The opening of Lamentations 4 calls back to the opening of Lamentations - "How lonely sits the city" / "How the gold has become dim!". Does this seem odd after the prayer of hope in Lamentations 3? Why should the prophet continue to mourn after finding hope in the Lord and His faithfulness?

For me, this emphasises the importance of mourning in repentance. If we only look to God’s mercy and faithfulness and stop looking at our own broken state, it becomes easy to overlook our own sins and repeat our mistakes.

For Judah, her desolation was easy to see - the physical state of their city was a direct reflection of the state of their faith. But for us today, we may be doing very well in the world - rich, healthy, and in need of nothing - but our spiritual lives may be wretched, blind and poor! This was exactly the state of the Laodicean church in Revelations (Revelations 3:17). Let us take some time today to reflect on the state of our spiritual lives, and mourn for the areas that we have fallen short in. Jesus tells us: “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.” (Matthew 5:4).

This chapter also gives some insights on how we can mourn for our sins. 

The things that Jeremiah mourns for - the people having to eat their own children (Lamentations 4:10) and them being pursued by enemies swifter than eagles (Lamentations 4:19) - were in fact judgments God has proclaimed on Israel if they were to be disobedient since the times of Moses (Deuteronomy 28:49, 53). To mourn for our sins, we should likewise bring to remembrance the word of God.

Jeremiah also makes reference to a prior example of God’s judgment in Lamentations 4:6 - “The punishment of the iniquity of the daughter of my people is greater than the punishment of the sin of Sodom, which was overthrown in a moment, with no hand to help her!” Today, all these examples have been written in the Bible for our admonition and as a warning to us (1 Corinthians 10:11). We can reflect on these examples of failures and God’s judgment to see that God’s words will surely come to pass.

Are we keenly aware of our spiritual state today? Have we mourned for the areas where we have fallen - and taken heed from the words of God and examples in the Bible?