I rarely put politics in this blog, but today’s “Prayer for Mercy” has me thinking about current events in the United States and around the world. So much pain and sadness. So much injustice. So much violence. So much evil. With all that in mind today, for each of the following 22 verses, would you please, Reader, supply the mental picture. And would you please, Believer, pray to the Lord to have mercy on all these people and nations who are desperate for peace of body and soul.
The People of Jerusalem Pray:
1Our LORD, don’t forget
how we have suffered
and been disgraced.
2Foreigners and strangers
have taken our land
and our homes.
3We are like children
whose mothers
are widows.
4The water we drink
and the wood we burn
cost far too much.
5We are terribly mistreated;
we are worn out
and can find no rest.
6We had to surrender
to Egypt and Assyria
because we were hungry.
7Our ancestors sinned,
but they are dead,
and we are left
to pay for their sins.
8Slaves are now our rulers,
and there is no one
to set us free.
9We are in danger
from brutal desert tribes;
we must risk our lives
just to bring in our crops.
10Our skin is scorched
from fever and hunger.
11On Zion and everywhere in Judah
our wives and daughters
are being raped.
12Our rulers are strung up
by their arms,
and our nation’s advisors
are treated shamefully.
13Young men are forced
to do the work of slaves;
boys must carry
heavy loads of wood.
14Our leaders are not allowed
to decide cases in court,
and young people
no longer play music.
15Our hearts are sad;
instead of dancing,
we mourn.
16Zion’s glory has disappeared!
And we are doomed
because of our sins.
17We feel sick all over
and can’t even see straight;
18our city is in ruins,
overrun by wild dogs.
19You will rule forever, LORD!
You are King for all time.
20Why have you forgotten us for so long?
21Bring us back to you!
Give us a fresh start.
22Or do you despise us
so much
that you don’t want us?
Lord, we commend all for whom we pray into your tender and merciful care, in Jesus’ name, Amen.
_________________________
Music:
HERE is “Breathe” by Michael W. Smith — but the line I always remember (in my own lamentations) is, “I’m desperate for you.”
Jeremiah, by Michelangelo, 1511 (Sistine Chapel, Rome)
Lamentations 4 (CEV)
The Punishment of Jerusalem
The Prophet Speaks:
1The purest gold is ruined
and has lost its shine;
“Although gold does not tarnish, it does lose its shine when it is covered with dust, which is precisely what happened to the golden articles from Jerusalem’s temple. They were trampled in the city’s dusty streets, for her glory had departed.”
–Philip Graham Ryken
jewels from the temple
lie scattered in the streets.
2These are Zion’s people,
worth more than purest gold;
yet they are counted worthless
like dishes of clay.
3Even jackals nurse their young,
“The most common social unit of jackals is that of a monogamous pair which defends its territory from other pairs by vigorously chasing intruding rivals and marking landmarks around the territory. The territory may be large enough to hold some young adults who stay with their parents until they establish their own territories.”
–Wikipedia
but my people are like ostriches
that abandon their own.
“For her carelessness about her eggs, and her inattention to her young, the ostrich is proverbial.”
–Adam Clarke
4Babies are so thirsty
that their tongues are stuck
to the roof of the mouth.
Children go begging for food,
but no one gives them any.
Matthew 25:40 (NIV)
The King will reply, “Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.”
5All who ate expensive foods
lie starving in the streets;
those who grew up in luxury
now sit on trash heaps.
6My nation was punished worse
than the people of Sodom,
whose city was destroyed in a flash
without the help of human hands.
7The leaders of Jerusalem
were purer than snow and whiter than milk;
their bodies were healthy and glowed like jewels.
8Now they are blacker than tar,
and no one recognizes them;
their skin clings to their bones
and is drier than firewood.
9Being killed with a sword is better
than slowly starving to death.
“I have three things I’d like to say today. First, while you were sleeping last night, 30,000 kids died of starvation or diseases related to malnutrition. Second, most of you don’t give a shit. Third, and what’s worse, you’re more upset with the fact that I said shit than the fact that 30,000 kids died last night.”
–evangelist Tony Campolo
10Life in the city is so bad
that loving mothers
have boiled
and eaten their own children.
_________________________
Music:
Oh, the children! HERE is the Azusa Pacific University’s Choir & Orchestra members in 2005 singing “The Prayer of the Children.”
_________________________
11The LORD was so fiercely angry
that he burned the city of Zion
to the ground.
12Not a king on this earth
or the people of any nation
believed enemies could break
through her gates.
The Huldah Gates (Second Temple period) are the two sets of now-blocked gates in the Southern Wall of the Temple Mount, situated in Jerusalem’s Old City. The western set is a double arched gate (the double gate), and the eastern is a triple arched gate (the triple gate). Each arch of the double gate led into an aisle of a passageway leading from the gate into the Mount, and to steps leading to the Mount’s surface; when the al-Aqsa Mosque was built, the old steps were blocked, and the eastern aisle lengthened so that new steps from its end would exit north of the Mosque. The triple gate is similar, though the longer aisle is to the west, and its third aisle, on the east, forms the western boundary of the vaulted area known as Solomon’s Stables.
