The Steadfast Love of God | Lamentations 3:22-25 | Dr. Brian Lee

There's a stretch of books in the Old Testament that is referred to as the major prophets. Books like Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, epic books that go through many chapters in length. And tucked away in the midst of those books is a much shorter book, five chapters written by one of the major prophets, and that is where we will be tonight for our bible study. So turn with me to the book of Lamentations. Lamentations, authored by God, written by Jeremiah, known as the weeping prophet.

We will look at four verses tonight. Just four verses, but four amazing verses as our main text. So Lamentations chapter three, we will start in verse 22 and go to verse 25. And this passage is familiar to many, but what might be more familiar is the title of a hymn that we get from this passage that we still sing today. So Lamentations three twenty two twenty five.

Let's read it together. The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases. His mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness.

The lord is my portion, says my soul. Therefore, I will hope in him. The lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. We're going to divide our four verses in half. So two main sections tonight, verses twenty two and twenty three.

We will look at the attributes of a loving God, the attributes of a loving God. And in verses twenty four and twenty five, we will look at the faithful response of God's people, So the attributes of a loving God and our faithful response, the faithful response of God's people. Let me read the first two verses again. The steadfast love of the Lord, that's the first attribute we'll look at, never ceases. His mercies, that's the second, never come to an end.

They are new every morning, and great is your faithfulness. So his steadfast love, his mercies, his faithfulness, those are the three attributes we will look at. And I wanna acknowledge from the get go that this passage and our message tonight begins with love. My heart is already stirred singing about God's love in the songs that we did, the steadfast love of the Lord. And like the fruit of the spirit, which is listed in Galatians five twenty two, where we see love at the head of that verse, whereby everything else like joy, peace, kindness, patience, everything else flows from love.

We see here in Lamentations three that the steadfast love of god is at the head of the passage. And then his mercies, his faithfulness, and eventually our faithful response flow from the love of God. And this is a reminder at the get go here for you and me that it is the love of God that draws us to him, to know it, to remind ourselves of it, to rehearse it over and over again in our lives as a pillar of truth. It is his love that calls us to love, to love him and to love one another. We love because he first loved us.

First John four nineteen. We love because he first loved us. And the phrase steadfast love we see in Lamentations three is a specific kind of love that we see in god. It's a phrase that appears over and over again, I think, about 250 times in the Old Testament. It's a love that goes much deeper than emotion.

Some translations use the phrase loving kindness. You might see that in your translation. But that too might fall short of the deeper meaning of the original word. The Hebrew word here is hesed, which speaks to a kind of love that is loyal, a loyal love. And we often see it deeply connected to God's mercy and forgiveness, but also to the covenants that God makes with his people, a covenantal love, a promise keeping love.

And perhaps in this way, we often call a marriage between husband and wife a covenant, which also is a picture, of course, of Christ and his love for his bride, the church. And I want us to look at one particular passage that speaks of hesed, covenantal love of god to his people. In the first part of Deuteronomy, where Moses calls god's people to look back at god's love and faithfulness during their wilderness journey, demonstrating his love for them. We see this in Deuteronomy seven verse nine. It begins like this.

Know therefore and let me pause for a second. God wants us to know this. He wants us to know. Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations. I mean, it's obvious here.

Right? We see covenant and steadfast love directly connected, linked together. And there are two unconditional covenants I wanna remind us of tonight that we find in the Bible that is rooted in God's steadfast love for us that we are deeply connected to today. There's the Abrahamic covenant, Genesis 12. Right?

Abram gets the call from God to leave his land, go leave his father's house, go to a land that God will show him later on. And there, God promises that he would make Abram into a great nation. But at the end of that covenant, he says that all the families of the earth shall be blessed. Not just Abraham and his descendants Israel, but for the nations, for god so loved the world. And we are the families of the earth that are blessed now.

