I have an early morning airport run to make, so gonna be quick to jot down a few thoughts after starting in on Lamentations this morning.

The city is empty. The sounds of weeping echo in the barren streets. Most of the people are in exile, learning what real hard labor is all about — reminiscent I wonder of bondage in Egypt. The roads leading to Jerusalem, once filled with people coming to the city to celebrate the festivals, are now dotted now only a few scattered mourners.

What’s happened?

Her foes have become the head; her enemies prosper, because the LORD has afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions; her children have gone away, captives before the foe.

(Lamentations 1:5 ESV)

Jerusalem had “sinned grievously” and had become filthy (1:8). “She played fast and loose with life, she never considered tomorrow, and now she’s crashed royally” (1:9 MSG). And so, the Lord gave her “into the hands of those whom I cannot withstand” (1:14b). The Lord rejected her, summoned an assembly against her, and had trodden her “as in a winepress” of judgment (1:15). Heavy sigh!

And here’s what’s grabbed me this morning:

“The LORD is in the right, for I have rebelled against his word.”

(Lamentations 1:18a ESV)

The LORD is in the right.

Slice and dice it anyway you want. Go over the game tapes. Play it over and over again. Assess, process, and re-address — but in the end they had to confess, “The LORD is in the right.”

What comfort! What a concrete foundation. There may be much I don’t understand about the current state of affairs, much I can’t reconcile about prolonged seasons of suffering, but at the end of the day — at the end of each day — I can know that the LORD is in the right.

Our God is, by definition, a righteous God – a God in the right.

Not only is He the definition of righteousness, but the very source. In Him is righteousness. All that proceeds from Him is righteousness.

Thus, I can rest, in whatsoever state, in His righteousness (Php 4:11-13).

By His grace. For His glory.