–Wikipedia
13Jerusalem was punished because
her prophets and her priests
had sinned and caused the death
of innocent victims.
14Yes, her prophets and priests
were covered with blood;
no one would come near them,
as they wandered from street to street.
15Instead, everyone shouted,
“Go away! Don’t touch us!
You’re filthy and unfit
to belong to God’s people!”
So they had to leave
and become refugees.
Egyptian immigration official:
Listen. Let’s get this straight. These people have arrived on our doorstep –illegally. No papers, no money. No proof or record of persecution. No one to back up their story. I see no reason to grant them refugee status. We are a decent, caring people, but we’ve been the good guys for too long. These people are just taking advantage of us. Send them back where they came from. We have no room for any more illegals in this country. We have enough rubbish in this country already. We don’t want any more.
(from the play – Jesus Was Once a Refugee)
But foreign nations told them,
“You can’t stay here!”
16The LORD is the one
who sent them scattering,
and he has forgotten them.
No respect or kindness will be shown
to the priests or leaders.
17Our eyes became weary,
hopelessly looking for help
from a nation that could not save us.
18Enemies hunted us down
on every public street.
“The tall Babylonian siege towers made it dangerous for anyone to walk in the streets within range of arrows or stones.”
–Christopher J. H. Wright
Our time was up; our doom was near.
19They swooped down faster
than eagles from the sky.
Eagles soar down and then fly low at up to 75 miles per hour. They usually snatch their prey with their feet (fish is their favorite).
They hunted for us in the hills
and set traps to catch us out in the desert.
20The LORD’s chosen leader was our hope for survival!
We thought he would keep us safe
somewhere among the nations,
but even he was caught in one of their traps.
21You people of Edom can celebrate now!
But your time will come to suffer
and stagger around naked.
22The people of Zion have paid for their sins,
and the Lord will soon let them return home.
But, people of Edom,
you will be punished, and your sins exposed.
“There is little doubt that the Edomites, who knew the routes and crossings, helped the Babylonians here, and this is why verses 21 and 22 turn against Edom. Obadiah 14 clearly shows what they did. So, when Zion is restored, Edom will still be kept low, and Malachi 1:2-5 records that this was fulfilled. Ultimately Edom was subdued and absorbed into Israel.”
“The sufferings of Jeremiah” etching by Marc Chagall, 1939.
Lamentations 3 (CEV)
Unlike in Job and many of the Psalms, God says nothing to the writer of Lamentations. What should we make of his silence?
One commentator, Kathleen O’Connor, calls God’s silence “inspired.” This resonates on three levels. First, God allows the suffering people to have their full say. He listens, without interrupting to comfort or correct. Second, the Prophets had already explained that this would happen and why. And third, although God does not speak as a character in the book, he speaks by including it in his Word, within the canon of Scripture.
–Christopher J. H. White
There Is Still Hope
The Prophet Speaks:
“Jeremiah’s personal lament is a reminder that suffering is always personal. When nations go through times of tragedy and tribulation, the greatest suffering always takes place at the individual level.”
–Philip Graham Ryken
1I have suffered much because God was angry.
2He chased me into a dark place, where no light could enter.
“This seems to be the hardest part of our lot, that God should lead us into darkness: ‘He hath led me, and brought me into darkness.’ Yet dear brethren, that is, on the other hand, the sweetest thing about our trial; because, if the darkness be in the place where God has led us, it is best for us to be in the dark.”
–Charles Haddon Spurgeon
3I am the only one he punishes over and over again,
without ever stopping.
4God caused my skin and flesh to waste away,
and he crushed my bones.
5He attacked and surrounded me with hardships and trouble;
6he forced me to sit in the dark like someone long dead.
7God built a fence around me that I cannot climb over,
Job 19:8 (KJV)
He hath fenced up my way that I cannot pass, and he hath set darkness in my paths.
and he chained me down.
8Even when I shouted and prayed for help,
he refused to listen.
9God put big rocks in my way
and made me follow a crooked path.
10God was like a bear or a lion waiting in ambush for me;
11he dragged me from the road, then tore me to shreds.
12God took careful aim and shot his arrows
13straight through my heart.
Job 6:4 (NLT)
For the Almighty has struck me down with his arrows. Their poison infects my spirit. God’s terrors are lined up against me.
14I am a joke to everyone–
no one ever stops making fun of me.
15God has turned my life sour.
16He made me eat gravel and rubbed me in the dirt.
“It could be argued that eating gravel refers to the type of bread made from the sweepings of the granary floor that Jeremiah must have received toward the end of the siege.”
