Great is Your Faithfulness, Morning by Morning (Lamentations 3:21-23)

 

This I recall to my mind,

Therefore I have hope.

Through the LORD’s mercies we are not consumed,
Because His compassions fail not.
They are new every morning;
Great is Your faithfulness.

a. This I recall to mind, therefore I have hope: For perhaps the first time in the book, hope is allowed. Having sunk low in his soul (Lamentations 3:20), Jeremiah now remembered something that started hope within.

i. “In a magnificent expression of faith in the unfailing mercies of God, the writer looks to the distant future with renewed hope.” (Harrison)

ii. “At the south of Africa the sea was generally so stormy, when the frail barks of the Portuguese went sailing south, that they named it the Cape of Storms; but after that cape had been well rounded by bolder navigators, they named it the Cape of Good Hope. In your experience you had many a Cape of Storms, but you have weathered them all, and now, let them be a Cape of Good Hope to you.” (Spurgeon)

b. Through the LORD’s mercies we are not consumed: This was one of the things Jeremiah remembered. He remembered that as beat down and defeated the people of Jerusalem and Judah were, they were not yet completely consumed. There was still a remnant, and remnant with a promise of restoration. Wherever God leaves life, He leaves hope.

i. “The vital word in this verse is ḥeseḏ (‘great love’ [mercies]), the covenant love and loyalty of the Lord that leads to rahamim (‘compassion,’ ‘mercy’), derived from reḥem(‘womb’).” (Ellison)

ii. “See where Jeremiah gets his comfort; he seems to say, ‘Bad as my case is, it might have been worse, for I might have been consumed, and I should have been consumed if the Lord’s compassions had failed.’” (Spurgeon)

c. Because His compassions fail not: Even in the severity of correction God’s people endured, there was evidence of His compassions. There was rich comfort in realizing that the tender affection of God was not completely spent; these compassions were new every morning.

i. “The passage is full of beauty, as it deals with that tender compassion of God which had never been absent even in the work of punishment.” (Morgan)

d. They are new every morning: Each dawning day gives mankind hope in fresh mercies and compassions from God. We need a constant supply and God has promised to send them without fail. No matter how bad the past day was, God’s people can look to the new morning with faith and hope.

i. These mercies are always new because they come from God. “Our treasures, which we lay up on earth, are the stagnant pools; but the treasure which God gives us from heaven, in providence and in grace, is the crystal fount which wells up from the eternal deeps, and is always fresh and always new.” (Spurgeon)

·Every morning ends the night.

·Every morning brings a new day.

·Every morning brings new provision for the day.

·Every morning brings new forgiveness for new sins.

·Every morning brings new strength for new temptations, duties, and trials.

e. Great is Your faithfulness: All this made Jeremiah consider the great faithfulness of God; that He never fails in sending His mercies and compassions. Even in their catastrophe, God was faithful. He faithfully announced His judgments and performed them, and God would prove to be just as faithful in His promised restoration.

i. “The prophet addressed him personally and directly: ‘Great is your faithfulness’. In the process of remembering God’s attributes, Jeremiah was drawn back into living fellowship and intimate communion with his faithful God.” (Ryken)

(Source: taken from Enduring Word Bible Commentary)