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

Swing Low, Sweet Chariot

Focus: Desiring God’s Rescue

“The Lord has done what He purposed; He has accomplished his word which He commanded from days of old. He has thrown down without sparing, and He has caused the enemy to rejoice over you; He has exalted the might of your adversaries” (Lam. 2:17). 

Jeremiah’s fourth lament describes the total destitution of God’s people. 

Vivid colors vanish, brilliant stones soiled. 

The rich mirror the poor, eyes sunken, appearance unrecognizable. 

The rosy lips of newborns crack, their tongues helplessly unquenched.

Children beg for bread, never to eat. 

Better to die by the sword, than hope to survive on crumbs. 

Can you identify with such excruciating pain—when the prospect of death appears more attractive than living another moment in agony?

At a pivotal point in my faith journey, my life appeared to crumble. I attempted to bring about God’s intervention using every spiritual battle tactic I knew. I devoted myself to prolonged prayer and stomached weeks of extreme fasting. Yet, my circumstances remained unchanged. It appeared that God refused to rescue me. In fact, it looked like the more effort I exerted, the worse my situation became. After months of distress, I reached my breaking point. Crouched over, curled into the fetal position as streams of passion roamed down my cheeks, I made my petition: “Lord, if you love me, either take this pain from me or take my life. I cannot withstand much more.” 

What I was really grappling with is a question many of us wonder: How could you, God, watch someone you love, who belongs to you, suffer like this? The knowledge that God allowed my pain wounded me as much as the suffering itself. Even worse: The possibility that He might have even purposed it. 

Jeremiah had refused to contribute to Jerusalem’s covenant unfaithfulness, yet he was afflicted for their choices. His experience of suffering, even while promoting righteousness, is echoed by believers of all times. The sufferings of the righteous abound. And it is natural to wonder where God is in the midst of it. Even our Lord, as he endured the most miserable moment of his life, quoted King David in asking of the Father, “My God, why have you forsaken me?” 

Our initial response to hardship is often to ask for immediate deliverance, just as the ensemble of the enslaved lifted their voices to Heaven and pleaded, 

“Swing Low, sweet chariot, coming for to carry me home.” 

The hope of the believer is that the Lord will return. He will deliver his beloved from every hardship, all manners of pain, and any consequence of death. Still, Scripture prepares those committed to God for the reality that deliverance may not come in this life, as for many slaves it did not, but rather in the new kingdom, our new “home,” with Jesus as King. 

“Swing Low, sweet chariot, coming for to carry me home.” 

Christ agonized over his impending physical death on the cross to the point of sweating blood. Yet, He was able to endure as He looked to the glorious future which awaited him. In his example, we too are tasked with enduring our present suffering with great anticipation of future glory. Just as the angels could have rescued innocent Jesus, God could have delivered Jeremiah. And He could’ve ended the misery of the slaves centuries earlier. And he could have put a stop to my suffering. But instead, he willed for Jeremiah, for Jesus, as He wills for you and me: to endure. 

In his letter to the Romans, the apostle Paul summarized the end result of suffering for the follower of God: 

"Not only this, but we also rejoice in sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance, character, and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us. For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly" (Rom. 5:3–6, NET). 

So, when God does not deliver immediately, when He provides no escape from suffering, we must pray for the strength to withstand the pain and the faith to endure the trouble. 

May we desire refinement rather than rescue. May we learn to endure. 

The apostle Peter similarly had words on the topic: 

Dear friends, do not be astonished that a trial by fire is occurring among you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice in the degree that you have shared in the sufferings of Christ, so that when his glory is revealed you may also rejoice and be glad (1 Pet 4:12–13, NET). 

LISTEN: Swing Low, Sweet Chariot 

THIN SPACE:  After listening to the Spiritual, create space for an unorthodox prayer time today. Pray for endurance as you walk in nature. Sketch out, color, or write your prayer for refinement. As you pray, in any form, remember the suffering of Jeremiah in Jerusalem and the African peoples in colonial America. In your prayer for refinement, include believers around the world who share in your suffering. 

Photo by Michal Matlon on Unsplash