“The alarm didn’t go off!”

It happens to all of us at one time or another. That early morning shriek may signal a frantic rush to get the kids fed and off to school, and get ourselves ready for work. It is unnerving to say the least.

There is however, one certainty in life even when the mechanical function of the alarm clock fails. That certainty is well expressed in the words of the writer of Lamentations:

The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness (Lamentations 3:22-23)

The book of Lamentations is a series of laments bemoaning the fall of Jerusalem to the Neo-Babylonians in 586 BCE. The poems share common lament motifs and vocabulary with portions of Psalms, Job, and the Prophets, but sustain a formal lament mode. As one of the five “Scrolls” grouped together in the OT for use at major festivals, Lamentations is assigned to the annual Jewish commemoration of the ninth of Av (the fifth month, July-August), the date of Jerusalem’s fall. (New Interpreter’s Study Bible Notes).

Although as decisively cut off from God as Job in his bleakest moments, the verses noted above indicate that the sufferer retains hope based on confidence in the steadfast love and faithfulness of God, whose mercies never cease.

There is good news!

Even when the alarm clock doesn’t go off as scheduled. Kids get into trouble. A friend fails. The expected promotion doesn’t materialize. Politically and socially, the nation, indeed the world is in turmoil.

But the sun came up this morning. Even on the cloudiest of days, the sun still rises. The affirmation of God’s absolute faithfulness is declared during the calamity of foreign domination. The affirmation of God’s unending mercy is affirmed by the new day. We have rested safely through the night and arise to the presence of God-even when the alarm didn’t go off, or heaven forbid, the coffee didn’t brew.

There is much to lament in the world in which live. We are bombarded daily with news of war, economic and ecological distress, the failure of political leaders to act with integrity in the performance of public service. It is easy to lament the state of the world in which we live.

However, the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness (Emphasis added)

In those words, is our promise for today and hope for tomorrow. We are admonished not to borrow trouble from tomorrow (Matthew 6:25-34). Rather, than look for trouble, we affirm the presence of God in the rising of the sun, in the affirmation of God’s mercy and faithfulness which cannot fail.

Don’t worry about the alarm. God promises, “I’ve got this!”