Learning to Lament With the Spirituals: A Six-Day DevotionalSample

Didn't My Lord Deliver Daniel?

Focus: Recalling God’s faithfulness when we can’t see His goodness

“For the Lord will not reject forever, 

For if He causes grief,

then He will have compassion 

according to His abundant lovingkindness” (Lam 3:31–32). 

The focus of Jeremiah’s third lament shifts from the earlier expressions of communal grief to an individual declaration of depression. It’s personal. He writes, 

“In dark places He has made me dwell,

     Like those who have long been dead.

He has walled me in so that I cannot go out;

He has made my chain heavy.

  Even when I cry out and call for help,

He shuts out my prayer” (Lam 3:6–8, emphasis added). 

Notice that the prophet pens his accusation in no uncertain terms; he credits his woeful plight to God and divine activity in the world. Jeremiah's accusation well represents the general tendency of humanity to try the Lord, charge Him on account of his (righteous) discipline, and declare Him guilty of cruelty and unfairness. Jeremiah, after testifying against God’s action, confesses: 

My soul has been rejected from peace;

     I have forgotten happiness.

So I say, “My strength has perished,

      And so has my hope from the LORD” (Lam 3:17–18). 

Despair obstructs our vision and thwarts it inward. It causes the despondent one’s gaze to shift from accurately perceiving God and others to preoccupation with the self. Despair intercepts and misrepresents truth. It diminishes hope. Have you experienced depression? Have you ever felt as though your hope might topple under the weight of your grief? 

Conversations within the faith community often neglect the all too real topic of depression. While it may seem unusual to some, living in a wounded world and facing tenuous trials with no expiration date may reasonably cause believers to feel discouraged and even hopeless. That’s certainly how Jeremiah felt. 

Yet, from the depths of his depressed soul, Jeremiah dared his soul to recall the faithfulness of the Lord, to hope again. 

“Surely my soul remembers

And is bowed down within me.

This I recall to my mind,

Therefore I have hope.

 The LORD’S lovingkindnesses indeed never cease,

For His compassions never fail.

They are new every morning;

Great is Your faithfulness.

“The LORD is my portion,” says my soul,

“Therefore I have hope in Him.”

The LORD is good to those who wait for Him,

To the person who seeks Him.

It is good that he waits silently

For the salvation of the LORD” (Lam 3:20–26).

The Spirit of God interrupts his prophet's melancholy monologue to provoke his memory: God’s faithfulness and compassionate mercy have been proven through the generations. As Jeremiah transitions from a self-centered soliloquy to a theocentric declaration, he reaffirms his hope in the Lord’s goodness and compassion on the basis of the Lord’s loyal love. In its original form, the Hebrew term rendered here as “loving-kindness” (hesed) is used frequently in the Old Testament to speak of the Lord’s covenant loyalty and steadfast faithfulness, especially as his chosen people repeatedly dishonor his steadfast affection. 

With his vision renewed, Jeremiah confidently decrees, “The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, to the person who seeks Him.” Although Jeremiah cannot see God’s mercy in his present situation, he resolves that joy will be renewed, tears dried, enemies repaid, and hope restored—not on the basis of his own limited knowledge but on the basis of God’s character. With this in mind, Jeremiah appeals to Israel: 

Why should the living complain 

    when punished for their sins? 

    Let us examine our ways and test them, 

    and let us return to the LORD (Lam. 3:39-40, NIV).

The slaves borrowed from Jeremiah’s timeless perspective as they bellowed out God’s history of deliverance, and they elicited Him to rescue them, too. When they asked, “Didn’t my lord deliver Daniel?” the singers recalled God’s miraculous intervention for those in need of rescue, from Daniel to Jonah, and saw the parallels to their current circumstances. 

Where might you have limited God through the filter of your experience? How might God’s Spirit be prompting you to remember His faithfulness, even as despair prevents you from seeing his goodness? 

THINK SPACE: Take a moment silently to recount God’s faithfulness and offer thanksgiving. Think of times when he has proven his character—both from stories recorded in Scripture and in your own life. Jot down examples. As a special challenge, set aside a day in which you will speak only when necessary. Spend most of your energy dwelling on God’s loving-kindness. 

Listen to “Didn’t My Lord Deliver Daniel?”  

Photo by David Clode on Unsplash