In the midst of trials and tribulations, we need a solid rock to stand on, don’t we? In Baptist Churches and I think in Methodist Churches as well, we have a song that we sing from time to time. It’s called, “The Solid Rock”, and the first two verses go like this, “My hope is built on nothing less, than Jesus’ blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus’ name.” Then verse two says, “When darkness seems to hide His face, I rest on His unchanging grace; In every high and stormy gale, My anchor holds within the veil.” And then the chorus says, “On Christ the Solid Rock I stand; All other ground is sinking sand, All other ground is sinking sand.” And that is true. No matter what other “ground” we want to build our lives on, nothing holds or is more solid than the solid rock of Jesus Christ.
In one of the more obscure books of the Old Testament, the book of Lamentations, sandwiched between the books of Jeremiah and Ezekiel, the prophet Jeremiah voices the brokenness of his heart for the rebellion of the people of God as they had turned their backs upon the God of Israel and had ceased listening to His words and to His prophets. The result of their rebellion was the complete destruction of the city of Jerusalem, the place where God had chosen to place his name, and the carrying off of the people of Judah into captivity to the land of Babylon. Do you see? Jeremiah had a whole nation, and a city, and a people, that were the cause of his brokenness.
No one, not even Christians, those who are “called by His name” and who seek to follow Him, are immune to calamities, those circumstances and instances in which we have absolutely no control over. All of humanity faces situations and troubles that are many times overwhelming. Yet, God, in His Word, the Bible, and in this book of Lamentations, has words of encouragement and words that tell us over and over that He indeed loves us, more than we will ever know, and perhaps more than we will ever completely understand. He lets us know that He has provided a way for us to find strength and help in our time of trouble. Beginning in the third chapter, and with verse twenty-one, he writes, “Yet, this I call to mind, and therefore have hope; because of the Lord’s great love, we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; O Lord, great is Your faithfulness.”
