Lamentations 5:19-22

II. THE RESTORATION OF ZION REQUESTED Lamentations 5:19-22

TRANSLATION

(19) You, O LORD, are enthroned forever! Your throne is from generation to generation. (20) Why have You forgotten us forever, forsaken us for so many days? (21) Turn us, O LORD, unto You that we may return! Renew our days as of old. (22) Unless You have utterly rejected us, are angry with us exceedingly.

COMMENTS

Having presented his case before the divine Judge Jeremiah enters his appeal. The appeal is first anchored securely in a basic theological truth: you, O LORD, are enthroned forever (Lamentations 5:19). The emphatic position of the pronoun suggests a contrast. The poet has described at length in Lamentations 5:1-18 the destruction and loss of all the temporal blessings which God had given His people. Earthly things may pass away but God remains. Though conditions of earth may seem to deteriorate, the Eternal is still on His throne. His Temple on earth may be destroyed but His heavenly throne cannot be overthrown. When the disillusioned and down-trodden recapture this basic truth they have laid the foundation upon which hope can be reconstructed and petition presented before God.

The appeal to God takes the form of a question: Why have You forgotten us forever? (Lamentations 5:20). To those who had recently come through the siege of Jerusalem the prospects of fifty more years of servitude to Babylon (Jeremiah 25:12) seemed like an eternity. It seemed to them that God had forgotten and forsaken them forever. In desperation and complete submission they call upon God to help and aid them to properly repent. The people realize that restoration and renewal are dependent upon complete return to God and they are most anxious that their repentance meet with divine approval. They ask God to restore Judah to its former state (Lamentations 5:21). Unless He has utterly rejected them (Lamentations 5:22). An utter and complete rejection would not be in harmony with the promises which God had already made about the future of Israel (Jeremiah 27:19 ff; Jeremiah 29:10 ff.). If God still rules, if the people are willing to submit to Him, if He has not utterly rejected them, then God must intervene on behalf of His people. Thus the sad book of Lamentations closes with a fervent appeal for God's aid and a confident expectation that He would indeed intervene on behalf of His people.