–H. L. Ellison
17I cannot find peace or remember happiness.
18I tell myself, “I am finished!
I can’t count on the LORD to do anything for me.”
19Just thinking of my troubles and my lonely wandering
makes me miserable.
20That’s all I ever think about, and I am depressed.
21Then I remember something
that fills me with hope.
“Everything that is done in the world is done by hope.” Martin Luther
22The LORD’s kindness never fails!
If he had not been merciful,
we would have been destroyed.
23The LORD can always be trusted
to show mercy each morning.
“In a magnificent expression of faith in the unfailing mercies of God, the writer looks to the distant future with renewed hope.”
–Harrison
24Deep in my heart I say,
“The LORD is all I need; I can depend on him!”
25The LORD is kind to everyone who trusts and obeys him.
26It is good to wait patiently for the LORD to save us.
“Do not be in a hurry; do not expect to be delivered out of your trouble the first time you begin to cry unto God. Oh, no: ‘the Lord is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him.’
–Charles Haddon Spurgeon
“There are times when the only thing a sufferer can do is wait for God. But waiting is good because God is worth waiting for.”
–Philip Graham Ryken
27When we are young, it is good to struggle hard
28and to sit silently alone,
if this is what the LORD intends.
29Being rubbed in the dirt can teach us a lesson;
30we can also learn from insults and hard knocks.
31The Lord won’t always reject us!
32He causes a lot of suffering,
but he also has pity because of his great love.
In his classic treatment of suffering, The Problem of Pain, C. S. Lewis wrote:
God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pain: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.
Lewis argues that not only is it possible to find God when life is hard, but also it is in some sense easier than when life is good.
33The Lord doesn’t enjoy sending grief or pain.
34Don’t trample prisoners under your feet
35or cheat anyone out of what is rightfully theirs.
God Most High sees everything,
36and he knows when you refuse
to give someone a fair trial.
37No one can do anything
without the Lord’s approval.
38Good and bad each happen
at the command of God Most High.
Psalm 33:11 (NLT)
But the Lord’s plans stand firm forever; his intentions can never be shaken.
39We’re still alive!
We shouldn’t complain
when we are being punished for our sins.
40Instead, we should think
about the way we are living,
and turn back to the LORD.
41When we lift our hands
in prayer to God in heaven,
we should offer him our hearts
and say, 42“We’ve sinned!
We’ve rebelled against you,
and you haven’t forgiven us!
43Anger is written all over you,
as you pursue and slaughter us
without showing pity.
44You are behind a wall of clouds
that blocks out our prayers.
from My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
GOD’S SILENCE — THEN WHAT?
When He heard that he was sick, He stayed two more days in the place where He was —John 11:6
Has God trusted you with His silence — a silence that has great meaning? God’s silences are actually His answers. Just think of those days of absolute silence in the home at Bethany! Is there anything comparable to those days in your life? Can God trust you like that, or are you still asking Him for a visible answer? God will give you the very blessings you ask if you refuse to go any further without them, but His silence is the sign that He is bringing you into an even more wonderful understanding of Himself. Are you mourning before God because you have not had an audible response? When you cannot hear God, you will find that He has trusted you in the most intimate way possible— with absolute silence, not a silence of despair, but one of pleasure, because He saw that you could withstand an even bigger revelation. If God has given you a silence, then praise Him— He is bringing you into the mainstream of His purposes. The actual evidence of the answer in time is simply a matter of God’s sovereignty. Time is nothing to God. For a while you may have said, “I asked God to give me bread, but He gave me a stone instead” (see Matthew 7:9). He did not give you a stone, and today you find that He gave you the “bread of life” (John 6:35).
A wonderful thing about God’s silence is that His stillness is contagious— it gets into you, causing you to become perfectly confident so that you can honestly say, “I know that God has heard me.” His silence is the very proof that He has. As long as you have the idea that God will always bless you in answer to prayer, He will do it, but He will never give you the grace of His silence. If Jesus Christ is bringing you into the understanding that prayer is for the glorifying of His Father, then He will give you the first sign of His intimacy— silence.
45You allowed nations
to treat us like garbage;
46our enemies curse us.
47We are terrified and trapped,
caught and crushed.”
48My people are destroyed!
Tears flood my eyes,
49and they won’t stop
50until the LORD looks down from heaven and helps.
51I am horrified when I see what enemies have done
to the young women of our city.
52No one had reason to hate me,
but I was hunted down like a bird.
53Then they tried to kill me
by tossing me into a pit and throwing stones at me.
54Water covered my head–
I thought I was gone.
55From the bottom of the pit, I prayed to you, LORD.
56I begged you to listen.
“Help!” I shouted. “Save me!”
You answered my prayer
57and came when I was in need.
You told me, “Don’t worry!”
58You rescued me and saved my life.
