Peace and quiet
Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed,
for his compassions never fail.
They are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
I say to myself, ‘The Lord is my portion;
therefore I will wait for him.’The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him,
to the one who seeks him;
it is good to wait quietly
for the salvation of the Lord.
It is good for a man to bear the yoke
while he is young.Let him sit alone in silence,
for the Lord has laid it on him.
Let him bury his face in the dust—
there may yet be hope.
Let him offer his cheek to one who would strike him,
and let him be filled with disgrace.For no one is cast off
by the Lord for ever.
Though he brings grief, he will show compassion,
so great is his unfailing love.
For he does not willingly bring affliction
or grief to anyone.Lamentations 3:22–33 (NIVUK)
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Today, we are meditating on the Old Testament reading from Lamentations. Let’s pray…
The struggle of silence
When was the last time you found yourself in a place where all you wanted was some peace and quiet? We are all different and can cope with different levels of stimulation, but we all get to a place when we’ve had enough and just need some quiet to rest and reset.
You might be a parent or a teacher who spends entire days surrounded by noisy children. You might be someone who works with machinery with a constant mechanical humming and beeping in the background.
Some of us like having some noise in the background because it makes us feel more comfortable. You might like to have some background music going when you work or study. You might need a bit of noise to keep your focus sharp.
During our time away over the last couple of weeks, we stayed with someone who avoids silence at all costs. He does this by creating his own noise. When he opened the fridge door or reached to grab the TV remote, he’d release some kind of grunt or moan. If he walked down the hallway to get something, he’d be whistling to himself the whole way. When other people entered his space, he’d just start talking to whoever wanted to listen. He simply could not bear silence. For some of us, silence is too confronting to bear.
Have you ever been in a space where there was complete silence? I’m not sure I have, at least not for a very long time. Even in the middle of the night while everyone in the house is asleep, the fridge is still running and there might be traffic outside or trees moving in the breeze.
The noise in this world is more than just what is heard. In a time where information is constantly accessible, whether digital or by other means, there is also the constant noise of news updates, social updates, weather updates, even church updates. We put out a weekly bulletin just to make sure that everyone has the latest information. If you receive it via email, it comes along with all your other emails—bills to pay, bank statements, newsletters, online shopping, and whatever else.
So, even if we do manage to find complete audible silence, our minds are still ticking and needing to be kept updated. This isn’t just about all those young people on Tik Tok—the world around us has conditioned us this way, no matter your generation or competence with technology.
We have become extremely poor at sitting in silence and we tend do whatever we can to avoid it.
Silence in suffering
When we experience unexpected challenges in life, we struggle even more with silence. When life throws these challenges at us and we experience some kind of pain or grief, Lamentations 3:26 says that “it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.” To better understand just what Jeremiah is writing about, we need to go back a few verses.
Israel has been exiled from their homeland and Jeremiah describes exactly what it feels like with vivid imagery. Notice what Jeremiah blames God for and then where he ends up. Listen for things that you might identify with yourself.
I am the man who has seen affliction
by the rod of the Lord’s wrath.
He has driven me away and made me walk
in darkness rather than light;
indeed, he has turned his hand against me
again and again, all day long.He has made my skin and my flesh grow old
and has broken my bones.
He has besieged me and surrounded me
with bitterness and hardship.
He has made me dwell in darkness
like those long dead.He has walled me in so that I cannot escape;
he has weighed me down with chains.
Even when I call out or cry for help,
he shuts out my prayer.
He has barred my way with blocks of stone;
he has made my paths crooked.Like a bear lying in wait,
like a lion in hiding,
he dragged me from the path and mangled me
and left me without help.
He drew his bow
and made me the target for his arrows.He pierced my heart
with arrows from his quiver.
I became the laughing stock of all my people;
they mock me in song all day long.
He has filled me with bitter herbs
and given me gall to drink.He has broken my teeth with gravel;
he has trampled me in the dust.
I have been deprived of peace;
I have forgotten what prosperity is.
So I say, ‘My splendour is gone
and all that I had hoped from the Lord.’I remember my affliction and my wandering,
the bitterness and the gall.
I well remember them,
and my soul is downcast within me.
Yet this I call to mind
and therefore I have hope:Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed,
for his compassions never fail.
They are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.Lamentations 3:1–23 (NIVUK)
When God had taken His people away from their land and everything they knew, how could Jeremiah possibly proclaim hope for rescue? When Jairus’ daughter lay dead, how could he possibly hope for life? When the woman suffered from her disorder for twelve years, how could she possibly hope for healing?
Did God remain faithful to His people? Did Jesus raise the girl from death? Did Jesus heal the long-suffering woman? Jeremiah can say that “it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord” because our waiting is always rewarded. These people didn’t wait for something that will eventually fade away and be forgotten. They waited for a sure thing and God delivered.
When we experience suffering, we can do quite the opposite of waiting quietly for the Lord.
When the woman touched Jesus’ clothes and he started looking for her, the disciples looked for a way to just leave it and keep moving. “‘You see the people crowding against you,’ his disciples answered, ‘and yet you can ask, “Who touched me?”’ But Jesus kept looking…” (Mk. 5:31–32a).
In a similar way, the people tried to convince Jairus to accept his daughter’s death and stop bothering Jesus, as if Jesus had more important things to do or places to be.
When you experience suffering, you can try to just accept it and get on with life. You can search for reasons why it’s happening to you. You can even try to deny it’s happening at all.
Jeremiah shows us another way. He says that when you suffer, don’t wallow in it and don’t try to find something to blame. Surprisingly, Jeremiah shows us how to blame God for your grief and then wait for Him to save you from it. He writes:
Let him sit alone in silence,
for the Lord has laid it on him.
Let him bury his face in the dust—
there may yet be hope.Lamentations 3:28–29 (NIVUK)
God’s purpose in suffering
God allows us to suffer because he longs to show us His mercy. We won’t accept it if we don’t realise our need for it. God does not want to cause us pain, but He allows it in order to open us up to His grace. He lays these things on us to make us see that we completely depend on His strength, not our own. So, even the suffering He lays on us comes from a place of love. Even the hard things we experience are a blessing in the long run.
For Jairus’ daughter, death was not the end—it was a way for Jesus to reveal His power. For the sick woman, her illness was not the end—it was a way for Jesus to show His love. For Israel, exile was not the end—it was a way that God demonstrated His faithfulness. For Christ, His death was not the end—it was the way to give us life.
For you, your suffering is not the end. Your pain is not the end. Your ageing body is not the end. Your troubled mind is not the end. Your death is not the end. These are ways that God shows His great love, His never-failing compassion, and His great faithfulness.
Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed,
for his compassions never fail.
They are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
I say to myself, ‘The Lord is my portion;
therefore I will wait for him.’Lamentations 3:22–24 (NIVUK)
Every morning, remember that you are a baptised child of God who belongs to a faithful God. May we quietly wait for the Lord’s salvation to come in our suffering and, finally, when Christ returns.
