Lamentations 3:24 AMP
“‘The LORD is my portion and my inheritance,” says my soul; “Therefore I have hope in Him and wait expectantly for Him.”
As the name suggests, most of what the Prophet Jeremiah penned in the Bible book of Lamentations are deep cries (lamentations) from his soul. As a Prophet of God, Jeremiah figuratively stood between a righteous God and a stiff-necked people; to plead for His mercies for their sake. That was no passive assignment; it was so active, demanding, and took a toll on God’s servant. At some moment, the man of God had even thought that the LORD was intentionally against him. For he said, “He [God] has turned aside my ways and torn me in pieces; He has made me desolate. So I say, ‘My strength has perished And so has my hope and expectation from the LORD'” (Lam 3:11,18 AMP). It was a moment of lamentation from a grieved soul indeed.
However, aware that the LORD Himself had told Jeremiah that “See, today I appoint you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down…” (Jer 1:10 NIV), it suffices to let God alone be true: He would not be the One to again turn around and tear His servant “in pieces”. The Scripture says, “There is nothing deceitful in God, nothing two-faced, nothing fickle” (Jam 1:17 MSG). However, this points out the fact that a soul in pain and anguish is subject to saying whatever it deems fit to be the reason for what it is experiencing. It is the same reason David would wisely counsel his soul to “bless the LORD…And forget not all His benefits” (Psa 103:2 NKJV), and to “hope in God” (Psa 43:5 KJV). How important that is!
In what appears to be a spiritual reawakening, Jeremiah’s words in our text today are a sharp and radical departure from his previous state of mind! His very soul that had felt “cast far away from peace” (Lam 3:17 AMP) reawakened to say, “The LORD is my portion and my inheritance.” Hallelujah! Again, he who had thought that his hope and expectation from the LORD had “perished”, saw a new light of God’s faithfulness and said, “I have hope in Him and wait expectantly for Him.” Hallelujah! Yes, it was the Weeping Prophet whose insight of God got flooded with divine light, and saw God’s faithfulness in a new way. Jeremiah ended up being the very one to make the age-old statement of hope to the LORD, saying, “Great is Your faithfulness” (Lam 3:23 NKJV). That nature of our God STILL stands! Hallelujah!
Pst. Emmanuel