Jonah 2:5-7 (NLT)
“I sank beneath the waves, and the waters closed over me. Seaweed wrapped itself around my head. I sank down to the very roots of the mountains. I was imprisoned in the earth, whose gates lock shut forever. But you, O Lord my God, snatched me from the jaws of death! As my life was slipping away, I remembered the Lord. And my earnest prayer went out to you in your holy Temple.”
59You saw them abuse me, LORD,
so make things right.
60You know every plot they have made against me.
61Yes, you know their insults and their evil plans.
62All day long they attack with words and whispers.
63No matter what they are doing, they keep on mocking me.
64Pay them back for everything they have done, LORD!
65Put your curse on them and make them suffer.
66Get angry and go after them
until not a trace is left under the heavens.
_________________________
Music:
Lamentations 3:22-23 (NIV)
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.
HERE is Fernando Ortega singing a lovely, and uncommon, version of the hymn “Great Is Thy Faithfulness.”
“Jeremiah lamenting the destruction of Jerusalem” by Rembrandt, 1630 (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam)
Lamentations 2 (CEV)
The LORD Was Like an Enemy
This chapter is an acrostic poem, the verses of which begin with the successive letters of the Hebrew alphabet.
The Prophet Speaks:
1The Lord was angry!
God had warned them so many times to return to Him or face punishment. But they did not listen. So now, the Lord makes good His promise with a series of strong actions. All this destruction comes from God, even if it was through the instrument of the Babylonian army.
So he disgraced Zion though it was Israel’s pride
and his own place of rest.
In his anger he threw Zion down from heaven to earth.
2The LORD had no mercy!
He destroyed the homes of Jacob’s descendants.
In his anger he tore down every walled city in Judah;
he toppled the nation together with its leaders,
leaving them in shame.
Psalm 89:39-40 (NIV)
You have renounced the covenant with your servant and have defiled his crown in the dust. You have broken through all his walls and reduced his strongholds to ruins.
3The Lord was so furiously angry
that he wiped out the whole army of Israel
by not supporting them when the enemy attacked.
He swallowed up the descendants of Jacob
like a raging fire.
4He attacked like an enemy with a bow and arrows,
killing our loved ones.
He burned to the ground the homes on Mount Zion.
I know a woman whose house burned to the ground. She says that even now, years after, she is sometimes jolted awake by the memory of yet another thing that was lost. The blanket her grandmother had knit for her when she was born. The baptismal dress her children wore. Her wedding invitation, framed in a mother-of-pearl frame. Her scrapbook of her brother’s senior year in high school, beginning with football practice (he was the quarterback) and ending with the fatal car wreck the night after graduation. Totally random, she says, the things she remembers. And always with a pain deep inside. Life can be hard.
5The Lord was like an enemy!
He left Israel in ruins
with its palaces and fortresses destroyed,
and with everyone in Judah moaning and weeping.
6He shattered his temple like a hut in a garden;
he completely wiped out his meeting place,
and did away with festivals and Sabbaths
in the city of Zion.
In his fierce anger he rejected our king and priests.
7The Lord abandoned his altar and his temple;
he let Zion’s enemies capture her fortresses.
Noisy shouts were heard from the temple,
as if it were a time of celebration.
Psalm 74:7-8 (NIV)
They burned your sanctuary to the ground; they defiled the dwelling place of your Name. They said in their hearts, “We will crush them completely!” They burned every place where God was worshiped in the land.
8The LORD had decided
to tear down the walls of Zion stone by stone.
So he started destroying and did not stop
until walls and fortresses mourned and trembled.
9Zion’s gates have fallen
facedown on the ground;
the bars that locked the gates are smashed to pieces.
Her king and royal family are prisoners in foreign lands.
Her priests don’t teach,
and her prophets don’t have a message from the LORD.
10Zion’s leaders are silent.
They just sit on the ground,
tossing dirt on their heads and wearing sackcloth.
Her young women can do nothing
but stare at the ground.
11My eyes are red from crying,
my stomach is in knots, and I feel sick all over.
Psalm 22:14 (NIV)
I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart has turned to wax; it has melted within me.
My people are being wiped out,
and children lie helpless in the streets of the city.
12A child begs its mother for food and drink,
then blacks out
like a wounded soldier lying in the street.
The child slowly dies in its mother’s arms.
“This pathetic and tragic scene stands in stark contrast to the ideal of happy, carefree children playing in the streets of Jerusalem, a situation which is promised when the nation is restored, as in Zechariah 8:5–
The streets of the city
Shall be full of boys and girls
Playing in its streets.
–R. K. Harrison
13Zion, how can I comfort you?
Isaiah 40:1-2 (NIV)
Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed, that her sin has been paid for, that she has received from the LORD’s hand double for all her sins.
How great is your pain?
Lovely city of Jerusalem,
how can I heal your wounds, gaping as wide as the sea?
