We had our Thanksgiving dinner at my church yesterday. As he does every year, Deacon Thomas Milloy opens the floor for people to share the reasons for their thankfulness. What I shared was my gratefulness about being REDEEMED. I Been Redeemed is a song by an artist named Flame. In it, he and Trip Lee rap about what Jesus did in redeeming man. The chorus says, “Jesus did it. Every time I think about it, I get amped.” It follows the Word of God in Lamentations 3:58 that gives rise to my writing today. It says, “O Lord, You have pleaded the case for my soul; You have redeemed my life.”
I am not sure if you have ever been in trouble, broken the law or in dire straights without resolution. When there is no way out or no resolution, the sense of loss and regret is an all-consuming, all-encompassing burden. One feels trapped as one is held under water without and escape. This is man’s condition before God because of man’s sin. We break God’s law. Romans 6:23 says, “The wages of sin is death…” Man desires to follow himself. When he does, he becomes an idolator. Jeremiah 17:5 says, “This is what the Lord says:“Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who draws strength from mere flesh and whose heart turns away from the Lord.”
When we desire to lead our lives and follow that lead, we damn ourselves and become worthless to God. 2 Kings 17:15 says, “They rejected his decrees and the covenant he had made with their ancestors and the statutes he had warned them to keep. They followed worthless idols and themselves became worthless.” We who were created to have fellowship with God cease to have a relationship with God because of our sin. We are cut off from God just as we cut off people whom we feel are repeatedly trifling without excuse. When we do so, that person becomes nothing to us. That person is powerless to cause us to re-engage him/her in a relationship. This is where God’s Compassion for the Scum and Refuse comes into play. It enters the scene. Verse 45 says that God makes us the scum and refuse. Actually, God allows us to become what we really are. Once more, we become worthless and rejected when we pursue our own desires and not those of God.
Lamentations 3:22-23 states “Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” God’s compassion is prompted or motivated from His love for man. I thank God for loving me. Otherwise, I would not have an opportunity to be redeemed – to made right by Christ buying back my life, value and worth to God. It is in Christ that live, move and have my being. Without Him, I am nothing and neither are you. If you don’t know Jesus as Lord and Savior, you are still damned in the eyes of God; yet, God has Compassion for the Scum and Refuse. Simply do as the writer did in verse 55. Call on the name of the Lord in humility and a willingness to surrender your life unto Him.
55 I called on your name, Lord,
from the depths of the pit.
56 You heard my plea: “Do not close your ears
to my cry for relief.”
57 You came near when I called you,
and you said, “Do not fear.”
Why did God tell him not to fear? Verse 58 tells us “58 You, Lord, took up my case; you redeemed my life” or in the NKJV “O Lord, You have pleaded the case for my soul; You have redeemed my life.” Jesus pled the case for my soul. He became my advocate, my lawyer if you will. He pled and won my case. Hallelujah. I am not no longer worthless. I am no longer scum and refuse to God. Read the Word of God and be blessed.
Lamentations 3 (NIV)
I am the man who has seen affliction
by the rod of the Lord’s wrath.
2 He has driven me away and made me walk
in darkness rather than light;
3 indeed, he has turned his hand against me
again and again, all day long.
4 He has made my skin and my flesh grow old
and has broken my bones.
5 He has besieged me and surrounded me
with bitterness and hardship.
6 He has made me dwell in darkness
like those long dead.
7 He has walled me in so I cannot escape;
he has weighed me down with chains.
8 Even when I call out or cry for help,
he shuts out my prayer.
9 He has barred my way with blocks of stone;
he has made my paths crooked.
10 Like a bear lying in wait,
like a lion in hiding,
11 he dragged me from the path and mangled me
and left me without help.
12 He drew his bow
and made me the target for his arrows.
13 He pierced my heart
with arrows from his quiver.
14 I became the laughingstock of all my people;
they mock me in song all day long.
15 He has filled me with bitter herbs
and given me gall to drink.
16 He has broken my teeth with gravel;
he has trampled me in the dust.
17 I have been deprived of peace;
I have forgotten what prosperity is.
18 So I say, “My splendor is gone
and all that I had hoped from the Lord.”
19 I remember my affliction and my wandering,
the bitterness and the gall.
20 I well remember them,
and my soul is downcast within me.
21 Yet this I call to mind
and therefore I have hope:
22 Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed,
for his compassions never fail.
23 They are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
24 I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion;
therefore I will wait for him.”
25 The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him,
to the one who seeks him;
26 it is good to wait quietly
for the salvation of the Lord.
27 It is good for a man to bear the yoke
while he is young.
28 Let him sit alone in silence,
for the Lord has laid it on him.
29 Let him bury his face in the dust—
there may yet be hope.
30 Let him offer his cheek to one who would strike him,
and let him be filled with disgrace.
31 For no one is cast off
by the Lord forever.
32 Though he brings grief, he will show compassion,
so great is his unfailing love.
33 For he does not willingly bring affliction
or grief to anyone.
34 To crush underfoot
all prisoners in the land,
35 to deny people their rights
before the Most High,
36 to deprive them of justice—
would not the Lord see such things?
37 Who can speak and have it happen
if the Lord has not decreed it?
38 Is it not from the mouth of the Most High
that both calamities and good things come?
39 Why should the living complain
when punished for their sins?
40 Let us examine our ways and test them,
and let us return to the Lord.
41 Let us lift up our hearts and our hands
to God in heaven, and say:
42 “We have sinned and rebelled
and you have not forgiven.
43 “You have covered yourself with anger and pursued us;
you have slain without pity.
44 You have covered yourself with a cloud
so that no prayer can get through.
45 You have made us scum and refuse
among the nations.
46 “All our enemies have opened their mouths
wide against us.
47 We have suffered terror and pitfalls,
ruin and destruction.”
48 Streams of tears flow from my eyes
because my people are destroyed.
49 My eyes will flow unceasingly,
without relief,
50 until the Lord looks down
from heaven and sees.
51 What I see brings grief to my soul
because of all the women of my city.
52 Those who were my enemies without cause
hunted me like a bird.
53 They tried to end my life in a pit
and threw stones at me;
54 the waters closed over my head,
and I thought I was about to perish.
55 I called on your name, Lord,
from the depths of the pit.
56 You heard my plea: “Do not close your ears
to my cry for relief.”
57 You came near when I called you,
and you said, “Do not fear.”
58 You, Lord, took up my case;
you redeemed my life.
59 Lord, you have seen the wrong done to me.
Uphold my cause!
60 You have seen the depth of their vengeance,
all their plots against me.
61 Lord, you have heard their insults,
all their plots against me—
62 what my enemies whisper and mutter
against me all day long.
63 Look at them! Sitting or standing,
they mock me in their songs.
64 Pay them back what they deserve, Lord,
for what their hands have done.
65 Put a veil over their hearts,
and may your curse be on them!
66 Pursue them in anger and destroy them
from under the heavens of the Lord.
Darron E. Franklin's Blog 
Leave a comment