“But you, O Lord, reign forever. Your throne endures to all generations. Why do you forget us forever? Why do you forsake us for so many days? Restore us to yourself, O Lord, that we may be restored. Renew our days as of old unless you have utterly rejected us and you remain exceedingly angry with us.”
– Lamentations 5:19–23
Wow, what an ending to this book. As Jeremiah lifts up his voice saying, “You, O Lord, reign forever. Your throne endures to all generations. Your kingdom reigns forever. Nothing can stop you,” the only thing that matters then is our relationship to you. So Jeremiah cries out, “God, please restore us to yourself.” This is something only God can do. The voice here is passive, “That we may be restored. God, do this in our lives. Renew and restore us.”
Lamentations 5:19–23 Reminds Us the Lord Reigns Forever
Do you see it? God, the Lord who reigns forever, whose throne endures through all generations, God is our only hope in our lives, in our families, in our churches, in our countries, among the nations. God is our only hope in everything, in everything that is on your heart and mind, and everything that you are carrying in your life and everything that you face today or tomorrow or the next day. In all of it, God is your only hope. God is my only hope. He is our only hope. So we pray. Just think of all the things going on in your life right now and let’s lift them up before the Lord.
God, you are our only hope. You’re our only hope for wisdom, for help, for peace, for comfort, for guidance, for strength, for everything. God, we have nothing apart from you. You are our only hope. You are the Lord of Hosts. And you reign forever. Your throne endures throughout all generations. For all of eternity, you will be our only hope. We praise you for the hope we find in you, for the security and strength that are found in you, for the peace and comfort that are found in you, for the joy that’s endless, the fountain of satisfaction that’s found in you.
Lamentations 5:19–23 Leads Us to Experience Restoration
So we pray continually restore us to yourself, O God, that we may be restored. Draw us into closer and closer relationship with you. God, we pray. We pray this for our lives that you would help us to live in continual repentance and when and if, when we sin, God, that you would convict us and restore us to yourself immediately.
God, we pray this over the people around us whom we love. God, we pray for their restoration to you, for their continual growth in you. We pray for that. We pray. God, we pray for the people in our families, in our churches, in our communities and our cities. God, you’re our only hope in the cities where we live. You’re our only hope in the countries where we live. You’re the only hope of all the nations. We pray for unreached people groups all the time on this podcast.
Praying for the Unreached in Mauritania
God, you’re the only hope for the Moor people of Mauritania, four million of them. God, you’re their only hope. Jesus, you are their only hope. Please cause your hope to be made known among them, to spread among them. Cause your church to take the gospel to the Moor people of Mauritania. Please bless those who are working for the spread of the gospel among them. God, without you, the Moor people of Mauritania have no hope. Without you, none of us have any hope. So restore them to you. Draw them to you that they may be restored and draw us closer and closer and closer to you.
O God, we pray. You, O Lord, reign forever. Your throne endures to all generations. We look to you, we praise you, and we trust in you as our only hope for everything in our lives. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