14Your prophets deceived you
with false visions and lying messages–
they should have warned you
to leave your sins and be saved from disaster.
15Those who pass by shake their heads and sneer
as they make fun and shout,
“What a lovely city you were, the happiest on earth,
but look at you now!”
“Colorful Town” by Dora Ficher, 2009.
Psalm 50:2 (ESV)
Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God shines forth.
16Zion, your enemies curse you and snarl like wild animals,
while shouting, “This is the day we’ve waited for!
At last, we’ve got you!”
17The LORD has done everything
that he had planned and threatened long ago.
He destroyed you without mercy
and let your enemies boast about their powerful forces.
18Zion, deep in your heart you cried out to the Lord.
Now let your tears overflow your walls day and night.
Don’t ever lose hope or let your tears stop.
19Get up and pray for help all through the night.
Pour out your feelings to the Lord, as you would pour water out of a jug.
“Oh, the comfort, the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person, having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words, but pouring them all out, just as they are, chaff and grain together, certain that a faithful hand will take and sift them, keep what is worth keeping, and with a breath of kindness blow the rest away.”
Dinah Craik (1826-1887), English poet and novelist
Beg him to save your people,
who are starving to death at every street crossing.
Jerusalem Speaks:
20Think about it, LORD!
Have you ever been this cruel to anyone before?
Is it right for mothers to eat their children,
The loss of a child is surely one of the worst things to befall a parent. But how desperate must a parent be, to then eat the child? The suffering in Jerusalem must have been awful.
or for priests and prophets to be killed in your temple?
21My people, both young and old, lie dead in the streets.
Because you were angry,
my young men and women were brutally slaughtered.
22When you were angry, LORD,
you invited my enemies like guests for a party.
No one survived that day;
enemies killed my children,
my own little ones.
_________________________
Music:
One morning in March 1991, four year old Conor Clapton, son of the important and influential English guitarist, singer, and song-writer Eric Clapton, died when he fell from a 53rd-story window in a New York City apartment. He landed on the roof of an adjacent four-story building. This song is Clapton’s expression of grief at the loss of his little boy. I remember when this happened; we were living in Italy at the time and I had two precious sons — Sean was 5 and Devlin was not quite 1.
To all the fathers and mothers who have lost a child, beginning with Adam and Eve and continuing to this very day — the promise is sure. There will be no “Tears in Heaven.” HERE is Eric Clapton and his song.
(with love to Judy, Marlys, Mary, Jan and Don, Cary and Andy, Joan Elaine and Larry . . .)
Would you know my name If I saw you in heaven Will it be the same If I saw you in heaven I must be strong, and carry on Cause I know I don’t belong Here in heaven
Would you hold my hand If I saw you in heaven Would you help me stand If I saw you in heaven I’ll find my way, through night and day Cause I know I just can’t stay Here in heaven
Time can bring you down Time can bend your knee Time can break your heart Have you begging please Begging please
(instrumental)
Beyond the door There’s peace I’m sure. And I know there’ll be no more… Tears in heaven
“How deserted lies the city!” engraving by Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld, 1860.
The five chapters of Lamentations are five poems, each lamenting the destruction and desolation that came to Jerusalem as a result of the Babylonians in 586 BCE. The first chapter, for example, is an acrostic poem; each verse begins with a successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet. The poems function as a formal ritual by which the exiles could grieve over the calamity, over their pain and loss.
Traditionally the book has been ascribed to the prophet Jeremiah, although no name is attached to it. No matter who wrote it, as one scholar noted, “the whole song stands so near the events that one feels everywhere as if the terrible pictures of the destruction stand still immediately before the eyes of the one lamenting.”
Orthodox Jews read aloud the entire book on the ninth day of the month Ab, the traditional date of the destruction of Solomon’s Temple. In Christian traditions, Lamentations is often read during the days of Holy Week.
Lamentations 1 (CEV)
Lonely Jerusalem
The Prophet Speaks:
1Jerusalem, once so crowded,
lies deserted and lonely.
This city that was known
all over the world
is now like a widow.
This queen of the nations
has been made a slave.
“It was common in the Old Testament for cities to be portrayed as women,” says the footnote for this verse in The Archaeological Study Bible.
2Each night, bitter tears flood her cheeks.
None of her former lovers
are there to offer comfort;
her friends have betrayed her and are now her enemies.
The “lovers” and “friends” refer to foreign allies who had promised to help Judah, but did not.
3The people of Judah are slaves,
suffering in a foreign land,
with no rest from sorrow.
Their enemies captured them
and were terribly cruel.
Yes, we have read of the offenses the people of Israel endured from the Babylonians — their Temple ransacked and burned, the city walls of Jerusalem destroyed, the people carried off into exile, the king blinded . . .
4The roads to Zion mourn
because no one travels there
to celebrate the festivals.
