So I say, “My splendor is gone and all that I had hoped from the Lord.” I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall. I well remember them, and my soul is downcast within me. Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.” Lamentations 3:18-24
“When he turns to more prolonged prayer in the second part of the chapter, it will be in a somewhat different tone. But when we get there we should not forget that the confession, protest, and appeals that we will hear there are grounded on the solid affirmation of faith here: YHWH (Yahweh) is the known and remembered God of proven covenant love, compassion, and faithfulness — bo matter what He has done or has not yet done. All His actions must be viewed within that light, even if it strains our theology to the limits (as it will)…Now, with his perspective transformed by what he has forced back into his mind, he can say something very different: I say to myself, ‘The LORD is my portion, therefore I will wait for Him’. ‘I will wait’ is the verb of the same root as the lost ‘hope’ of verse 18…
Israelite families had their ‘portion’ in the land — their inheritance from generation to generation. The Levites, however, were given no territory as their allotted portion of land (so they were dependent on the tithes, first-fruits, and offerings of the landed population). Instead, they were told, the Lord Himself was their portion (Numbers 18:20). They could live without land, so long as they had the Lord. That background may be what gives the man hope. Even without the land, city, king, or temple, he had the Lord.”
Christopher J. H. Wright in The Message of Lamentations (BSTS; Downers Grove; IVP, 2015) 113.
This post is for all those out there who are in roles where the operating income is funded by the charitable giving of God’s people. And the message contains a powerful use of our word for the year: remember.
Say it out loud: “The Lord is my portion.”
In hard times, there is always hope because the Lord is our portion. We may not have land but we have the Lord working for us, producing what we need. This truth aims to give hope to a specific group, the Levites.
Who are the Levites and why does it matter for us today? The Levites facilitated worship in God’s house. Today, this is akin to how people who rely on outside support might be described.
Say it again: “The Lord is my portion.”
For my part GTP is 7 days away from the end of the fiscal year and praying for $25,000 to having funds to build out our online platform and translate resources into many languages.
It’s what we think God wants us to do. So, we move boldly and trust Him to show up, to provide. And what gives us the courage to do this despite difficult times. We remember the Lord is our portion.
We’ve got this. God’s got us. But if you need inspiration along these lines, check out a recent podcast I did.