We are the spiritual children of Abraham by faith because of god's hesed love for us through the Abrahamic covenant. And that should stir our hearts. I mean, we're connected to this covenant from thousands of years ago in another land, another people. Do you remember the verse in Galatians that speaks of this? It's Galatians three verse seven, which says, know then again, God wants us to know this.

Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preach the gospel beforehand to Abraham saying, in you shall all the nations be blessed. So then those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith. By faith, we are the recipients of God's hesed love. Today, because of this promise he made to Abraham thousands of years ago, the steadfast love of the Lord still continues and will never cease.

But the other covenant to be reminded of is that we are connected to what is known as the Davidic covenant, where God, through the prophet Nathan, tells David that he will raise up offspring after him who shall come from David's own body. And second Samuel seven fifteen says, but my steadfast love will not depart from him, David, as I took it from Saul whom I put away be from before you. And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever. I hope that also stirs your heart tonight that we are connected to this covenant.

The message of the gospel is right here. It's that God so loved the world that he sent his son, Jesus, the son of David, who died on the cross for our sins and rose from the dead that whoever, Jew or Gentile, whoever repents and believes in his name shall have eternal life, covenant. We are a covenantal people because of the steadfast love of the Lord. First John four nine says this, in this, the love of god was made manifest among us that god sent his only son into the world so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins.

It begins with love, the love of God that is vast, the steadfast love of God. And these covenants reverberate throughout history that we are still connected to, and it will resonate into eternity when Christ comes back. May that strengthen our faith tonight, brothers and sisters, that we may love and worship him and him alone all the more. And it's interesting to see here in Lamentations three in our passage that the steadfast love of the lord is used in the negative clause. Did you notice that?

Never. It never ceases. And in most cases, I believe in the other passages throughout the Old Testament, the steadfast love is used in the positive, like the steadfast love of the Lord endures forever, which is repeated famously over and over again in Psalm one thirty six. Why is it here in Lamentations three used in the negative clause or in negation? I think one possible answer is that it's meant to reassure us even to this day, but definitely during that time, reassure God's people and strengthen them in a time of doubt, darkness, even death.

And remember, Jeremiah wrote these words in Lamentations, when doubt was at an all time high, doubt doubting god's love. I mean, he had just seen the destruction of the temple and the and Jerusalem with his eyes. Perhaps you've had a conversation with a child or a loved one where, in a moment of doubt or insecurity, that person might ask you a hypothetical question, and you answer them by saying, no. I would never do that to you. Never.

To reassure that person, right, of your loyalty and commitment to them. And so I believe that's why in this case, it's possible that the word never is used to reassure us in any of our doubts of God's faithfulness and love for us. And if you are here tonight with any doubt of God's love for you, any doubt in your heart or discouragement in your heart, be reassured, be reminded of God's covenantal love, his steadfast love for you that never ceases, never ceases for you and me. And in the same way, his mercies never, it says, never come to an end. So let's look at that part.

They are new every morning. We go now from the steadfast love of the Lord to his mercies. His mercies, plural, I believe it speaks about god's love in action. We are given two attributes about god's mercies here. Verse 22 at the end, his mercies never come to an end.

And then verse 23, his mercies are new every morning. Jeremiah, from a priestly family and from his life of worship and study, very likely knew the Psalms. And I wonder if he knew Psalm 90 when he wrote these words about his mercies are new every morning, because Psalm 90 mentions the word morning on more than one occasion and also days as in a twenty four hour day. Look what it says in Psalm 90 verse nine, the first part of it anyways. Psalm 99, it says, for all our days pass away under your wrath.

All our days. And just as never means never, all means all. I think this verse tells us we deserve to die every day, each day, under the wrath of God because we're we're born in sin. We're born of sin. All have fallen short of the glory.

All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. But his mercies are new every morning. He sustains our sleep so that we can see the next morning, Psalm three. Right? But look at what it says later in Psalm 90 verse 14 about the morning in this famous verse.

