God Restores the Soul
Lamentations 1:10-20
May 2-3, 2026
Open your Bibles to Lamentations if you would. Lamentations, if you don't know where that is, go to Jeremiah, turn right. It's a very small book. The title of our message is God Restores the Soul. Let's pray and receive from God's Word together. Lord, we are so thankful for your Word. We know that you show us the way of life. Show us the way of blessing and honor to your name. We open our heart and just say, God, pour out your Spirit of life and meet us here in this place. We ask in Jesus' powerful name.
Most Bible scholars believe that it was Jeremiah who wrote Lamentations. It doesn't say that in the book, but he was known as the Weeping Prophet. This certainly is a book of weeping and tears. It is a lament, which is why it's called Lamentations. It is a sorrowful response to the destruction of Israel at the hands of the Babylonians. Interestingly, whenever we go to Israel, we go outside of Jerusalem. There is a garden. There's a tomb. At the end of the garden, there is a viewpoint, an overlook. There, you can see this cliff.
In the cliff face, the way the rocks are formed in such that when the sun comes over around 2:00 or 3:00 in the afternoon, it casts a shadow upon that cliff. What it reveals is the image of a skull, which is why it's called Golgotha, the Place of the Skull, also known as Calvary. At the base of this mountain or hill is a grotto, a cave, and it's called Jeremiah's Grotto. Many believe that this is the place there where Jeremiah would have written the scroll of weeping.
How fitting that the very place that the Messiah and Redeemer of Israel would give his life as a ransom for these people and for the sins of the world would be the very place where Jeremiah would not only weep for the destruction of Israel but write words that would encourage and speak of the restoring of the soul. Now, it's a very short book. It's only five chapters, each chapter written in an acrostic form. What does that mean? It means, notice, for example, that Chapter 1 has 22 verses. Chapter 2 has 22 verses.
It means that every verse starts with the next corresponding letter of the Hebrew alphabet. There are 22 letters. All five books are the same in that way, except for Chapter 3, which has 66 verses, three verses per letter. Now, you might say, "Why would he write using this form of writing?" Answer, so that all those who follow after could more easily memorize the book. It is a memorizing tool. You might say, "Why would anyone want to memorize something so sad?" That's a very good question.
The answer is, so that anyone who reads these words takes them to heart, which is what you do when you memorize, that they would learn the lessons contained in it. There are very important spiritual life lessons in the book. These things were written that we would learn from their example. In fact, that's exactly what Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 10, where he says it this way, "I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud, all passed through the sea, all drank from the same spiritual drink, for they were drinking from the spiritual rock which followed them," interesting, "and that rock was Christ. Nevertheless, with most of them, God was not well pleased."
Now, these things happened as examples for us so that we would not crave evil things as also they crave. These things are written that we would understand the spiritual lessons and learn from them for our lives. Jeremiah here recounts what led to this unmitigated disaster. He writes it as a lament with great sadness that he looks back and thinks the place where God's glory was so magnificent, and indeed, the temple was like a wonder of the world in those days. Words cannot describe the splendor, the glory of what Jerusalem contained, and now it's all in ruins.
What led to that unmitigated disaster is a spiritual life lesson because the same spiritual battle, and really, I want you to see that it has been a spiritual battle behind what happened to Israel in those days, and that there is a spiritual battle that is happening today in which we live. There is a tremendous spiritual battle that's happening in the world, and it's a battle for souls, and it's very, very much alive today that we must take note for our lives. Amen? That which brought disaster on Israel can bring disaster on anyone who does not heed the life lessons from the book.
Now, having said that, in the recounting of the downfall of Israel, at the same time, he holds out hope. God is the great restorer. He is the one restoring. We already read in Jeremiah, he prophesied, Israel will be restored. It's also important to take hold of and see that it's applied to our lives today. God is restoring souls today. That's the point. That's why he wanted them to memorize these verses. There are deep spiritual lessons in store for us in these chapters. For it's in these chapters we read that God's mercies are new every morning.
It's in the book. That great is Thy faithfulness. It's in the book. God's mercies, I tell you, anyone who's ever messed up their lives should take great hope in that great truth that God's mercies are new every morning, that God will never give up, and that His heart is to restore. He is the great restorer. All right. We're going to be in Lamentations 1. We're going to do something just a little bit different. Many of you know by now that we typically do this on Wednesday. We are reading through the same chapters, verse by verse by verse.
