In my daily reading this morning I was moving through Lamentations chapter 3 and came across the well-known, even memorized and sometimes sung, verses 22-23: "The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness." Many worship choruses have been written based on these words, as well as a well- known worship hymn.
Context is important. This morning I noticed the verse before and the verse after, and realized those great truths and promises are couched between two verses on hope. Then I thought about how appropriate all of this is here at the season we set aside for thanksgiving. His love and faithfulness give us hope and lead us to worship in thanksgiving.
Verse 21 states, "But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope." The prophet remembered and rehearsed in his mind the abundant mercy of God, which gave him renewed hope. This led me to reflect on the fact that when the church gathers for worship we, like the prophet, remember and rehearse the great, abundant mercy and sufficient grace of our Lord. This gives us hope in the midst of a hopeless world and evokes thanksgiving in our hearts and on our lips.
The other bookend to these well-known verses is verse 24, "'The Lord is my portion,' says my soul, 'therefore I will hope in Him.'" The prophet and the church increase in our faith and hope when we consider the new mercies, compassion and faithfulness of our God. And we are shown that it is our portion or inheritance in our hearts and spirits, under testimony of the Spirit of God. We see the promise of deliverance from all evil and enemies with great supplies of His grace and glory: "...therefore I will hope in Him!" That certainly elicits hope and thanksgiving in our daily personal worship and in our weekly gathered worship. Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours! mjm
