The Lamentations of Jeremiah

The Lamentations of Jeremiah (Hebrew name: Ecah)

Lamentations (an elegy) were written by Jeremiah when Jerusalem was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar in B.C. 586. (Except chapter 5) It is not only poetical but also alphabetical as some of David's psalms (each verse begins with several letters in the order of the Hebrew alphabet). Jews used to read this book in their Synagogue every 9th day of the 4th month (in remembring Jer 52:6). 

(Jeremiah sung this Lamentations over Israel staying in a cave near Golgotha / Calvary)

Even though Jews rejected his prophecy and reported him as a false prophet, Jeremiah had a character of interceding for his people. 

(Jer 9:1 

  Oh that my head were waters, 

  and my eyes a fountain of tears, 

  so that I might weep day and night, 

  for the slain of the daughter of my people.)

For this reason, Jeremiah is also called 'Prophet who makes prayer with tears'.

What we have to learn from this man of God is truthfulness and kindness towards the lost people. It is not only our duty to warn them of sin and judgement, but also to show them the way to escape and that is Christ alone. People in blindness may disagree, but it's our responsibility to shed tear for our people who are perishing.

Love the Church

Thou shalt arise, and have mercy upon Zion: for the time to favor her, yea, the set time, is come. For thy servants take pleasure in her stones, and favor the dust thereof. (Psalm 102:13-14)

Yes, our prayers for the church will be heard. The set time is come. We love the prayer meetings, and the Sunday school, and all the services of the Lord's house. We are bound in heart to all the people of God and can truly say,

There's not a lamb in all thy flock

I would disdain to feed

There's not a foe before whose face

I'd fear thy cause to plead.

If this is the general feeling, we shall soon enjoy times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord. Our assemblies will be filled, saints will be revived, and sinners will be converted. This can only come of the Lord's mercy; but it will come, and we are called upon to expect it. The time, the set time, is come. Let us bestir ourselves. Let us love every stone of our Zion, even though it may be fallen down. Let us treasure up the least truth, the least ordinance, the least believer, even though some may despise them as only so much dust. When we favor Zion, God is about to favor her. When we take pleasure in the Lord's work, the Lord Himself will take pleasure in it.

"Live" said Almighty

         “When I passed by thee, I said unto thee, Live.” - Ezekiel 16:6

Saved one, consider gratefully this mandate of mercy. Note that this fiat of God is majestic. In our text, we perceive a sinner with nothing in him but sin, expecting nothing but wrath; but the eternal Lord passes by in his glory; he looks, he pauses, and he pronounces the solitary but royal word, “Live.” There speaks a God. Who but he could venture thus to deal with life and dispense it with a single syllable? Again, this fiat is manifold. When he saith “Live,” it includes many things. Here is judicial life. The sinner is ready to be condemned, but the mighty One saith, “Live,” and he rises pardoned and absolved. It is spiritual life. We knew not Jesus—our eyes could not see Christ, our ears could not hear his voice—Jehovah said “Live,” and we were quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins. Moreover, it includes glory-life, which is the perfection of spiritual life. “I said unto thee, Live:” and that word rolls on through all the years of time till death comes, and in the midst of the shadows of death, the Lord’s voice is still heard, “Live!” In the morning of the resurrection it is that self-same voice which is echoed by the arch-angel, “Live,” and as holy spirits rise to heaven to be blest for ever in the glory of their God, it is in the power of this same word, “Live.” Note again, that it is an irresistible mandate. Saul of Tarsus is on the road to Damascus to arrest the saints of the living God. A voice is heard from heaven and a light is seen above the brightness of the sun, and Saul is crying out, “Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?” This mandate is a mandate of free grace. When sinners are saved, it is only and solely because God will do it to magnify his free, unpurchased, unsought grace. Christians, see your position, debtors to grace; show your gratitude by earnest, Christlike lives, and as God has bidden you live, see to it that you live in earnest.

Spurgeon, C. H. (1896). Morning and evening: Daily readings. London: Passmore & Alabaster.

"BRETHREN, PRAY FOR US."

         “Brethren, pray for us.”

         —1 Thessalonians 5:25

This one morning in the year we reserved to refresh the reader’s memory upon the subject of prayer for ministers, and we do most earnestly implore every Christian household to grant the fervent request of the text first uttered by an apostle and now repeated by us. Brethren, our work is solemnly momentous, involving weal or woe to thousands; we treat with souls for God on eternal business, and our word is either a savour of life unto life, or of death unto death. A very heavy responsibility rests upon us, and it will be no small mercy if at the last we be found clear of the blood of all men. As officers in Christ’s army, we are the especial mark of the enmity of men and devils; they watch for our halting, and labour to take us by the heels. Our sacred calling involves us in temptations from which you are exempt, above all it too often draws us away from our personal enjoyment of truth into a ministerial and official consideration of it. We meet with many knotty cases, and our wits are at a non plus; we observe very sad backslidings, and our hearts are wounded; we see millions perishing, and our spirits sink. We wish to profit you by our preaching; we desire to be blest to your children; we long to be useful both to saints and sinners; therefore, dear friends, intercede for us with our God. Miserable men are we if we miss the aid of your prayers, but happy are we if we live in your supplications. You do not look to us but to our Master for spiritual blessings, and yet how many times has He given those blessings through His ministers; ask then, again and again, that we may be the earthen vessels into which the Lord may put the treasure of the gospel. We, the whole company of missionaries, ministers, city missionaries, and students, do in the name of Jesus beseech you

         “BRETHREN, PRAY FOR US.”

