The Perfection of Beauty: Lamentations 2:15-17

Today, I’d like to go through Lamentations 2:15-17. These verses are so tragic and reveal the complete reversal of God’s favor on His people and His city. But really, before we dig into this, we need to read the other Old Testament passage to which it corresponds, Psalm 48:

Great is the Lord, and most worthy of praise, in the city of our God, his holy mountain.

² Beautiful in its loftiness, the joy of the whole earth,
like the heights of Zaphon is Mount Zion, the city of the Great King.
³ God is in her citadels; he has shown himself to be her fortress.

⁴ When the kings joined forces, when they advanced together,
⁵ they saw her and were astounded; they fled in terror.
⁶ Trembling seized them there, pain like that of a woman in labor.
⁷ You destroyed them like ships of Tarshish shattered by an east wind.

⁸ As we have heard, so we have seen in the city of the Lord Almighty,
    in the city of our God: God makes her secure forever.

⁹ Within your temple, O God, we meditate on your unfailing love.
¹⁰ Like your name, O God, your praise reaches to the ends of the earth;
    your right hand is filled with righteousness.
¹¹ Mount Zion rejoices, the villages of Judah are glad because of your judgments.

¹² Walk about Zion, go around her, count her towers,
¹³ consider well her ramparts, view her citadels, that you may tell of them to the next generation.

¹⁴ For this God is our God for ever and ever; he will be our guide even to the end.

This Psalm has so many beautiful promises for the people of God. God has shown himself to be her fortress. He is the one who protects the city, not the walls, not the people. This is the city of the Great King, the Lord Almighty. All who dwell in her rejoice and are glad because God’s righteousness has influenced them. God’s judgments are just and true and the people rejoice over them—especially how they affect their enemies. You know, the ones in verses 4-7. Because God protects His people, the city of Zion is beautiful and unconquered, a mighty fortress, a city of beauty, and joyful dwelling place.

Except, that all changed. When we stop praising God in good times and bad, we stop seeing His blessings and believing that He is able and sovereign. When we stop believing that God is the best defense against our enemies and take matters into our own hands, our walls will crumble and our gates are overthrown. When we stop meditating on God’s unfailing love, we forget that He is the only good and true King and we begin to believe that we can live without His righteousness. Jerusalem’s descent into darkness didn’t happen all at once. There were some big drops and there were some small climbs, but ultimately the people, the leaders, the priests, and the king, all let go. They got too confident and cocky in what they could do. They didn’t give the glory back to God and believe that their security was due to Him and Him alone, they thought that maybe they had pulled themselves up by their bootstraps, and that maybe part of the victory and glory of the city was due to them and their efforts.

And now the city has fallen as Lamentations 2:15-17 shows:

All who pass your way clap their hands at you;

They scoff and shake their heads at the Daughter of Jerusalem:

“Is this the city that was called the perfection of beauty, the joy of the whole earth?”

It’s as though the enemies of Jerusalem are screaming, “Beautiful? Perfect? Hah! Joy of the Earth? Are you joyful now as you sit in the dust of your fallen city? You thought you were so great, so wonderful. Now look at you: ugly, rejected, fallen!”

All your enemies open their mouths wide against you;

They scoff and gnash their teeth and say, “We have swallowed her up.

This is the day we have waited for, we have lived to see it!”

“Hypocrites! We knew it all along! We knew that one day you would fall, and now you have to admit that you are no better than the rest of us! You said we would always flee because you were sooooo great and wonderful. You said we were terrified of your beauty. Who is trembling now? Who is shattered? Who is astounded and terrified by their God now? We rejoice over your rejection, we bask in your defeat!”

The Lord has done what he planned; He has fulfilled his word, which he decreed long ago.

He has overthrown you without pity, he has let the enemy gloat over you,

he has exalted the horn of your foes.

“The best part about all this is that we didn’t even really have to try! Your God betrayed you. He let you fall, He didn’t come to your defense. He made war against you. He gave US the victory. Where is God now? Is He in your ruin of a city? In your fallen citadels? Does He stand by your broken gates? Was it worth it Jerusalem? Was your God worth it?”

I wish I could say that this is all in the past. I wish I could say we have all learned our lesson and know better. I wish I could say that this is not how the world treats us today.

The book of Lamentations calls us all to the floor and reveals our ugliness and our false beliefs. We are on the path to perfection and beauty, we are called to be the joy of the world, but we are not perfect yet. There was only one who was perfect: Jesus Christ. His perfection, and his righteousness covers us and gives us the opportunity to try, and try again. Nothing made by human hands can save.[1] We can’t gloat over anything we have or that we do because we could not have any of it or do anything if Christ had not first died for us. We were dead in our sin. Dead people don’t do anything except slowly decompose and return to the dust they were made from. But we also worship a God who can raise the dead, and whose will to save cannot and will not be altered by created beings.[2]

Psalm 48 isn’t boasting about the city. It is boasting about God who makes the city stand. The kings who joined forces did flee from the city because of how pretty, bright, and shiny it was. They fled because their sin came into contact with the Holy God. God’s holiness will always defeat sin. The city wasn’t overthrown because the people made some mistakes—God knows we will make mistakes—the sinfulness of the city and the sinfulness of everyone living in it was trumped by God’s holiness. The book of Lamentations shows us that we cannot assume “that God will protect his own at all costs. No one can stand on holy ground and assert that nothing will overcome them.”[3]

Today, we are covered by the blood of the lamb, the perfect sacrifice. The one who had no sin became sin for us so that we could bear his righteousness (2 Corinthians 5:12). But that doesn’t mean we can just do as we please. We were not redeemed so we could just try again, we were bought and redeemed into the House of God, and God has some house rules. That is why we say that God is our Father. He teaches us how to live, and live well. He knows that true joy and happiness comes from living well, and the only way to live well is to learn from Him. Here on earth, we are all learning. None of us is perfect. When we succeed and do something well, praise God! When we fail, He gives us the chance to try again, to learn it again.

Jesus died so that we could be the perfection of beauty, the joy of the whole earth. God will not rest until He accomplishes His purposes in us, until He brings us to perfection and glory. This life isn’t about what we do, but what God does through us. He is worthy of praise and glory. Even when we encounter troubling times, trials, and tribulations, He is worth it, and no human should ever convince us differently, regardless of where life takes us. God is our God for ever and ever; He will be our guide even to the end.

Do you depend on your accomplishments, towers, and citadels, or do you depend on God?

How have you let God guide you in the past and how is He guiding you now?

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[1] J Andrew Dearman, Jeremiah/Lamentations, The NIV Application Commentary, (Grand Rapids, Zondervan, 2002), pg 453.

[2] Ibid.

[3] J Andrew Dearman, Jeremiah/Lamentations, The NIV Application Commentary, (Grand Rapids, Zondervan, 2002), pg 452