It says in Psalm ninety fourteen, satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. It's one thing to know every time we wake up in the morning that we are alive. God's merciful. His mercy is new every morning. We're alive.

It's another thing to know that God wants to satisfy us. Go further than that. He wants to satisfy us, to fill us each day. Beyond just having breath in our lungs, He wants to satiate us, provide and protect us, fill our souls. And notice how in our Lamentations passage, it says, in him.

It it it is we're satisfied in him. You remember the story of Joseph when his brothers came down from Egypt a second time because of the famine, this time with the youngest brother Benjamin. And Joseph, whose brothers, of course, didn't recognize him yet and Joseph had not revealed himself, when Joseph saw his brothers with Benjamin and gave them his mercies, it says in Genesis forty three thirty, it says the following, then Joseph hurried out for his compassion. That's the same Hebrew word for mercies in the Lamentations three passage. For his compassion grew warm for his brother, and he sought a place to weep.

And he entered his chamber and wept there. So we see a picture here of Joseph showing mercies to his brothers, compassion to his brothers. Sparing their lives. Yes. Remember, their brothers wanted to kill him earlier on in his life.

Sparing their lives, but going beyond that, he filled them with things in their pockets, provisions for the trip. They he filled their bellies with a feast of rich food. He provided for them, eventually even providing them land, in Goshen. And this is a picture of our god's love for us, his mercies for us, but also how he wants to satisfy us. Our god doesn't just save us from death, which is great news in and of itself, but he wants to satisfy you and me because his mercies, his compassion never come to an end.

They are new every morning. And this, of course, calls us to be merciful to others. With the merciful, you show yourself merciful, Psalm eighteen twenty five. And Jesus also says in Matthew five seven, blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. And I believe this simply means that if we are to receive the fullness of God's mercies, to be satisfied in His mercies, we are called to be merciful to one another.

Not just here, but in our homes, in our workplaces, anyone God puts in our path to be merciful to others. But from God's steadfast love to his mercies, let's look now at his faithfulness. Verse 23 of Lamentations three ends with great is your faithfulness or great is thy faithfulness. And here, it's almost as if Jeremiah breaks out into praise, worship. He just acknowledged god's steadfast love, his mercies, and then he says, great is your faithfulness.

I mean, look at how he even addresses god. Right? He starts by addressing god as Yahweh, the steadfast love of the lord, then his, his mercies, to a more personal direct address, your, great is your, faithfulness. And brothers and sisters, that's what can happen when we acknowledge and remember who God is, remind ourselves of his steadfast love. It can move from knowing it here and stirring in here in our hearts to praise and worship him and say, great are you, Lord.

Great is your faithfulness. God becomes increasingly personal, more real to us. And much can be said about God's faithfulness, of course, but I wanna highlight two ways we can respond to god's faithfulness with our faithfulness to him. The first is to know the realities of our unfaithfulness. It is interesting to see so the writer of Lamentations, Jeremiah, it's interesting to see in the book that he is named after in the book of Jeremiah, much is made about the unfaithfulness of God's people.

The infidelity of God's people because of sin and idolatry. We are unfaithful to the Lord when we sin, when we give honor and priority and worship to other things in our lives. And, I mean, we we we might even say a husband or wife is being unfaithful in a marriage. The same can be said of us when we sin and chase after other things. We are committing adultery, spiritual adultery, unfaithfulness.

And if that sounds severe, the book of Jeremiah on several occasions calls the idolater a whore and mentions whorings of God's people. And even that word in the English doesn't give the severity of sin and idolatry that we are given in the original Hebrew language, which I believe is more explicit, even describing the lust of sin as animalistic behavior. And here's the point of that. We have to remember sin is unfaithfulness. It's serious.

