Thanksgiving Day 2020 | Lamentations 3:21-26

A Portion and a Promise on Thanksgiving Day

1. The portion of the LORD’s unchanging mercy

2. The promise of the LORD’s unfailing compassion

Here we are at another Thanksgiving Day. But it’s 2020 – is there really any reason to be thankful?

·       A continuing pandemic

·       A tumultuous election year in our nation

·       Racial discord

·       Civil unrest

·       Rates of depression and anxiety are skyrocketing

·       Many people in financial distress and suffering from lost jobs

By all accounts, this has been an excruciating year for many people. Most people can’t wait to turn the chapter on this year and move on. And yet, we have the annual day of Thanksgiving. Is it anything more than a traditional obligation this year? Are we truly thankful today – do we have reason to be?

Well, it’s clear that we do. We should always take stock of the daily blessings that we have. Some may be lacking, but for most of us we are well taken care of with plenty of blessings from God. Good health, a loving home, friends and family, food on the table, living in peace and freedom, good weather, money in our bank accounts and savings. There may be things in the extended list of daily blessings that come and go, or that we suffer in from time to time, but for all of us we have much more than we need or deserve. And the wise adage that things can always get worse is certainly fitting in any season of life.

But, today as we reflect with Thanksgiving, let us take it one step further, a step that can only be taken by faith. Let us reflect not only on the everyday blessings we have, but the weightier, reaching-to-eternity blessings that are ours in Christ Jesus – things which our earthly eyes do not see. Today, we consider how, because of those blessings in Jesus, we can rejoice with Thanksgiving even in the most troublesome times, as we read from God’s Word in Lamentations 3:21-26: This I recall to my mind, Therefore I have hope. 22 Through the LORD’s mercies we are not consumed, Because His compassions fail not. 23 They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness. 24 “The LORD is my portion,” says my soul, “Therefore I hope in Him!” 25 The LORD is good to those who wait for Him, To the soul who seeks Him. 26 It is good that one should hope and wait quietly For the salvation of the LORD.

It's hard to imagine a more hopeless scene than the one surrounding the book of Lamentations – the one book of the Bible that is literally named after sorrow. Lamentations was written by the prophet Jeremiah as he witnessed the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple. Unlike Daniel, who was carried off to Babylon, Jeremiah was left behind. We can only imagine the horrors that Jeremiah witnessed. Indeed, it is difficult because few of us have ever seen things that could be deemed similar. War, destruction, famine, pain, captivity, death – and the list goes on. Considering the context of these verses certainly helps us put our current trials in perspective.

And yet, in the midst of an entire volume dedicated to lament – we have these words of hope expressed by God’s prophet. Themes such as hope, mercy, faithfulness, and salvation – where do such blessings come from when one is trapped in the valley of the shadow of death? They come from the LORD almighty – the one, true God. These blessings are also the bigger ones. Yes, food, home, and family had been taken from God’s people in Israel. Yet, no enemy could touch God’s mercy, faithfulness, and salvation for them. The trials they endured highlighted the eternal blessings that they treasured, and the same lesson is played out in each believer’s life when their physical blessings are threatened or taken away.

In fact, at times, God strips us of those very things to lessen the attachment we have to this world. For Israel, God’s greater plan was to humble their hardened pride so that they would no longer drift away from their heritage of faith in the true God. Even the pain and destruction in this sense was used by God for their good. And we’d be foolish to think that we are that much different from Israel and the same principle is not also at work in our lives.

It’s one thing to understand such things. It’s a completely different thing to be thankful in the midst of trials. We may recognize God’s ability to work through trial and difficulty in our lives, but how can be thankful for those very circumstances? The answer is that a change must take place and we see that change in the way our text reads. As Jeremiah quotes his own soul he says, “The LORD is my portion.” The great exchange that must take place is that God must take our place – both in the punishment suffered by also in the hope gained. First, we see that we have a portion of God’s unchanging mercy.

