In Lamentations 3, the soldier—think of him as a captured member of Jerusalem's army—spends 16 verses blaming God for his imprisonment and torture, 3 verses praising God, and 15 verses debating his religious beliefs. He uses blame, praise, and then theology to help him build a wall of denial between him and his pain.
However, as we followed his journey of denial to emotional freedom in How praise can become denial and How theology can become denial, we missed one thing.
We didn't look deeply at the soldier's religious beliefs.
The LORD is good to those who wait for him,
to the soul that seeks him.
It is good that one should wait quietly
for the salvation of the LORD.
It is good for one to bear
the yoke in youth,
— Lamentations 3:25-27 NRSV (emphasis mine)
In the original Hebrew, each of these three verses starts with the word "good." So it originally read: Good it is..., good it is..., good it is.... This repetition gives the impression that the soldier is unconvinced by what he is saying.
And so he should be.
Have you carefully read what he's saying? What he's really saying?
Wow, is it dodgy.