It is adultery to the covenantal God, to Christ our bridegroom, and it is to be viewed as something so egregious, blatant, explicit. And, really, in our passage tonight in Lamentations three tells us how we can fight on faithfulness in a lot of ways, to fight sin, remember God's love, his covenant covenantal love, his faithfulness to us, Prioritizing worship, as Jeremiah said, great is your faithfulness. Prioritizing private and public worship and to praise him, to be satisfied in him can guard us from us being unfaithful. And thank God thank God that even when we are unfaithful, he is faithful. He is quick to forgive us.

And while there are often consequences to our sin and infidelity, he is ready to restore us when our hearts turn back to him. In fact, Lamentations ends with that hope of restoration when we turn back to him. I believe the end of Lamentations I think it's the second last verse of chapter five, the end of Lamentations. It's famously read twice in Jewish tradition, to end with that hope of restoration. It says, restore us to yourself, oh, lord, that we may be restored.

Renew our days as of old. The lord is ready to restore us from our unfaithfulness when we turn back to him, to renew us, to satisfy us. But secondly, we respond faithfully to a faithful God in being steady and firm in prayer. This word faithfulness we see in Lamentations three is the same Hebrew word we find in that famous story of Moses when he prayed, when he raised his hand, as he was getting tired and he had his arms had to be held up. And we are told in Exodus 17 that, his hands were steady, firm, faithful.

It's the same word. His hands were steady until the going down of the sun. And it says that that's when, Joshua overwhelmed Amalek and his people with the sword. This is in the context of prayer. We can be faithful to the Lord by being prayerful, committing, prioritizing prayer in our lives.

And, of course, this picture of Moses praying and being faithful, is in the middle of a war before victory from that God delivered. He's being faithful. And it's a picture for, of course, for us now in our war, our spiritual war against sin and unfaithfulness, to pray, to be steady and faithful. We've looked at the attributes of a loving God, his steadfast love, his mercies, his faithfulness, and even our response to his faithfulness. So let's look now at the second portion of our study, our last two verses, continuing to look at the faithful response of God's people.

So let's go back to Lamentations three. Let's look at the last two verses of our passage. Verse 24 and verse 25 says this. The Lord is my portion, says my soul. Therefore, I will hope in him.

The lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. Alright. This progression, we we went we went from love, the steadfast love, to faith, his faithfulness, and our faithfulness, and now to hope. We've got love, faith, and hope. Sounds familiar.

Right? The triad that we see in first Corinthians 13 at the end, very last verse of that chapter says, so now faith, hope, and love abide. These three, but the greatest of these is love. Again, love is at the head here. But I wanna draw our attention to the immediate verse preceding our passage for tonight in Lamentations three.

We started in verse 22, but look quickly at verse 21, and let's compare that to verse 24 because both places mentions hope. It says in Lamentations three verse 21, but this I call to mind, and therefore, I have hope. I have hope. I find it amazing that our passage, our four verses, the preceding verse, it begins with us thinking, calling to mind, remembering. And the scripture it's all over the scriptures.

Often, our unfaithfulness and eventual sin and idolatry and all that begins with forgetting God. It starts in the mind, forsaking God. It's all over the place as it talks about God's people in the wilderness journey. Even Jeremiah talks about this in the book of Jeremiah. It begins in the mind of forgetting God, forsaking him, not remembering his love, not remembering his promises, not seeing his mercies, entertaining things in our minds, letting them dwell there that leads to compromise and sin.

And interestingly, Lamentations is a book. The structure of it actually calls us to remember, to think because Lamentations is an an acrostic book. So from my understanding, the five chapters, the first four chapters, 22 verses in each chapter except chapter three, but that even chapter three, it's, 66 verses, I believe, 22 times three, all acrostic, Hebrew alphabet. And even chapter five, it's not acrostic, but still 22 verses to maintain that structure. It's the structure of the book is meant for God's people to remember what's in the book.

Don't forget. Think. Call to mind. But this I call to mind and therefore, I have hope. But having hope and choosing to hope are two very different things.

