Lamentations 3

[Third in a “series” on Lamentations and the stages of coping with loss described by Elisabeth Kübler Ross.]

One of the common responses to being confronted with loss is bargaining: Luther’s vow to St. Anne to become a monk should his life be spared during a violent thunderstorm fits into this category (this was 2 July 1505). This attitude can also be discerned in Lamentations 3,* although perhaps not so clearly as “isolation” in chapter 1, or “anger” in chapter 2.

The structure of the poem is more complex that I’m going to describe it here, but this rough outline allows the “bargaining” stance to emerge. In vv. 1-18 there is an autobiographical statement of suffering. In it, the “man who has seen affliction” (v. 1) describes God as a hostile force, relentlessly depriving him of health, peace, and hope. (Note especially how many times you read “he did x” in vv. 2-17!) The summary in v. 18 provides the bottom line: hope is gone.

However, a different sort of reflection on God comes from the same voice in vv. 19-39: as the “man” reflects, he has to admit that God is perpetually merciful and that, in fact, there is no hope apart from him. And so, only in looking to God is it possible to find hope (see especially vv. 28-33).

The upshot is that the whole community is encouraged to submit to God who alone can guarantee justice (vv. 40-66). The “bargain” is struck in v. 40 (“Let us test and examine our ways / and return to the Lord!”), and the “transaction” is described in more personal terms in vv. 55-57.

Putting that all together, one can (I hope) see how the “bargaining” response resonates with this passage. More importantly, it sets our thinking on a trajectory like C. S. Lewis’s in his famous quote: “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world” (source). Grace is so amazing that God is willing to deal with us even on these terms!

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* By the way, at 66 verses, chapter 3 is still the same length as the 22 verses of chapters 1 and 2: in the first two chapters verses are made up of three poetic lines, while in chapter 3, each poetic line is numbered individually.