book redefines what it means to say, “God is good” or “God is faithful” because his goodness and faithfulness must be recognized in all circumstances or not at all. If God is not seen to be good and faithful even during our times of adversity, then he is not good or faithful even during our times of plenty. “A friend in need is a friend indeed.”

Lamentations 3 is unlike the other chapters. Here, instead of speaking about Judah or Jerusalem or the inhabitants, the lamenter speaks in first person. The lamenter is honest about the despairing situation he is in. He does not deny that he is going through a particularly horrible time. And he describes an increasingly desperate series of circumstances.

But what then do we say? If everything is falling to pieces around you and you feel more and more the complete inability to change your lot in life, what do you do?

It is in this situation, when everything is crumbling around him, when the walls of despair are closing in on him, the author says, “Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope.” This is not a statement of spontaneous hope. Rather, the lamenter is forcing himself to call to mind a theological truth that he is not currently experiencing. He has to actively remind himself that it is on account of God’s unfailing love that he is not consumed.

That this is what is happening is clear when we see that the bold declaration of faith and hope lasts only a couple of verses. After that, while the words are not as despairing as before, neither are they full of the bold hope of verses 22-24.

The lamenter has made a bold declaration of faith and hope in verses 22-24. But this hasn’t changed what he is experiencing. He is still waiting for God to save him. He is still facing situations in which he is disgraced.

But what the bold declaration of faith and hope, despite the lamenter not experiencing it, does is opens the door. It says, “Things are horrible. I’m down in the dumps. Life is just not worth it. But…”

In the pit, when all hope has fled, when faith hangs by a fragile thread, the only thing the lamenter can cling on to and forces himself to cling on to is that despite everything God is faithful, God must be faithful, or else life will unravel itself. God’s faithfulness, therefore, is the single constant, continuous thread that holds together the tapestry of our lives. For if he does not hold us when the chips are down then we cannot claim he does when things are alright.