We might do one, two, three, four chapters, however many we do. Then we take a section from it and then dive deeply into those verses over the weekend services. Here's what I want to do, something a little different. I want to lift from this chapter certain verses that bring out this great theme that God is the restorer. Notice, for example, beginning in verse 10, God restores what the enemy has stolen. Verse 10, "The adversary," the enemy, "stretched out his hand over all her precious things." In other words, to steal, to take.
I. God Restores What the Enemy has Stolen
The enemy came even into the very sanctuary of their God and took the precious holy things that were meant for worship. It was a great, great tragedy: stolen. The very things of God, the enemy, the adversary, stole them. Notice, "As she has seen the nations enter her sanctuary, the ones whom you commanded that they should not enter into your congregation." He's speaking here about the great tragedy of what was stolen, but it's also implicated in the spiritual sins. There is a spiritual battle, and the enemy is a thief.
Notice, for example, what Jesus said in John 10:10. "The thief," the adversary, your enemy, "comes to steal, to kill, and to destroy, but I have come that you would have life and life to the full." In other words, the enemy is a thief. He means to steal and rob and, of course, kill and to destroy. The scheme of the enemy is to steal the precious things of God from your life. If he can rob you of the treasures of God's glory, God's joy, God's peace from you, then you will become lost and lonely. Then he offers that which will poison the soul.
A. Sin is costly
The life lessons are very, very much for us to take hold of today. Starting with this, notice in verse 11 that sin is costly. It says in verse 11, "All her people grown seeking bread," just bread. "They have given their precious things for food." At first, their precious things were stolen, but then they came to the point when they had to give up the rest of their precious things just to have bread. Now, sin is costly. One of the reasons that sin is so costly is because sin distorts the mind. It clouds the judgment.
The wisdom which ought to guide your decisions is clouded by this sin that is distorting the mind, distorting the soul. The lack of wisdom and the cloud that comes because of this poor judgment affects every area of life, even financial decisions clouded by that sin. Now, no doubt you've heard the expression, "A fool and his money are soon parted." That's not in the Bible, but it is an expression that speaks of the value of wisdom, and that the one who is foolish makes foolish financial decisions.
The cloud of sin affects the judgment and the wisdom, and every aspect of life is impacted by it. Perhaps you've heard this expression also, "Sin will take you farther than you wanted to go, keep you longer than you wanted to stay, and cost you more than you wanted to pay." Now, if the enemy has robbed you of any good thing, it's important to hear a great truth. God speaks a better word. He is the great restorer. Notice Joel 2:25, "I will make up to you for the years that the locusts have eaten. You will have plenty to eat. You will be satisfied, and you will praise the name of the Lord, your God."
There are many people who can relate to the loss from all that the locusts have eaten. Marriages, how many marriages are on the rocks? How many are hurting because of this very thing? Families in despair, troubles at work, financial devastation. Yet the word for Israel was that God is the great restorer, the one who can restore. In other words, you can rebuild your life, but this time rebuild it on a rock, build it on the foundation, build it on the rock, and that rock is Jesus Christ. God is the great restorer.
Build it right this time on the rock of Jesus Christ. Lamentations 5:21 is like the capstone of this book. Notice the theme of it, "Restore us to you, O Lord, and that we may be restored. Renew our days as of old." Notice, it's to you that we're restored, not just the things, it's you. Restore us to you, O Lord. See, God builds, God edifies, God strengthens. If the enemy has stolen precious things from your life, your marriage, your children, your joy, or your purity, hear this today: God is the great restorer. He does not leave you in ashes. He rebuilds, He redeems, He restores what the enemy has stolen, for that is who He is, and that is what God does, and He's still doing it today. Amen. Can we give God praise and glory for that?
B. Sin is heavy
Not only is sin costly, notice verse 14, sin is heavy. "The yoke of my transgressions is bound or tied up. By His hand they are knitted together, and they have come upon my neck." Now, that's an image that we can get, we can understand. It's a heavy weight weighted upon the shoulders. Israel felt the full weight of their sin. Yes, it was costly, but it was a heavy burden laid upon their shoulders. Here's where many can add their own testimony. I tell you, if you've ever gone after the world and made a mess of your life, you can add your own testimony.
You know it is a heavy, heavy weight. It is a burden upon your life and upon your soul. Now, that would be a tragedy if that were the end of the story, but that is not the end of the story. God speaks a better word. God sent His Son to take the weight of that sin, of that burden upon Himself. Probably the capstone verse of that has to be Matthew 11:28-30, where the Lord said, "Come unto me, all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest."
A great theme of the heart of the Lord, rest. "Take my yoke upon you, learn from me, for I am gentle and humble and hard, and you will find rest for your souls. My yoke is easy, my burden is light." See, Jesus carries your burden. He took the weight of your sin, paid for them in full when he died on the cross in your place. Now, this is so important to understand because people still today feel that they must somehow punish themselves for their sin, for their mistakes.