Because here it says in verse 21, I have hope. But in verse 24, it says, I will hope. So verse 24 again in Lamentations three says, the lord is my portion, says my soul. Therefore, I will hope in him. And I I believe this is the salvation passage of our four verses, because I will hope, I mean, I will hope not in the temple or my church or my ministry.

I will hope in the person of God, in him, in the Lord, in Christ. Our hope. He's the blessed hope of first Timothy one. The hope of glory that Colossians one speaks of. Our past, present, future hope that the scriptures points to strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow.

And it says here, the lord is my portion. If you if you say the lord is your portion from your soul, not just merely from your mouth, but from your soul, your inner being, there is always hope, always. Even in the midst of the scenario Jeremiah was in. So this is the salvation verse, I believe, in in our passage. Of course, it's not to say Jeremiah found the lord in this verse, but he's hoping again.

He is hoping again in the lord and ask and finding salvation in his in his soul from this. And this word portion, by the way, may seem misleading, in this context because, and I was a little misled just reading it and studying it. What does it mean for the lord to be your portion? It almost makes it seem like, God is a portion or a part of my life among many other parts. Right?

The Lord is my portion, but that's not what it means. One must keep in mind that this word in the original language from my understanding is found elsewhere in the Old Testament used in the same way to talk about land, possession, territory, even inheritance. And I thought about this way as I was meditating on this part. One can imagine that everything you own just think about for a briefly, everything you own in your life. Everything you have, your relationships, your family, your job, your your children, your grandchildren.

Everything you have, your family, your wife, your children, children's children, livestock, crops back in the day are all contained within your portion. It's everything you have within the borders and boundaries. And I believe this points us to say that when we say the lord is my portion, we are saying that everything I have is his. The Lord is everything to me. He owns everything.

Most importantly, he owns my soul. And as one preacher put it, he owns the title deed to my land, to my house, to my lot, to my life. And we have a loving landlord. I mean, he's lord. We have a loving landlord.

And if we go outside the boundaries of our lives, under god's boundaries, his loving care and ownership of our lives, we are compromised and we become unfaithful. His boundaries, his commands are for his glory and our good. It's interesting too because if portion is used in the context of land in other places I mean, we began this study looking at the covenantal love of god. And if you know anything about the Abrahamic covenant and the Davidic covenant, it it talks about land. And it's really interesting to me that in Lamentations, Zion is mentioned 15 times.

Jerusalem is mentioned seven times. Talks about land, promises that God gave to the Jewish people through these covenants that we have a covenantal connection to. But again, I think deeper, there's a connection here to talking about everything I have on my land, so to say. It's his. The Lord is my portion.

And, you can imagine, you know, owning a home or buying a home. It involves planning, a pursuit, saving, motivation, and a drive, to purchase that land or home, a price to invest in. And much in the same way and, again, salvation is never earned. It's by grace and faith alone, but we must devote our energy and our time, our pursuits, our resources to the Lord, to make him our portion fully for the Lord and for his kingdom. And I think Psalm 16 puts this insight beautifully.

Psalm sixteen five, the Lord is my chosen portion and my cup. You hold my lot. The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places. Indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance. Alright.

Let's go back to our passage in Lamentations three. Look at the final verse, verse 25. The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. So very simple but core truth observation from this verse is that there is a connection to waiting for God and seeking God. You can almost maybe even say it's the same thing, but there's a deep connection between waiting for God and seeking God.

And just as we we've already been reminded of this tonight, I want us to be reminded of two essential ways that we are to, again, keep reminding ourselves, lest we forget, of how we seek him while we wait upon the Lord. And let me just, on a side note, let me ask this. Are you waiting upon the Lord in your walk with God today, tonight? There's something about well, let me put it this way. I I think we're supposed to wait upon the Lord every day.

And I I I I would imagine there with each of us in this room, there's something we are waiting upon the lord for in our lives, whether it's something the circumstances to change, a job, a relationship, whatever. We're waiting upon the Lord for a building in this place. So we're waiting upon the Lord, yes, in this life. But I believe waiting upon the Lord also means waiting upon his return, to see him face to face. That's what we wait for.