Part of what makes these words remarkable is that a few verses before, Jeremiah confessed the exact opposite: Lamentations 3:17-18 “You have moved my soul far from peace; I have forgotten prosperity. My strength and my hope Have perished from the LORD.” But notice the difference, that sentiment was based on Jeremiah. His strength. His hope. Those things were what perished before the LORD – any desire to be sustained by Jeremiah’s efforts. Only when Jeremiah recalled the LORD’s unchanging mercy did hope return to his heart.

Both elements can be true, and even must, for hope by faith to exist. We must abandon any notion that we can accomplish our soul’s needs, or that we can confront and conquer the enemies of our faith. We must discard the idea that we can replicate the fulfillment and happiness that God alone can give. The LORD alone guides and sustains us. Therefore, it is not wrong for Christians to display weakness, discouragement, or failure. The strength of our faith is not in ourselves, therefore, we cannot expect life to look like that. Many have built their image of the Christian life on what they do or what they look like – but what hope does that offer when the storms of life come our way?

When the LORD’s mercy becomes our portion, we lose that false mindset. But consider what mercy is. Mercy is kindness and goodness directed toward those who do not deserve it. Think of it as synonymous with grace. One scholar’s rendering for this Hebrew word is “kindness (especially as extended to the lowly, needy and miserable).” That is what we are. That is why we need the LORD’s mercy. We are lowly. We are needy. We are miserable – and it comes back to our transgressions before the LORD’s holy Word. We are in need of mercy because we have messed it. The difficulties we face are not always someone else’s problem. We are not innocent bystanders. Even as Jeremiah contemplated Jerusalem’s destruction in great sorrow, he reflected on his own hopelessness as a sinner that led to that very judgment. Even God’s prophet was not innocent.

The reason we can be honest about that reality today and still be thankful – is because of what God’s mercy does. It keeps us from being consumed, literally “finished,” by our sinful deeds. God does not give us what we deserve. That is one reason we are thankful today – even if the year has not been what we expected it to be. And sometimes when things don’t go our way, it can be a greater blessing because it helps us recall, as Jeremiah did, the LORD’s mercy in unchanging in the chaos and destruction of life.

Paired with God’s unchanging mercy is the promise of His unfailing compassion. To our ears it may seem that the LORD is expressing the same thing with compassion as we talked about with mercy. It is true that they are synonymous, and they are used that way by Jeremiah. But there is a difference worth highlighting too. The focus of mercy is upon the individual in need of help. The focus of compassion is on the individual giving help. Both thoughts center on love but from different perspectives. Mercy reminds us of what God rescues us from while compassion reminds us of depths of God’s care for us. One word expresses love from the sinner’s vantage point while the other expresses it from God’s vantage point.

We see this connection in Jeremiah’s words as he compares sinners not being consumed with God’s mercy not failing. Our lives with God are directly tied to His compassion and the way His mercy works for us. Mercy points to how He removes the wrong – our sin, and compassion points us to the never-ending supply of His care for us. So as Jeremiah puts it, BECAUSE God’s compassions do not fail, we are not consumed as we are kept in God’s mercy. The blessings that flow from this reality are abundant. We can say with Jeremiah, no matter the circumstance of our lives:

·       The LORD’s mercy and compassion are new every day.

·       The LORD’s faithfulness is great.

·       We have hope in the LORD.

·       The LORD is good to those who wait upon Him by faith. 

These truths are valid and certain for every aspect of our physical lives. When it comes to food, homes, family, health, finances, studies, jobs, hobbies, and all other things – the LORD is present and acting upon your behalf in unchanging mercy and unfailing compassion. But these truths reach highest when you consider your soul and the lengths that God went to secure eternal salvation for you. Because you have the mercy and compassion given by Jesus, as your Savior from sin and eternal damnation – you have heavenly blessings in abundance.

Has 2020 been rough? Sure. Are we ready to move on? Probably. It’s okay to think that way. But trials, struggles, and personal obstacles because of sin will always be present in different forms. The severity of such things may come and go, but let us not trust in man’s planning or crossing our fingers that the next year will somehow be magically better. More productive, and more realistic, than bemoaning our present circumstances, is rejoicing with thanksgiving in the blessings of God that never change. In all things, the LORD gives you a portion of His unchanging mercy and a promise of His unfailing compassion. Oh give thanks unto the LORD, for He is good! In all things and at all times. Amen.