This is a very common way that people think that somehow they must punish themselves, and they often do it quite harshly. I was thinking of an illustration. There was a movie in the '80s called The Mission that powerfully captured the wrongful way that people think of their burdens. The movie took place in South America, and it was about a slave trader by the name of Rodrigo Mendoza, who was cold-hearted. Now, I suppose you gotta be pretty cold-hearted to be a slave trader.
One day, he finds his brother in bed with his fiancée and flies into a rage and kills his brother, but it causes him to fall into a great despair. This that he has done, it's just a grief and a weight. He's carrying, he carry this weight of this grief of what he did. He goes to the Jesuit priest, Father Gabriel, who tells him that he must do penance. Now, penance is the punishing of oneself to pay for the wrong that you did. His penance, says the priest, was to fill a net with his armor and his weapons, tie them to himself with a rope, and then drag them up the mighty Iguazu Falls, which is tremendously difficult, great falls.
This is what he does. He gets in there, he puts his armor, his weapons in the net, ties them about his waist, and begins the arduous, difficult, exhausting climb. One step after the other, rock upon rock, the Jewish brothers are with him to make sure he, with all effort, gets there. By sheer effort, he's getting slowly, slowly. Finally, exhaustion just takes hold of him, and he just collapses in sheer exhaustion. That's when one of the Jesuit brothers, who can't take it anymore, can't watch this anymore, takes a knife and cuts the rope, and the whole thing comes crashing down to the bottom.
That ought to have been the highlight right there of the movie. The orchestra should have been swelling in grandeur. They should have let me direct this movie. I would have made it way better, because that should have been the highlight right there. Because if that would have been the grand moment, he cut the rope, the whole thing came crashing down. Free, cut free, that should be the grand finale. No, what happened was, he looked at the Jesuit brother with anger, climbed all the way down, tied the rope again, and started over again.
Sometimes people do this today. They don't understand the mercy of God. Sometimes, when somebody does something really stupid, I know you're not supposed to say that, but you can understand. Like, how many people have done something really stupid? Don't raise your hand. I know, I don't need you to raise, because I know everybody gets it. If you do something really stupid, you feel shame. You feel terrible for what you did. People start to punish themselves, oftentimes, very harshly.
In so doing, they're missing out on the heart of God. They're missing out on the mercy of God. Because here is the glorious good news: if you run to the mercy of the Lord, if you run to the tower of the Lord, he will take the burden of that shame, he will take the weight of that sin, and he will carry the weight of it on Himself. He will carry that and take your place. I give to you Isaiah 53, perhaps one of the greatest chapters in the Old Testament that points so clearly to Jesus Christ.
Isaiah 53 says it in this way, "Surely our griefs he himself bore, our sorrows he carried. He was pierced through for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities, the chastening for our well-being fell upon him, and by his scourging we are healed. The Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on him."
Those are some glorious verses that speak to what Jesus did for us when he carried the burden of our shame and the weight of our sin upon himself. That is the glorious good news. You can bring your burden to Jesus. He will carry what you cannot carry, and He will exchange the heavy yoke of your sin for the easy yoke of grace. That is the good news that God gives to the world today.
C. Sin weakens
Then we see this also in verse 14, the second part. Not only is sin costly, not only is sin heavy, but sin weakens. Notice, He has made my strength to fail. The Lord has given me into the hands of those against whom I am not able to stand. Sin weakens. Israel felt it. Their wayward hearts made the nation weak, something we ought to take very careful note of ourselves today. It's not only true nationally, it's true personally. Sin weakens. It drains your spiritual vitality.
Maybe a way to see it is this: it's like pulling the plug out from the bottom, and the spiritual life just drains from your soul. That's the picture we can get. Sin, it just drains your spiritual vitality, just draining right from you. That's what sin does. It weakens the soul, but then God speaks a better word. God is the great restorer. With God restores, He strengthens. He strengthens the soul within. He strengthens the inner man. Spiritual strength increases as you draw nearer and nearer to the Lord, and He fills you with spiritual life.
You're not being drained. Sin drains you, but the Spirit fills you. Be ye filled with the Holy Spirit of the living God. He pours out life. He pours glory. He adds and adds and adds, and you increase and increase and increase. God wants you to increase in strength so that you can have victory over that which comes against you. Is it possible to be victorious today? Absolutely, it's possible by the strengthening of the soul in the inner man.