And that's a call for us, a call for fidelity, faithfulness while we wait. And one way we stay faithful is, again, things we have been reminded of tonight, to seek him. And, again, the two primary ways, of course, we do that is through his word and through prayer. It always comes down to those things. Look at the words of Psalm one thirty to see how simply it puts it, but we need to be reminded of this over and over again.

But I I love how Psalm one thirty puts it. So here, verse five and six, Psalm one thirty, I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word, I hope. My soul waits for the Lord. When I read this again, I thought of a sandwich because you've got waiting for the Lord, waiting for the Lord, and in the middle, the meat of the sandwich, you have his word, his word, I hope. And that's that's a beautiful thing.

More than watchmen for the morning, more than watchmen for the morning. The word fills us while we wait with strength from God. The word gives us patience while we wait upon things in our lives in the midst of trials and, things we ask of God. And I think I mentioned this before, but again, just think about it. Jeremiah in Lamentations three is saying, the lord is my portion, therefore, I will hope.

This is after he sees the destruction of the temple, of his city, his land, his home, his people, and he still has the strength and faith to say, the Lord is my portion, therefore, I will hope in him. Amazing. And it's because he knew god's word. Of course, god spoke directly to him, but he knew god's word. He knew his voice.

He knew he was he knew his love, his promises. And may we have that kind of faith in the midst of doubt, trials, and struggles in our lives, being anchored in the word in which we hope in his word. And like watchmen know I think a brother pointed this out to me not too long ago. Watchmen know that the next morning is coming. We can say that his mercies are coming the next morning, because they are new every morning, and because his word says it is so.

But also, we wait for the Lord in prayer. We saw that in Moses earlier. And I I just wanna say, again, very simply I mean, the title Lamentations actually calls us to pray because Lamentations, I believe, means loud cry. Like, cry out to the Lord. Pray.

And, of course, we have numerous examples of the prayers of Jeremiah from the book of Jeremiah, but I want us to look at a model of another godly man who waited upon the Lord by seeking him both through the word and through prayer. This really stirred my heart recently as I read it. Turn with me to our final passage for tonight. This is an amazing example that we see in the life of Daniel. So we're gonna go to Daniel chapter nine in our final passage.

As you know, Daniel outlived a number of kings and rulers during his life. And in Daniel nine, he's under the rule of Darius. So here it is in verse one of Daniel nine. In the first year of Darius, the son of Ahasuerus by descent to Mede, who was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans. In the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, perceived in the books the number of years that according to the word of the Lord to Jeremiah the prophet must pass before the end of the desolations of Jerusalem, namely seventy years.

So let me pause for a second. We're gonna read a couple more verses here, but Daniel read perceived from the word of God through Jeremiah. And remember, Jeremiah, he heard from the Lord directly, thus says the Lord to Jeremiah, and Jeremiah would write letters to the exiles. Right? We see that in the book of Jeremiah.

I think it's Jeremiah 29 and elsewhere. But even in the context of Daniel chapter nine, it's amazing because on more than one occasion, it it it says, as it is written, the word, as it is written in the law of Moses, we're reminded about the, the word in which we hope in. But look at verse three of Daniel nine. Then I, Daniel, turned my face to the lord god, seeking him by prayer and pleased for mercy with fasting and sackcloth and ashes. I prayed to the lord my god and made confession saying, oh, Lord, the great and awesome God, and here it is one last time, who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love Him and keep His commandments.

We have sinned and done wrong and acted wickedly and rebelled, turning aside from your commandments and rules. So here's Daniel in Daniel chapter nine, a model for us in waiting upon the lord in his word, in prayer, remembering god's hesed, covenants, promises, all of this in in this in this passage. But here's what where I wanna turn to. There is no doubt that this, faith in Daniel we see in Daniel nine contributed to what happened in Daniel six. Daniel six is, of course, the famous chapter of the lion's den Daniel and the lion's den.