Spurgeon, C. H. (1896). Morning and evening: Daily readings. London: Passmore & Alabaster.

A Mountain Choir

Faith's Checkbook ~ Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Sing, O heavens; and be joyful, O earth; and break forth into singing, O mountains: for the Lord hath comforted his people, and will have mercy upon his afflicted. (Isaiah 49:13)

So sweet are the comforts of the Lord, that not only the saints themselves may sing of them, but even the heavens and the earth may take up the song. It takes something to make a mountain sing; and yet the prophet summons quite a choir of them. Lebanon, and Sirion, and the high hills of Bashan and Moab, He would set them all singing because of Jehovah's grace to His own Zion. May we not also make mountains of difficulty, and trial, and mystery, and labor become occasions for praise unto our God? "Break forth into singing, O mountains!"

This word of promise, that our God will have mercy upon His afflicted, has a whole peal of bells connected with it. Hear their music—"Sing!" "Be joyful!" "Break forth into singing." The Lord would have His people happy because of His unfailing love. He would not have us sad and doubtful; He claims from us the worship of believing hearts. He cannot fail us: why should we sigh or sulk as if He would do so? Oh, for a well-tuned harp! Oh, for voices like those of the cherubim before the throne!

A TOTALITARIAN DEMAND

July 7

Taste and see that the LORD is good. Psalm 34:8

Christianity is a way of life. And it is a way of life that demands a total commitment; it is, if you like, a totalitarian demand. It does not merely ask that we consider it and say, “Oh yes, I can take on that teaching; that’s a good emphasis there, I’ll add that!” No; it is not something to be applied as we think and when and where. Jesus says, “Seek ye first.”

In other words, let me put it like this: Men and women will never know the truth of Christianity or the blessings that it can give until they have given themselves to it. You can examine Christianity from the outside, but you will never know it, you will never get it. “If any man will do his will,” says our Lord, “he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God” (John 7:17).

Here is a great fundamental principle about this way of life: “Taste and see that the LORD is good” (Psalm 34:8). You will never know that the Lord is good until you have tasted Him, until you have tried Him. So many of us are like a man standing in an orchard, and there he looks at an apple tree or a pear tree, and he examines it at a distance. Somebody says, “You know, that has a most wonderful flavour. If only you would try it, you would say that it is the most wonderful fruit you’ve ever tasted in your life.” But the man looks on, and he is not quite satisfied; he is not convinced, and he can argue and stay there for as long as he likes, but he will never know the fruit until he takes it and puts it in his mouth and bites it and proves it. “Taste and see that the LORD is good.”

A theoretical examination of Christianity will never bring us anywhere. Our Lord always calls for a committal.

A THOUGHT TO PONDER 

Christianity is a way of life that demands a total commitment.

WALKING WITH GOD DAY BY DAY ~ Dr. Martin Lloyd Jones

July 5 "Called to be saints"

         “Called to be saints.”

         —Romans 1:7

We are very apt to regard the apostolic saints as if they were “saints” in a more especial manner than the other children of God. All are “saints” whom God has called by His grace, and sanctified by His Spirit; but we are apt to look upon the apostles as extraordinary beings, scarcely subject to the same weaknesses and temptations as ourselves. Yet in so doing we are forgetful of this truth, that the nearer a man lives to God the more intensely has he to mourn over his own evil heart; and the more his Master honours him in his service, the more also doth the evil of the flesh vex and tease him day by day. The fact is, if we had seen the apostle Paul, we should have thought him remarkably like the rest of the chosen family: and if we had talked with him, we should have said, “We find that his experience and ours are much the same. He is more faithful, more holy, and more deeply taught than we are, but he has the selfsame trials to endure. Nay, in some respects he is more sorely tried than ourselves.” Do not, then, look upon the ancient saints as being exempt either from infirmities or sins; and do not regard them with that mystic reverence which will almost make us idolaters. Their holiness is attainable even by us. We are “called to be saints” by that same voice which constrained them to their high vocation. It is a Christian’s duty to force his way into the inner circle of saintship; and if these saints were superior to us in their attainments, as they certainly were, let us follow them; let us emulate their ardour and holiness. We have the same light that they had, the same grace is accessible to us, and why should we rest satisfied until we have equalled them in heavenly character? They lived with Jesus, they lived for Jesus, therefore they grew like Jesus. Let us live by the same Spirit as they did, “looking unto Jesus,” and our saintship will soon be apparent.

Spurgeon, C. H. (1896). Morning and evening: Daily readings. London: Passmore & Alabaster.

we are forgetful of this truth, that the nearer a man lives to God the more intensely has he to mourn over his own evil heart; and the more his Master honours him in his service, the more also doth the evil of the flesh vex and tease him day by day.

“Called to be saints.”

         —Romans 1:7