My Notes
What Does Lamentations 3:23 Mean?
"They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness." In the middle of Lamentations — the most grief-saturated book in Scripture — this declaration appears: God's mercies are NEW every morning. His faithfulness is GREAT. The verse doesn't deny the suffering (the surrounding chapters are relentless agony). It finds something renewable inside the devastation: mercy that refreshes daily and faithfulness that exceeds the grief.
The phrase "they are new every morning" (chadashim labbeqarim — they are fresh/renewed at the mornings) means the mercies don't carry over from yesterday: each morning brings a fresh supply. The mercy you received yesterday was yesterday's mercy. This morning's mercy is new — unworn, unused, freshly supplied. The provision is daily because the need is daily. The newness is the guarantee that yesterday's exhausted mercy is replaced by today's fresh batch.
The "great is thy faithfulness" (rabbah emunatekha — great/abundant is Your faithfulness) is the declaration that grounds the new-every-morning mercies in divine CHARACTER: the mercies are new because God is faithful. The daily renewal is the expression of the great faithfulness. The newness isn't random or accidental. It's the product of a faithfulness that is, itself, great.
Reflection Questions
- 1.Do you believe — from inside your devastation — that new mercies arrived this morning?
- 2.What does 'new every morning' teach about mercy being daily, not accumulated?
- 3.How does this declaration being made from inside the WORST circumstances make it more powerful?
- 4.What morning mercy did you receive today that you haven't noticed yet?
Devotional
New every morning. In the middle of the worst book in the Bible — surrounded by destruction, starvation, death, and despair — THIS: God's mercies are new every morning. Great is His faithfulness. The declaration doesn't pretend the suffering isn't real. It finds something renewable inside the devastation.
The 'new every morning' means yesterday's mercy is GONE — but today's is HERE: the mercy doesn't accumulate. It doesn't carry over. Yesterday's supply was used up by yesterday's suffering. But this morning — THIS morning — a fresh batch arrived. The mercies are like manna: new every day, enough for today, not storable for tomorrow. The newness is the miracle. The dailiness is the faithfulness.
The 'great is thy faithfulness' grounds the newness in God's CHARACTER: the mercies aren't new every morning by accident. They're new because God is FAITHFUL — and His faithfulness is GREAT. The daily renewal is the expression of the great faithfulness. Every morning that mercy arrives is proof that faithfulness showed up again. The faithfulness doesn't fluctuate. The mercies don't vary. The greatness holds.
The context makes this verse more powerful, not less: these words are spoken from the ruins of Jerusalem. The Temple is destroyed. The city is burned. The people are starving. And the poet says: great is His faithfulness. The declaration isn't naive. It's informed by the worst possible circumstances and still standing. The faithfulness that survives Lamentations can survive anything.
Do you believe — from inside your own devastation — that the mercies are new THIS morning and that His faithfulness is great?
Commentary
Trusted original commentary from respected historical Bible scholars and theologians.
They are new every morning,.... That is, the tender mercies or compassions of God are, which prove that they fail not;…
They are new every morning - Day and night proclaim the mercy and compassion of God. Who could exist throughout the day,…
Here the clouds begin to disperse and the sky to clear up; the complaint was very melancholy in the former part of the…
There are metrical irregularities in these vv. as they stand. We should probably (with Löhr) read the first, "The Lord's…
Cross References
Related passages throughout Scripture