June 26th, 2021

For the Fifth Sunday after Pentecost, the Old Testament reading AGAIN is taken from a rarely used book, this time the book of Lamentations [3:22-33]. And this is the ONLY time throughout the three-year series that a text will be from this book.

The book may rarely be used because it is poetry, and we already have poetry in the Psalms, within the Introit. It may also be rarely used because there is a significant amount of bad news within the book, but you probably guessed that from its title. It is interesting, though, that near the middle point of the book and its middle chapter, there is a significant amount of good news, and this is the text for this Sunday.

This middle point is extremely easy to spot because the book relies heavily upon an acrostic structure. It is somewhat like a child’s alphabet book that starts each page with a different letter of the alphabet, all in order, from the first letter to the last. I would imagine that doing an acrostic poem in any language is difficult, but there is a great difficulty in English because of the very few words that start with the letter ‘x’.

In Hebrew that problem is not as huge, but this is a depressing topic. There is a lamentation because of the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians in 586 B.C. Perhaps the closest thing to this topic in English is the word ‘xenophobia’, the fear of anything foreign.

There are twenty-two letters in the Hebrew alphabet, and that is the reason for the twenty-two letters in most of the chapters of this book, but there are sixty-six in this lengthy middle chapter. And each letter has three verses that start with that letter. And, at the very middle, is when this text stops, and then the topic goes quite quickly back to the bad news.

To help gain an appreciation for this structure, what follows is the entire text for this Sunday, with each section starting with a different letter. But this is NOT in alphabetical order—that would definitely be too difficult. But there is some coherency with similar beginnings, and this is a somewhat-literal translation (although some allowances were made to fit this distinct design and to deal with the complexity of Hebrew poetry):

Great loves of Yahweh, specifically—we are not consumed, specifically—his compassions are not ended.4
Great is your faithfulness; new ones are in the mornings.
Given this part, Yahweh, my soul says, therefore I will wait for him.
Fine is Yahweh to those hoping in him, to the soul seeking him.
Fine to those also waiting and quiet for the salvation of Yahweh.
Fine for the strong man, specifically, that he carries a yoke in his youth.
Let him sit alone, and let him be silent, specifically—He laid it on him.
Let him give to the dust his mouth; perhaps there is hope.
Let him give to the one striking his cheek, let him be filled with disgrace.
Specifically, the Lord will not cast off forever.
Specifically, if he causes grief, so he will show compassion as many of his great loves.
Specifically, he will not bring afflictions from his heart or bring griefs to the children of a man.

This is a good reminder that sometimes it is good to stop in the middle of something. And that may be where you find the LORD with some GOOD news.