Neither of your examples make sense as written. The expression is quite formal and would not be used in a casual sense as suggested in [1]. In [2] you would need a plural ‘lend themselves to . .’ but the expression is inappropriate in this context. A better way of saying this might be : ‘issues that reflect a lack of hope . .’ ‘Lend itself to’ something is used to indicate that something is suitable for a particular purpose, and is not used in a general sense as in your example.

Hello Lee, nice to meet you. The idiom "Lend itself to" means to be good for a particular use. The way it is used in the passages makes no sense because it is not used in the context of its meaning. Where are these from if you don't mind me asking?