Many stories are shaped like a pyramid. They rise to a climax and then descend into the resolution, sometimes called the denouement. Jeremiah’s Lamentations is a little bit like this. The climax occurs not at the end of this book but in its exact center, where the prophet affirms God’s reluctance to bring affliction and grief to anyone along with His unfailing love (Lam. 3:31–33). The beating heart of this book focuses on the prophet’s hope in God’s enduring love combined with the conviction that He will not permanently cast off His people. As Jeremiah’s fifth song of lament moves toward its resolution, we see that the prophet’s confidence is justified.

God’s strong and loving hand has done its painful work. Judah is now in a position to understand her error. She describes her situation openly and honestly. Her joy is gone. Sorrow has replaced celebration. Judah has fallen from the lofty place of privilege that she formerly enjoyed. As Jeremiah so vividly puts it in verse 16, “The crown has fallen from our head.” Yet, this is not sorrow for sorrow’s sake. It is the kind of grief that the apostle Paul describes as “godly sorrow,” which “brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret” (2 Cor. 7:10). All these things, as terrible as they were, were intended to bring God’s people to this all- important admission: “Woe to us, for we have sinned!”

The Lord’s goal in repentance is that we would understand not only what we have done wrong but also why it was wrong. He removes the blinders from our eyes so that we may finally grasp that every time we sin, we commit an offense against ourselves as much as against Him. Sin makes us enemies against ourselves (vv. 17–18).

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