But we are I believe Daniel six actually happened after Daniel nine, if you if you look at the time stamps. So we see Daniel praying in in Daniel nine, this faith. And in Daniel six I mean, we all remember the lion's den story, but sometimes we don't remember the context that led up to it. Daniel hears the declaration was signed that, you know, if you worship any other god, you'll be put to death. Right?

The government officials conspired earlier in that chapter. And it said, when he heard when Daniel heard the document was signed, it says that he was faithful. So he went up to the I think it's the upper chambers of his residence with the window open to Jerusalem, and he prayed. He still prayed. He was faithful.

So I like to think that Daniel nine when, again, he's reminded of god's steadfast love, his covenant, his word, he's praying, that all I mean, he was prayed up, obviously, as we like to say. That led to his boldness in praying in Daniel six. Then, of course, he's thrown into lion's den and is delivered by the Lord. And one might say, well, that's Daniel, a spiritual giant. He's a major prophet.

He had this conviction since he was a teenager. Also, by the way, interestingly, Jeremiah who was I think he was a teenager when he said those famous words to God when he got at the call, I am only but a youth. Remember those words? This is the same person in Lamentations three. It's not in our passage, but a couple of verses later, he says, it is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.

So God changed him, obviously. But in any case, yeah, we we can look at Jeremiah and Daniel as the spiritual giants, but they were sinners. I mean, Daniel is actually confessing his own sin in Daniel nine among the sin of his people. But Jeremiah and Daniel, they sinned and fell short of the glory of God like us. A nature like ours as it is said of Elijah.

And I believe Daniel was in his eighties in Daniel nine and Daniel six. Even Daniel had to be reminded I mean, Daniel, he had to be reminded of God's steadfast love because in, I believe it's two chapters, Daniel nine and ten, we are told on three occasions that Daniel is told he is greatly loved. I mean, he had to be reminded three times, you are greatly loved by a faithful God. And how much more should we be reminded of that in our day to day walk with the Lord? And, you know, what better way to be reminded of God's love than to hear it from God himself in his word.

Keep reading it. You guys know this, of course, from cover to cover. We are reminded of God's love for us. He tells us, I love you over and over again. And we have to be reminded of that.

I mean, Daniel had to be reminded of that in prayer to be reminded of that. And, again, what we're doing tonight, I mean, this is one of the many blessed reasons we gather. We are reminded of God's love from the pulpit, from the songs we sing, from our love for one another. We have to be reminded of that over and over again. So that's why we we gather one of the reasons we gather as often as we can, to be reminded of the love of God.

So church, may we follow these examples? In many ways, we are living in a world like Babylon today. In many ways, we are seeing the destruction of the temple like Jeremiah did today. In the in the new temple, that is the church, where we have, brothers and sisters falling or compromised, churches compromised, walls being breached. And we are to lament, and we're called to pray about that, but also to, from our souls to say the lord is my portion.

Surrender everything to him, and therefore, I will hope in him. So may we remember his steadfast love, his covenantal love. May we remember his mercies every morning. We worship a faithful God, and may we respond with our faithfulness and fidelity to him all the days of our lives. Let's pray.

Lord, we thank you for your word. Your word is awesome. Your word is a light to our feet. It is our hope, and it is our delight to be able to come to your word and to hear your voice and to know you and to fellowship with you. Lord, we ask that these verses that we looked at tonight would embed in our hearts that we would know your steadfast love for us afresh, that it would stir us to love you all the more, to love one another all the more.

It is your love, Lord. Your steadfast love indeed endures forever and may endure forever in our hearts. We love you, Lord. We thank you for this gathering tonight. Be glorified in our midst, and we pray this in Jesus' name.

Amen. Let's stand together, respond from our hearts to God's love and his word through these songs.