Before the fall of Jerusalem, the people of Israel celebrated seven annual feasts:
Passover – to remember how the Lord rescued his people from bondage in Egypt
Feast of Unleavened Bread – to avoid yeast, a symbol of evil; to be ready to follow God
Offering of Firstfruits – to celebrate God’s gracious provision at the beginning of the barley harvest
Pentecost – to show gratitude for the wheat harvest and the giving of the law through Moses
Feast of Trumpets – to usher in a month with particularly significant holy days
Day of Atonement – to fast, pray, and confess on the holiest day of the year
Feast of Booths – to recall life in the wilderness by constructing small huts and camping out while also praising God for the year’s harvest
The city gates are deserted;
priests are weeping.
Young women are raped; Zion is in sorrow!
5Enemies now rule the city
and live as they please.
The LORD has punished Jerusalem
because of her awful sins;
he has let her people be dragged away.
6Zion’s glory has disappeared.
Her leaders are like deer
that cannot find pasture;
they are hunted down
till their strength is gone.
7Her people recall the good life
that once was theirs;
now they suffer and are scattered.
The Garden of Exile (above), part of the Jewish Museum Berlin, represents the experience of European Jewish exiles, driven from their home during World War II. Standing in between the rows of forty-nine concrete container columns is a claustrophobic, disorienting experience, where you are aware that logically, escape is very close but physically, you feel as if you are trapped forever.The Museum documents European Jewish history and the overwhelming loss of Jewish history and culture due to the Holocaust during World War II.
No one was there to protect them from their enemies
who sneered when their city was taken.
8Jerusalem’s horrible sins
have made the city a joke.
Those who once admired her
now hate her instead–
she has been disgraced;
she groans and turns away.
9Her sins had made her filthy,
but she wasn’t worried about what could happen.
And when Jerusalem fell,
it was so tragic.
No one gave her comfortwhen she cried out,
“Help! I’m in trouble, LORD! The enemy has won.”
Psalm 25:18-19 (ESV)
Consider my affliction and my trouble, and forgive all my sins.
Consider how many are my foes, and with what violent hatred they hate me.
10Zion’s treasures were stolen.
Jerusalem saw foreigners
enter her place of worship,
though the LORD
had forbidden them to belong to his people.
11Everyone in the city groans
while searching for food;
they trade their valuables
for barely enough scraps to stay alive.
Jerusalem shouts to the LORD,
“Please look and see how miserable I am!”
Jerusalem Speaks:
12No passerby even cares.
Why doesn’t someone notice
my terrible sufferings?
You were fiercely angry, LORD,
and you punished me worst of all.
Lamentations 1:12 (NIV)
“Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by? Look around and see. Is any suffering like my suffering?”
The first time this verse registered with me was during a season of Lent sometime when I was in high school. The local Methodist church put a cross out on their front lawn, draped in a purple cloth, with a sign that read, “Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by?” I see it clearly in my mind’s eye still, and I answer — Yes, Lord, your crucifixion is something to me! It is your wounds, and my healing! It is your sorrow, and my joy! It is your death, and my life! Thank you with all my heart!
13From heaven you sent a fire
that burned in my bones;
you set a trap for my feet
and made me turn back.
All day long you leave me
in shock from constant pain.
14You have tied my sins
around my neck, and they weigh so heavily
that my strength is gone.
You have put me in the power
of enemies too strong for me.
15You, LORD, have turned back my warriors
and crushed my young heroes.
Judah was a woman untouched,
but you let her be trampled like grapes in a wine pit.
16Because of this, I mourn,
and tears flood my eyes.
Sometimes Jeremiah is described as the weeping prophet, and he would agree with the description. Lamentations was not written with a dry eye, but with overflowing eyes.
–David Guzik
No one is here to comfort or to encourage me;
we have lost the war–
my people are suffering.
The Prophet Speaks:
17Zion reaches out her hands,
but no one offers comfort.
Isaiah 1:15 (NIV)
When you spread out your hands in prayer, I hide my eyes from you; even when you offer many prayers, I am not listening.
Your hands are full of blood!
The LORD has turned the neighboring nations
against Jacob’s descendants.
Jerusalem is merely a filthy rag to her neighbors.
Jerusalem Speaks:
18The LORD was right,
but I refused to obey him.
Now I ask all of you to look
at my sufferings–
even my young people have been dragged away.
19I called out to my lovers,
but they betrayed me.
My priests and my leaders died
while searching the city for scraps of food.
20Won’t you look and see
how upset I am, our LORD?
My stomach is in knots,
and my heart is broken
because I betrayed you.
In the streets and at home,
my people are slaughtered.
21Everyone heard my groaning,
but no one offered comfort.
My enemies know of the trouble
that you have brought on me,
and it makes them glad.
Hurry and punish them, as you have promised.
22Don’t let their evil deeds escape your sight.
