THE LORD SPOKE (November 2)

Daily Reflections from Scripture:

Lamentations 1-2

Ghost town.

The very words stir up the imagination. A tumbleweed rolls across the dusty street. Wind whistles through a broken window pane and makes a shutter bang. A once bustling thoroughfare is now filled with the sound of silence.

In this book (Lamentations), the city was Jerusalem. “How deserted lies the city, once so full of people! All her gateways are desolate.” (1:1,4). Imagine that. The busiest place in the city was the gate. People came and went constantly, the market was there, the city elders sat there and judged civil cases, announcements and meetings - clandestine and open - took place there any time of the day or night. Now it was all silent, run down, insecure.

Words like deserted, desolate, despised, departed, distressed, dishonored, and dead all appear in the first two chapters. There are multiple “groans” and “grief” is mentioned frequently. It lies “trampled” and “swallowed up” and there is “multiplied mourning and lamentation”.

Note the progression in 2:9...

1. Jerusalem is destroyed (“sunk into the ground”)
2. the people are dispersed (“exiled among the nations”)
3. there is no word from the Lord (“the law is no more”)

In the ordinary Jewish perception, listing the destruction of Jerusalem first may have seemed to be putting the worst first but it’s really the other way around. Nothing could be worse than to have the Heavens shut up. By far, the worst was that “the law is no more.” The Hebrew word translated “law” is torah and it means so much more. The root word comes from “instruction”. What’s missing is a word from God - there is no more teaching coming from the Lord. Now that is a ghost town existence.

Have you been there before? Maybe you even tried, but He didn’t seem to be communicating with you anymore. Did you try? Really? Remember: If you seem far away from the Lord, there’s no question as to who did the moving. So come back to Him. Seek “a word from the Lord”. Not some mystical, horoscopic instruction but good, solid teaching from Scripture. To do that you must read it. You must read it expectantly. You must read it with an open heart. And you must read it regularly. Beware the barrenness of a busy life.


Psalms 93-94

When I said, “My foot is slipping,”
Your love, O Lord, supported me.
When anxiety was great within me,
Your consolation brought joy to my soul.
Psalm 94:18-19

“Get a grip!” they say. But how do you do that when you have no strength in your hands to hold on?

“Don’t cry,” they say. But how do you do that when the tears just keep welling up and won’t stop coming?

“Be a man,” they say. But what if you’re needing someone else to lean on right now. What if your knees are sagging and your shoulders are stooped?

In the previous verse, the psalmist says, “Unless the Lord had given me help, I would soon have dwelt in the silence of death” (Ps. 94:17). Surely, the One who made ears, hears, and the One who created eyes, sees (Ps. 94:9). He pays heed and comes to our aid.

It might be in the form of discipline. It’s quite possible that our troubles are the result of our own folly and He must needs correct us first. The psalmist says, blessed is the man (literally, “how happy”) who receives such correction (Ps. 94:12). Solomon put it this way:

My son, do not despise the Lord’s discipline and do not resent his rebuke, because the Lord disciplines those he loves, as a father the son he delights in. (Prov. 3:11-12)

The writer to the Hebrews quotes that passage and then goes on to say:

Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father? If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are illegitimate children and not true sons. Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live! Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. (Heb. 12:7-11)

“A harvest of righteousness and peace.” The psalmist calls it “joy in my soul” (Ps. 94:19). You’ll call it the greatest blessing you’ve ever experienced when you learn to say,

The Lord has become my fortress, and my God the rock in whom I take refuge. (Ps. 94:22)