10/17/21 Lamentations 1:1-3, 5, 7-8,18; 5:1-3, 15-16, 19, 21

I will remember the deeds of the Lord; yes, I will remember Your wonders of old.
—Psalm 77:11

Much of this morning’s service centers around memory—remembering the things that God has done for us, and asking the Lord to remember us in our distress. The service begins with the hymn O God, Our Help In Ages Past (Psalm 90),
which speaks of God’s faithfulness throughout history, and moves directly to The King In Your Strength Shall Be Glad (Psalm 21), which celebrates a specific victory in battle that the Lord gave to King David. We confess our forgetfulness
from Deuteronomy, we are exhorted to “remember and stand firm” from Isaiah, and we respond by singing from Psalm 119 that we “will not forget Your law.” Later in the service, we use the hymn This Is My Father’s World to pray that
we will never forget God’s providential care, even “though the wrong seems oft so strong.” An essential part of our call to remembrance is generational memory: hence, Let Children Hear The Mighty Deeds (Psalm 78) and O Lord Most
High (Psalm 9), speak to our duty to “proclaim His mighty deeds” to “generations yet unborn.” In spite of our forgetfulness, we serve a God who never forgets His people. Even in the darkest of times, He speaks His faithful, reassuring word, “I am your Savior; do not fear.” —Henry C. Haffner & Emma Marsh

Key Words: Princess, Slave, Mourn, Remembers, Sinned, Rebelled, Remember, Restore
Keystone Verse: Restore us to Yourself, O Lord, that we may be restored! Renew our days as of old. (Lamentations 5:21

Bulletin

Lamentations 1:1-3, 5, 7-8,18; 5:1-3, 15-16, 19, 21
How lonely sits the city that was full of people! How like a widow has she become, she who was great among the nations! She who was a princess among the provinces has become a slave. ² She weeps bitterly in the night, with tears on her cheeks; among all her lovers she has none to comfort her; all her friends have dealt treacherously with her; they have become her enemies. ³ Judah has gone into exile because of affliction and hard servitude; she dwells now among the nations… ⁵ Her foes have become the head; her enemies prosper, because the Lord has afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions; her children have gone away, captives before the foe… ⁷ Jerusalem remembers in the days of her affliction and wandering all the precious things that were hers from days of old. When her people fell into the hand of the foe, and there was none to help her, her foes gloated over her; they mocked at her downfall. ⁸ Jerusalem sinned grievously; therefore she became filthy; all who honored her despise her, for they have seen her nakedness; she herself groans and turns her face away… ¹⁸ “The Lord is in the right, for I have rebelled against His word; but hear, all you peoples, and see my suffering; my young women and my young men have gone into captivity…”
^5:1 Remember, O Lord, what has befallen us; look, and see our disgrace! ² Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers, our homes to foreigners. ³ We have become orphans, fatherless; our mothers are like widows… ¹⁵ The joy of our hearts has ceased; our dancing has been turned to mourning. ¹⁶ The crown has fallen from our head; woe to us, for we have sinned… ¹⁹ But You, O Lord, reign forever; Your throne endures to all generations… ²¹ Restore us to Yourself, O Lord, that we may be restored! Renew our days as of old.