Punish them as much as you have punished me
because of my sins.
I never stop groaning–
I’ve lost all hope!
“The last two verses are a tentative prayer that God will vindicate His righteousness among the other nations. If Judah has needed to experience judgement to lead her to repentance, then others need the experience of judgement also.”
–Christopher J. H. Wright
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Music:
Where to go for comfort? Where to go for hope? “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life!”
1 Peter 1:3 (NIV)
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
HERE is “My Hope Is Built on Nothing Less” sung by Deborah Liv Johnson.
I make it a point to avoid politics in this blog, but today’s “Prayer for Mercy” has me thinking about current events in the United States and around the world. So much pain and sadness. So much injustice. So much evil. So today, for each of the following 22 verses, would you please, Reader, supply the mental picture. And would you please, Believer, pray to the Lord to have mercy on all these people and nations who are desperate for peace of body and soul.
The People of Jerusalem Pray:
1Our LORD, don’t forget
how we have suffered
and been disgraced.
2Foreigners and strangers
have taken our land
and our homes.
3We are like children
whose mothers
are widows.
4The water we drink
and the wood we burn
cost far too much.
5We are terribly mistreated;
we are worn out
and can find no rest.
6We had to surrender
to Egypt and Assyria
because we were hungry.
7Our ancestors sinned,
but they are dead,
and we are left
to pay for their sins.
8Slaves are now our rulers,
and there is no one
to set us free.
9We are in danger
from brutal desert tribes;
we must risk our lives
just to bring in our crops.
10Our skin is scorched
from fever and hunger.
11On Zion and everywhere in Judah
our wives and daughters
are being raped.
12Our rulers are strung up
by their arms,
and our nation’s advisors
are treated shamefully.
13Young men are forced
to do the work of slaves;
boys must carry
heavy loads of wood.
14Our leaders are not allowed
to decide cases in court,
and young people
no longer play music.
15Our hearts are sad;
instead of dancing,
we mourn.
16Zion’s glory has disappeared!
And we are doomed
because of our sins.
17We feel sick all over
and can’t even see straight;
18our city is in ruins,
overrun by wild dogs.
19You will rule forever, LORD!
You are King for all time.
20Why have you forgotten us for so long?
21Bring us back to you!
Give us a fresh start.
22Or do you despise us
so much
that you don’t want us?
Lord, we commend all for whom we pray into your tender and merciful care, in Jesus’ name, Amen.
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Music:
“Breathe” by Michael W. Smith — but the line I always remember (in my lamentations) is, “I’m desperate for you.”
Jeremiah, by Michelangelo, 1511 (Sistine Chapel, Rome)
Lamentations 4
(Contemporary English Version)
The Punishment of Jerusalem
The Prophet Speaks:
1The purest gold is ruined
and has lost its shine;
jewels from the temple
lie scattered in the streets.
2These are Zion’s people,
worth more than purest gold;
yet they are counted worthless
like dishes of clay.
3Even jackals nurse their young,
“The most common social unit of jackals is that of a monogamous pair which defends its territory from other pairs by vigorously chasing intruding rivals and marking landmarks around the territory. The territory may be large enough to hold some young adults who stay with their parents until they establish their own territories.”
–Wikipedia
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but my people are like ostriches
that abandon their own.
4Babies are so thirsty
that their tongues are stuck
to the roof of the mouth.
Children go begging for food,
but no one gives them any.
Matthew 25:40 (New International Version)
The King will reply, “Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.”
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5All who ate expensive foods
lie starving in the streets;
those who grew up in luxury
now sit on trash heaps.
6My nation was punished worse
than the people of Sodom,
whose city was destroyed in a flash
without the help of human hands.
7The leaders of Jerusalem
were purer than snow and whiter than milk;
their bodies were healthy and glowed like jewels.
8Now they are blacker than tar,
and no one recognizes them;
their skin clings to their bones
and is drier than firewood.
9Being killed with a sword is better
than slowly starving to death.
“I have three things I’d like to say today. First, while you were sleeping last night, 30,000 kids died of starvation or diseases related to malnutrition. Second, most of you don’t give a shit. Third, and what’s worse, you’re more upset with the fact that I said shit than the fact that 30,000 kids died last night.”
–evangelist Tony Campolo
_________________________
10Life in the city is so bad
that loving mothers
have boiled
and eaten their own children.
_________________________
Music:
Oh, the children! The Baylor University Men’s Choir sings “The Prayer of the Children.”
Can you hear the prayer of the children on bended knee, in the shadow of an unknown room? Empty eyes with no more tears to cry turning heavenward toward the light.
Crying, “Jesus, help me to see the morning light of one more day, but if I should die before I wake, I pray my soul to take.”
Can you feel the hearts of the children aching for home, for something of their very own. Reaching hands with nothing to hold onto but hope for a better day, a better day.
