Lamentations 3:58
English Standard Version
 
You have taken up my cause, O Lord;
    you have redeemed my life.
 
For Encouragement
If any prophet knew suffering for righteousness’ sake in the Old Testament, it was Jeremiah. Every word he spoke drew only harsh responses, rebuke, and even bodily affliction. They persecuted him for the countercultural messages he carried to a nation that had forsaken the Lord and lost in their own ways. He called for repentance and prophesied doom if Israel continued to harden her heart. He predicted Jerusalem’s fall and the Babylonian exile, but Judah would not listen. How much like us today!
They beat him, burned the scroll on which he wrote his messages, deprived him of food and water, and put him in the stocks for lengthy periods. Yet Jeremiah persevered. They called him the weeping prophet, for his cries over the nation’s apostasy. It overwhelmed him and broke God’s heart, and as he pronounced God’s impending judgment through wicked Babylonia, he wept. Listen to him venting his frustration.
But if I say, “I will not mention his word
    or speak anymore in his name,”
his word is in my heart like a fire,
    a fire shut up in my bones.
I am weary of holding it in;
    indeed, I cannot (Jer. 20:9 NIV).
The nation stood aloof and took offense at him, oppressing him by any means possible. How did the prophet survive all that persecution?
God’s steadfast love, mercies, and faithfulness!
That is what Jeremiah proclaims in his Lamentations, chapter three, after the destruction of Jerusalem and the desolation of the nation. The Babylonians swept Judah into exile for their unrepentant hearts.
The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;
   His mercies never come to an end.
They are new every morning.
   Great is your faithfulness (Jer. 3:22-23).
When Jeremiah looked back, he recalled the time before the Babylonian invasion when his enemies in the palace threw him into a muddy cistern and left him to die for prophesying the event (Jer. 38:1-6). Their hands would not kill him. Thirst, dehydration, hunger, and hypothermia would kill him just fine.
The Lord heard his cry for help, came near and said to him not to fear (Lam. 3:57). God took up his cause and rescued him from the miry pit—the muddy cistern—through Obed-melech, an Ethiopian eunuch in the king’s court (Jer. 38:7-13).
Just as God saw Jeremiah’s suffering for his obedience and walking in righteousness, took up his cause against his enemies, so will He see yours, hear your cry, come near and speak peace to your heart, and then take up your cause. He will avenge you if only you let him (Rom. 12:18-19). Only remain obedient to Him. Renounce ungodliness and worldly passions. Live self-controlled, upright, and godly [life] (Titus 2:12), for the days are evil (Eph. 5:16).
Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Thess 5:23).

Pray with Me
Father, thank you for your love, mercy, and faithfulness in Christ Jesus. Refresh us every morning with a new and sufficient dose of them by your Spirit, so that our day will be joyful and bring glory to you. Take up our cause against our enemies, Lord, and redeem us from their wicked plots and acts against us. We thank you in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Amen.  
  
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