Great Is Thy Faithfulness: One Verse of Hope in Five Chapters of Grief

In the middle of the most grief-saturated book in the Bible, a single passage pivots. Lamentations 3 opens with the worst: 'I am the man who has seen affliction by the rod of the Lord's wrath.' He has been driven into darkness, his skin and flesh worn out. 'He has driven me away and made me walk in darkness rather than light.' Then a turn no reader expects: 'Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: 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.' The hymn 'Great Is Thy Faithfulness' is built entirely on these three verses. They land inside a funeral poem like a window opening onto sky.