Now, perhaps one of the best expressions of this David wrote in 2 Samuel 22. If anyone understood how to take faith and put it into real life, it surely was David when he wrote this, for example, "It is by my God that I can run upon a troop, by my God, I can leap over a wall. He makes my feet like hinds' feet and sets me on high feet, like hinds' feet, and sets me on high places. He trains my hands for war so that my arms can bend a bow of bronze. You have given me the shield of your salvation, and your help makes me great."
Many people would look at David and say, "Oh, the great one, David the great captain." David would say, "Oh, no, it is God's strength. God is the strength of my life. God has been my confidence since my youth. He is God's help makes me great." Physical strength is one thing, definitely helpful, but spiritual strength is even greater. The strength that abides in the inner man then comes forth in what you speak and how you live and what you do. The mouth speaks from that which fills the heart, the Lord Jesus says.
Whatever fills you are added unto, from that is how you live and how you speak and how you move. One of the great examples of that would be David himself. Later on in his history, his own son, Amsalem, conspired against him. The conspiracy was great that Absalom had an army with him and was intent on bringing that army to bear against Jerusalem, David's precious city. David, wanting to spare his city from the theater of war, fled the city with his special forces and a few along with him.
As David is leaving the city, there is a man walking along on the other side of the gully, taking pace with David, throwing rocks at David and hurling insults and cusses. "Get out, you bloodthirsty, you deserve everything you've got." He's got a grudge; he's been carrying a grudge. He's just hurling rocks and insults and cusses at David. David's general next to him said, "Shall I dispatch him?" David says, "No, let him curse. Perhaps God will hear. Let him curse. Let it go." Then later, the story unfolds that the issue with Absalom is settled.
Absalom dies, as you know the story. Then David, who had gone to the other side of the Jordan, is now coming back to be restored to his rightful place as king. As he's coming back over the Jordan, that man, the same man, Shimei, comes out to meet David, falls down before him and says to him, "I was wrong, sir. I was wrong, please. Please forgive. I was wrong." David's general next to him said, "Shall I dispatch him?" David responded, "There's been enough dying today. Go in peace, my friend. Go in peace."
Speaking out of a character, that spiritual strength, I tell you, is greater even than physical strength. God will give you the strength when you need it. I think of the example of Corrie Ten Boom. Many of you know her story. At one point, she asked her father if she would have strength to face the trouble if they were arrested. As you know, they were helping Jews to escape Nazis. Her father responded, when you need the strength, God will give it to you. God will meet you in that moment and give you strength when you need it.
I think of Psalm 73:26. "My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and God is my portion forever." That is the great theme, actually, of Lamentations. God is the strength of my heart. Then notice this: how in verse 18, he sets down an anchor right in the middle of the chapter. The Lord is righteous. It is a wonderful declaration right in the middle of the chapter. The Lord is righteous. I am the one who rebelled against His command. Now this is a foundation of faith.
II. The Lord is Righteous
The Lord moves according to His righteousness, according to His character of holiness. Stand on that truth. You can depend on that truth. You can believe in that truth. It is to be applied to your life. In other words, everything God does, even His discipline, flows from His righteous, loving nature. Because He is righteous and all that He does is righteous, He desires to do a deep work of righteousness in your soul and mine. This is the great restoring. God will build something glorious and beautiful by His righteousness.
A. Holiness is beautiful on the soul
In other words, holiness is beautiful on the soul. Notice verse 16, for these things I weep. My eye overflows with water because the comforter who restores my soul seems far from me. He knows that it is God who is the restorer, the comforter. It seems far, but He knows the promises are there. Jerusalem is weeping because she has lost the beauty of her holiness. The enemy has prevailed, and the city is empty and desolate. It's a picture of the souls of those who are now empty because of that.
Jeremiah declares boldly, the Lord is righteous in all that He does. God is righteous. It's as though you're saying, "You were right, God. You were right." He then does this building work of restoring. By His righteousness, He does a righteous work upon the soul. Holiness is beautiful upon the soul. This is a transforming power, not just a theological truth. He is transforming us by this great truth. I tell you, many do not grasp the depth of this great truth. Dive deep into this with me, and it will transform who you understand yourself to be.
When God calls people to be righteous from holiness, He's calling them to live according to that which fills their soul. Notice, for example, 1st Peter 1. He writes it in the New Testament similarly. "Do not be conformed to the former lusts, which were yours in ignorance, but be like the Holy One who called you. Be holy yourselves in your behavior, because it is written, you shall be holy, for I am holy." When God calls you to be holy, He's calling you to something beautiful.
