{{I cannot begin to summarize the book of Jeremiah in this short post, so I'm going to leave a link at the bottom to The Bible Project's video overview.}}
Jeremiah is known as "The weeping prophet" for a reason. Although David wrote Psalm 12, I'm sure Jeremiah felt every last word of it. In Jeremiah 1:10, God Himself reaches out His hand, touches Jeremiah's mouth, and says "I have now filled your mouth with My words." (Why does that make me cry?) God is with Jeremiah, declaring to him "They will fight against you but never prevail over you, since I am with you to rescue you."
Jeremiah goes through ALOT to give God's message to the people. There are false prophets in the midst of them, promising there will be no judgment, no sword, no famine. Lies, deceit, flattering lips. So you can imagine that made Jeremiah's message of judgment very unpopular. God says in Psalm 12 "I will rise up and provide safety for the one who longs for it."
But according to Jeremiah 14, that is NOT the people of Judah. Oh, they mourn, they cry, they are ashamed, they are humiliated. They know they are sinners, they bring their list before God, they remind Him that they bear His Name. When I read this, I thought "Perfect! This fits our description of true lament to a T." But God says He does not accept their lament. Why? Because they are prone to wander, never resting. Like the 9 lepers, they want to go their own way, healed and healthy, with no real thought to how they got there. God recognizes true lament even when we think it sounds "pretty good". God sees and knows the heart.
Psalm 137 is headlined "The Lament of the Exiles", and is thought to be written by Jeremiah. Here we see Judah in exile, which happened during Jeremiah's time. In Jeremiah 39, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon swooped into Jerusalem with his army, killed King Zedekiah's sons and noble men in front of him, and then blinded him and put him in chains. The invading army burned the palace and the people's houses, and tore down the walls of Jerusalem. The exiles have now been in Babylon and have been for years. They are mourning and weeping. They are remembering Zion, another name for Jerusalem--the city of God. They have given up the pretense of worship, hanging their musical instruments in the trees. We know they have been singing, because their captors torment them with it--taunting them by saying "Sing us one of those songs from the city of your God!!" They feel so far from God, exiles in a foreign land. The memory of Jerusalem is fading from their memory, and it scares them! They would forfeit a healthy body for a chance to always remember how good they had it in God's presence. (side note--The groom in a traditional Jewish wedding ceremony will recite Psalm 137:5-6 before breaking a glass in memory of the destruction of Jerusalem. That's how much this exile affected the nation.)
This day is heavy, so forgive me for adding a funny clip from The Office to help carry it. Sit here and cry The people of Judah are convinced they are the best singers, God's singers essentially, but God says "You're just not good. You're just not good." They cry and pout, sorryish for their sins, mostly sorry for themselves. But exile changes them. They feel the void of separation from God, and it breaks them. They want revenge, yes. But they are ready to see redemption win, they are ready to return to God.
Jeremiah had a tough job, warning the people that God was not happy with them. I can see myself in their response--making excuses, wallowing in self-pity, blaming everyone else, believing the ones who give me the news I want to hear. When I'm sad, when I'm mourning, grieving, regretting, lamenting, I want the people beside me to speak the truth to me. That's the importance of lamenting in community. I pray we will sing the truest song, even though it's sad, knowing God is in control.
(I'm also including a link that explains the last 2 verses of Psalm 137, which seem so mean!! This pastor explains it better than I could!!)
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