Lamentations chapter 5

vs 12

The terrors of war that get forced on the losers quite regularly, unfortunately. Morale plays such a huge part in war. And Israel lost, and now their morale is being shot. God wants that, of course - let them be miserable in their punishment.

vs 13

Doing slave work. Because they are slaves. No longer free people with their own land.

vs 14

Nothing to celebrate, and nothing to lead.

vs 15

Little wonder. It's hard to do anything but mourn in such a circumstance.

vs 16

And that is the crux of the matter. They sinned. They're copping it. They've lost their treasured status, or at least they are seeing what it's like to have God turn his face away. And it's nasty.

vs 17 and 18

I put these two verses together so they make sense. Like I said earlier, their morale is broken, they have faced terrible things, they begin to lose hope from it.

vs 19

This is not simple praise in my opinion. This is a build up to the next verse. This is a true statement about God, but it is going to be used for the basis of a question. So God's throne is eternal...

vs 20

Always! That is emotive language. Although if anyone can say it, I guess it's Jeremiah. And the truth is that Jeremiah knows that God doesn't 'always' forget, and he knows why God has forsaken them. But at this moment, when he writes, it doesn't seem fair. He's just being honest about how he feels, probably how lots of people feel.

vs 21

Jeremiah knows that only God can restore this relationship, and the people desperately want it. They realise now that the good old days of God's rule were actually good. Too late, of course. But at least the lesson is learned. They will be returned to God, although nothing like the good old days will come for 70 or so years.

vs 22

This could be an option, and this is always the scary thing. God has no force to compel him to love us or look after us beyond his own nature. We don't do anything to endear ourselves to him most of the time, and we certainly don't live up to his standards of perfection. The thought that this might be the end - that God might have another people chosen for himself, and that the relationship is broken - I can't think of anything worse.