We also need the book of lamentations to understand the rest of the Bible.

So we don't characterize the Christian life is all victory in Jesus, sweetness and light.

Dr. Reed Lessing, author of The Issues that Set are a Book of the Month for January,

the new Concordia Commentary on Lamentations.

The book of Lamentations is a hard stop against such a perversion of the Christian life.

Learn more about the Concordia Commentary on Lamentations, because that's what it is, a series of laments, or even a dirge in one of its chapters, a song of woe, and not despair, because Lamentations is not about despair,

even though it ends in a possible despairing moment. It is later answered by the prophet Isaiah.

So what do we do with some of the darkest parts of the Old Testament book of Lamentations?

Welcome back to Issues, Et etc. I'm Todd Wilkin.

Joining us for part four of our series on the Old Testament book of Lamentations, Dr. Reed Lessing,

the Edwin F. and Esther Lash chair of Old Testament Studies at Concordia University,

St. Paul, Minnesota, and author of The Issues, etc. Book of of the month for January, the new Concordia Commentary on Lamentations.

Dr. Lessing, welcome back.

Good to be here, Todd.

Give us a big picture overview of the fourth chapter of Lamentations.

Chapter 4 is going to continue this acrostic literary feature that we see in the first three chapters.

That would be one way to put it in alphabet way of doing poetry, Psalm 119, as many of our listeners know,

would be the most famous acrostic with 22 sections, each section beginning, each verse, each of the eight verses in Psalm 119

with the same letter in the Hebrew alphabet from A to Z is what Psalm 119 is celebrating,

from Alpha and Omega to use Greek terms. And that particular part of the Bible is celebrating the beauty, the perfection,

the gift of God's word. So if listeners are familiar with that way of doing poetry, then they

exactly know what's going on in Lamentations. The first four chapters are going to function that

...