Typically, at the beginning of January, we look forward.
Many of us make New Year’s resolutions to try a new diet plan, a new gym membership, or a new hobby. This year our aspirations may take more of a backward glance as we long for the return of things we’ve missed; things we didn’t realise were quite so important until they were gone – the whole church meeting together, communal singing, having friends and extended family around your dinner table, a hug.
God’s enduring love
As we enter a New Year, in a spiritual sense, we also need to keep looking back as we move forward. We need to remember God’s faithfulness so that we learn to rest on His future grace. The author of Lamentations shows us how, as he cries: Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. (Lam. 3:22-23)
The writer acknowledges God’s enduring, covenant love that has been proved in the past, is seen in fresh expressions each day, and can be relied upon in the future. However, the context of these familiar verses is often forgotten. They are found at the heart of a book of lament. These are not just platitudes, triumphalistic words that trip off the tongue. The writer had a front-row seat to see the appalling despair of the Israelites. The city of Jerusalem and the temple had fallen to the Babylonians; worship had stopped; elders, priests, princes and ordinary people had been slaughtered, the brightest and the best were carried off into exile.
The people of Judah knew their suffering was a direct result of their disobedience and unfaithfulness to God but this didn’t lessen the sense of bewilderment. They were left reeling from loss, grief, a sense of abandonment and dislocation. And yet, amidst the confusion and the questions, the writer can’t help but exclaim in wonder, directly to God: ‘Great is your faithfulness’.
God’s faithfulness
Despite our disobedience, the anguish of our circumstances, the uncertainty of a new year, we can be sure of God’s faithfulness. It doesn’t grow weaker, diminishing over time. It is not doled out in proportion to our faithfulness. His faithfulness in the past is a guarantee of His faithfulness in the present and what we can look forward to in the future. The love He demonstrated at Calvary is the same love He loves us with today. It couldn’t be otherwise. God is love, God is faithful. It’s His character, it’s who He is.
Perhaps, unsurprisingly, there is no neat and tidy conclusion to the book of Lamentations. On the one hand the writer affirms God is sovereign: ‘You, Lord, reign for ever; your throne endures from generation to generation.’ But he still has questions. He still asks: ‘Why…Why?’, and no answer is given (5:19-20). Throughout this year, and for the rest of our lives, the ‘Why?’ questions will linger, even as we affirm God’s sovereignty. But, like the writer of Lamentations, we can reflect on all our experiences of God’s love and compassion in the past, knowing for sure that He is faithful in the present and will be forever.
