Dear Amy,

What ought to occupy our thinking at the beginning of a new year?

There are several possible answers to that question. Here’s mine.

But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope:

The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.

“The LORD is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.”

The LORD is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD.

― Lamentations 3:21-26

These few verses are a shaft of light in the book of Lamentations which otherwise makes for a sobering read. The backdrop is the destruction of Jerusalem after an eighteen month siege by Nebuchadnezzar, and the exile of Judah to Babylon. It was the grimmest of times. The city was plundered and its inhabitants taken into captivity. Women were raped; priests, prophets and officials executed. There was famine so severe that mothers were eating their own children.

Worst of all, this was the Lord’s judgment on his own people, his chosen ones, for their ongoing waywardness and apostasy.

Judah has gone into exile because of affliction and hard servitude; … because the LORD has afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions;

Jerusalem sinned grievously; therefore she became filthy;

Look and see if there is any sorrow like my sorrow, which was brought upon me, which the LORD inflicted on the day of his fierce anger.

― Lamentations 1:3, 5, 8, 12

This was the just and holy judgment of our God whose name is Jealous, a consuming fire.

We should tremble as we read, and then repent and expel every last sin from our own lives and purge every wrong thought and every crooked motive from our own hearts and minds. The Lord takes seriously our sanctification, our holiness, and so must we.

But marvel that it is in the midst of this tribulation that the writer expresses hope in the steadfast love and faithfulness of the Lord. Even in the judgment there is mercy.

For the Lord will not cast off forever, but, though he cause grief, he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love; for he does not afflict from his heart or grieve the children of men.

― Lamentations 3:31-33

For I the LORD do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed. From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from my statutes and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you, says the LORD of hosts.

― Malachi 3:6-7

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases and his mercies never come to an end. Put all your hope in him for this new year, Amy, for great is his faithfulness! 🙏