Holiness is beautiful. This is what many people do not understand. Holiness is beautiful upon the soul. Now, what is holiness? I used to teach a class sometime ago called What a Christian Believes. Part of that class was on the nature of God. What is God's nature? As part of that, of course, we would say God is holy. I would ask, so what is holiness? Can you define holiness? Invariably, they would define holiness by comparing it to sin.
I would say we ought to be able to define holiness outside of comparing it to sin, because holiness has been around a lot longer than sin. How do we define it? What is holiness? Answer: Holiness is all that God's nature and character is also. Every aspect of God's nature is an aspect of His holiness. I submit that everything God is is beautiful on the soul. For example, God is love. This is who He is. This is an aspect of God's nature.
God is love, but it's an aspect of His holiness so that when He moves according to His love, He's moving according to His holiness. Then, when He pours that in you, He gives that bearing to you. He pours His spirit, and the very presence of the living God is love, so that you then move according to God's holiness by that same love. God is love. God is patient. Oh, we are so thankful for the patience of God. It is an aspect of His holiness.
He gives that unto you so that when it abides on your soul, then you are transformed by it so that you then move in a new holy patience. It's beautiful. God is gracious. We're very, very thankful for the grace of God on our lives. He gives that to you so that you abide in that same aspect of holiness, and that when you give grace, it's an aspect of holiness. God's holiness moving upon you, that you then move upon others with. God is forgiving. Oh, how thankful we are that God forgives.
Not only that you would be forgiven, but that the abiding of God's presence is such that you move in it yourself, you become forgiving. It is an aspect of God's holiness at work in you that you become forgiving, also because it is God at work. The more God fills your soul, the more your soul is made beautiful by that glory. Holiness and that which is beautiful is something you receive. He pours it in. As He fills the inner man, He is increasing by His glory and by His presence.
B. God overturns the heart
Therefore, the righteousness of God comes forth out of all those who are being restored. Then we see this also notice in verse 20, an important part of God's restoring is verse 20. God overturns then the heart. What needs to be overturned, He will overturn it. Notice verse 20. "See, Lord, I am in distress. My spirit is greatly troubled. My heart is overturned within me." This is a good thing. The Hebrew word overturned literally means turned over. It's a good thing.
The heart is convicted and grieved and turned upside down. Now, whenever I think about this, I think of that day that Jesus came into Jerusalem, on that day we call the triumphant entry. He entered the temple, and there He saw money changers and those selling doves. These were taking advantage of the people who had come to worship, and they're standing in the way. These money changers, these selling doves are taking advantage, and they're standing in the way of those who want to honor God.
Jesus sees this, and He's filled with a righteous indignation. He takes hold of these tables, and he overturns them. He just throws them, and doves are flying, money is flying. "Get out," He says. "This is my father's house. It is to be called a house of prayer, and you are making it a den of robbers." See, in other words, if there's anything standing in the way of God's glory, if there's anything that needs to be overturned, God in His great love is going to overturn it.
It's good. It's wonderful because it's part of the restoring. If it's in the way, if it's standing in the way of what God would do in the great restoring, then the heart of revival says, "Do it, turn it over, God. If there's something in my life that needs to be overturned, overturn it." Interestingly, the next verse says, "Then the blind and the lame came to Him, and He healed them." That's so beautiful. He'll overturn what needs to be overturned, and He'll heal what needs to be healed.
He'll do what needs to be done to restore because that is the heart of God. If the enemy has stolen, the enemy has deceived, the enemy has destroyed, then the great restorer comes and will rebuild, renew, revive, strengthen the soul of the inner man so that if there's anything standing in the way, the heart of revival says, "Get rid of it. I want nothing to stand in the way of what God is doing in my life." God, if there's something needs to be healed, heal it. Restore, renew, rebuild, revive. Do it, God, do it in us today.
Amen. Let's pray. Lord, we are so, so thankful. Your heart is revealed so beautifully in these words that you restore what the enemy has stolen, what is broken, the weight of sin is carried, the righteousness of God poured out. Lord, do it, do it in us today. Church, how many would say that to the Lord? If there's anything standing in the way of what you would do in my life, God, overturn what needs to be overturned, heal what needs to be healed, and restore my soul to you.
Would you just raise your hand if that's your prayer, your desire? You'd ask God to do this in you. Would you just raise your hand as an expression of it? God, do this in me, restore, fill, rebuild. Pour out your spirit of life. I want the revival that comes by the infilling of the Holy Spirit in my life. God, we love you and honor you and thank you. In Jesus' name, and everyone say, amen. Let's give the Lord praise and glory, amen.