Lamentation flows from a heart of humility.

Lamentation is a form of worshiping the only True & Living God, and an indispensable means of maturing in our trust of Him.

Problem – – – > we have zero humility.  We have buckets ‘o plenty, and storage units galore, and train cars by the dozens filled to the brim with hubris …but humility, we have none.

We are dense, diluted, and deceived.  We perpetually persuade ourselves that we are deities.  We are depraved, and we audaciously do all we can to deny it.

That is – until we meet God.

Isaiah met God.  And here was his reaction: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!” (Isaiah 6:5)

Notice that Isaiah doesn’t decry the sins of others so much as he comprehensively sees the most central sin problem in himself.  He is lost.  He is a man of unclean lips.  And he dwells – as a member of – in the midst of a people of unclean lips.  He knows his depravity; he sees it clearly for the appalling – fit to be crucified – vile reality that it is only when he encounters the presence of God.

Put yourself in the place of Isaiah.  It is precisely in this place, we begin to see clearly and confess:  I have all my life done everything from selfish ambition and conceit.  In pride and egotism I have counted myself more significant than others.  I have lived everyday looking ultimately to my own interests – using others to validate myself, and satisfy my cravings of self-importance.  Though I am most assuredly not God, I obsessively count equality with God a thing to be grasped, and refuse to humble myself.  I posture and present myself as if I were a king; cosmetically crafting a false facade called “deity.”  And being found in this pathetic and prideful form, I parade myself as if I were sovereign – becoming wholly obedient to myself, fundamentally committed to following my heart, and submitting wholesale to my natural orientations and appetites.  And therefore I am miserable.  I am always craving, but never satisfied.  I am always anxious, angry, and/or apathetic, but never in the mood to receive Thy Rest.  I spend myself for that which is not bread, and I labor intensely for that which does not satisfy.  I reject the rich food of Thy table in favor of my own mud pies.  I denounce Your invitation of Divine Delights, and decide instead to wallow in my own degeneracy.

LAMENT – – – > Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?

STUNNED & STUPEFIED BY GOD’S GRACE! …Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!

*Praise the only True & Living God for the fact that – – – > He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. (Psalm 103:10)

*Be in AWE of the fact that – – – > For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:21)

*Be captivated by the Good News & WORSHIP – – – > …Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:1-11)

[cited:  Isa. 6:5; Isa. 30:15; 55:1-3; Ps. 103:10; Lk. 14:15-24; Rom. 7:24; Phil. 2:1-11; 2 Cor. 5:21]