Last year, my collaborator Ryan wrote a wonderful piece on why context matters in Lamentations 3. We sing Chisolm’s comforting poetry (“Summer and winter, springtime and harvest … Great is Thy faithfulness!”) but can easily miss how hard-fought and hard-won such hope really is.

The hope of Lamentations 3 is not the hope of a college acceptance letter or a career promotion. It is more like the cautious and suspicious hope of a positive pregnancy test for a chronically infertile couple. Or the slippery and fragile hope of a brand new widow learning how to manage the finances that had been handled all those years by her dearly departed. Yes, there is hope of good things to come. But such hope has come at great cost.

I encourage you to read Ryan’s piece before continuing, because I would like to build on what he wrote there.

What is Good, Good, Good

Study Bibles are typically quick to point out that chapters 1 through 4 of Lamentations are all acrostics in the original Hebrew, where each verse begins with the next letter of the Hebrew alphabet in order. In other words, if it were English, verse 1 would start with the letter A, verse two with the letter B, and so on. However, chapter 3 triples the pattern, which is why that chapter has 3 times as many verses. In that chapter, verses 1, 2, and 3 all start with the first letter of the alphabet, verses 4, 5, and 6 with the second letter, and so on.

Now while studying Lamentations 3, I recently read Christopher Wright’s commentary (Bible Speaks Today series), and he observed that there are two places in the chapter where all three verses in a group start with not only the same letter but with the same word. That more emphatic repetition draws closer attention to those stanzas.

The first such stanza is Lam 3:25-27, which all begin with the Hebrew word that gets translated as “good.” Good is Yahweh to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him (Lam 3:25). Good it is that one should wait quietly for Yahweh’s salvation (Lam 3:26). Good it is for a man to bear the yoke in his youth (Lam 3:27).

These three reminders of what is good, good, good, take on a crucial role in the poem. In the first 18 verses, the poet took a number of metaphors from the Psalms, such as “Yahweh is my shepherd” and “Yahweh is a mighty warrior,” and he gave them a sinister spin, such that this shepherd has apparently turned the weapons of his warfare against his own sheep. In the midst of such raw feelings and wrestlings, it is critical to recall what is good, good, good.

And note that he does not say that “my suffering is good.” No, he says Yahweh is good. And it is good that my suffering makes me wait for him to show up and rescue. And it is good to learn such patient waiting while we’re young. All of this deepens our trust that our greatest hope is not even the fact that Yahweh’s love and mercy never cease (Lam 3:22-23); our greatest hope is that, at the end of all this suffering and waiting, we get more of him as our share of inheritance (Lam 3:24). Yahweh is my portion; therefore I will hope in him.

So when we go through hard times, let’s make sure to get our definitions right of what is good, good, good.

What It’s All For, For, For

Wright observes that the second stanza with a repeated word at the start of all three lines is Lam 3:31-33. And that word is typically translated as “for.” But this stanza is the second one we should look to for special emphasis.

In these three verses, the poet takes the glorious truths of Lam 3:19-30 and applies them to the dark feelings of Lam 3:1-18. This stanza shows the poet in action, fighting vigorously for that fragile hope in the midst of his agony. This is what it looks like to take truth and apply it to circumstances or feelings.

According to Lam 3:31, the Lord is, without question, the one who has cast him off. His circumstances are not the product of blind fate, angry enemies, or a callous universe. His situation has been decreed from God (“Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that good and bad come?” Lam 3:38). The Lord has cast him off. But he will not do so forever. His mercies never come to an end.

According to Lam 3:32, the Lord is the one who has caused the poet grief. But that is not the end of the story. His steadfast, covenant love never ceases. This love is so abundant that it is bound to spill over and pour out in compassion.

According to Lam 3:33, the Lord afflicts and grieves the children of men. Again, they are not victims to competing forces of good and evil striving for supremacy. No, the Lord has done it. But he does not do it from his heart. His heart toward his people is not one of disappointment and condemnation. His heart of hearts is one of compassionate love.

Fight for Hope

So often in life, hope comes only after a hard fight. Fight to admit how hard life really is. Fight to believe what you know to be true. Fight to confess God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as the one behind all you are going through. If he is responsible for having gotten you into this mess, then only he can truly be responsible to get you out of it. Jesus died and rose to make it happen. The process of learning this and waiting for him to show up and make it right is so good for you and me. That is what inspires us to hope and to trust that what we most need is more of the Lord himself. However fragile that hope may be amid deep affliction.