Crying, “Jesus, help me to feel the love again in my own land, but if unknown roads lead away from home, give me loving arms, away from harm.”
(oooooo la la la la)
Can you hear the voice of the children softly pleading for silence in their shattered world? Angry guns preach a gospel full of hate, blood of the innocent on their hands.
Crying, “Jesus, help me to feel the sun again upon my face? For when darkness clears, I know you’re near, bringing peace again.”
The Huldah Gates (Second Temple period) are the two sets of now-blocked gates in the Southern Wall of the Temple Mount, situated in Jerusalem’s Old City. The western set is a double arched gate (the double gate), and the eastern is a triple arched gate (the triple gate). Each arch of the double gate led into an aisle of a passageway leading from the gate into the Mount, and to steps leading to the Mount’s surface; when the al-Aqsa Mosque was built, the old steps were blocked, and the eastern aisle lengthened so that new steps from its end would exit north of the Mosque. The triple gate is similar, though the longer aisle is to the west, and its third aisle, on the east, forms the western boundary of the vaulted area known as Solomon’s Stables.
–Wikipedia
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13Jerusalem was punished because
her prophets and her priests
had sinned and caused the death
of innocent victims.
14Yes, her prophets and priests
were covered with blood;
no one would come near them,
as they wandered from street to street.
15Instead, everyone shouted,
“Go away! Don’t touch us!
You’re filthy and unfit
to belong to God’s people!”
So they had to leave
and become refugees.
Egyptian immigration official:
Listen. Let’s get this straight. These people have arrived on our doorstep –illegally. No papers, no money. No proof or record of persecution. No one to back up their story. I see no reason to grant them refugee status. We are a decent, caring people, but we’ve been the good guys for too long. These people are just taking advantage of us. Send them back where they came from. We have no room for any more illegals in this country. We have enough rubbish in this country already. We don’t want any more.
(from the play – Jesus Was Once a Refugee)
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But foreign nations told them,
“You can’t stay here!”
16The LORD is the one
who sent them scattering,
and he has forgotten them.
No respect or kindness will be shown
to the priests or leaders.
17Our eyes became weary,
hopelessly looking for help
from a nation that could not save us.
18Enemies hunted us down
on every public street.
Our time was up; our doom was near.
19They swooped down faster
than eagles from the sky.
Eagles soar down and then fly low at up to 75 miles per hour. They usually snatch their prey with their feet (fish is their favorite).
_________________________
They hunted for us in the hills
and set traps to catch us out in the desert.
20The LORD’s chosen leader was our hope for survival!
"The sufferings of Jeremiah" etching by Marc Chagall, 1939.
Lamentations 3
(Contemporary English Version)
There Is Still Hope
The Prophet Speaks:
1I have suffered much because God was angry.
2He chased me into a dark place, where no light could enter.
3I am the only one he punishes over and over again,
without ever stopping.
4God caused my skin and flesh to waste away,
and he crushed my bones.
5He attacked and surrounded me with hardships and trouble;
6he forced me to sit in the dark like someone long dead.
7God built a fence around me that I cannot climb over,
Job 19:8 (King James Version)
He hath fenced up my way that I cannot pass, and he hath set darkness in my paths.
_________________________
and he chained me down.
8Even when I shouted and prayed for help,
he refused to listen.
9God put big rocks in my way
and made me follow a crooked path.
10God was like a bear or a lion waiting in ambush for me;
11he dragged me from the road, then tore me to shreds.
12God took careful aim and shot his arrows
13straight through my heart.
Job 6:4 (New Living Translation)
For the Almighty has struck me down with his arrows. Their poison infects my spirit. God’s terrors are lined up against me.
_________________________
14I am a joke to everyone–
no one ever stops making fun of me.
15God has turned my life sour.
16He made me eat gravel and rubbed me in the dirt.
17I cannot find peace or remember happiness.
18I tell myself, “I am finished!
I can’t count on the LORD to do anything for me.”
19Just thinking of my troubles and my lonely wandering
makes me miserable.
20That’s all I ever think about, and I am depressed.
_________________________
“Everything that is done in the world is done by hope.” Martin Luther
_________________________
21Then I remember something
that fills me with hope.
22The LORD’s kindness never fails!
If he had not been merciful,
we would have been destroyed.
23The LORD can always be trusted
to show mercy each morning.
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Music:
Lamentations 3:22-23 (NIV)
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.
Here is Fernando Ortega singing a lovely, and uncommon, version of the hymn “Great Is Thy Faithfulness.”
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24Deep in my heart I say,
“The LORD is all I need; I can depend on him!”
25The LORD is kind to everyone who trusts and obeys him.
26It is good to wait patiently for the LORD to save us.
27When we are young, it is good to struggle hard
28and to sit silently alone,
if this is what the LORD intends.
29Being rubbed in the dirt can teach us a lesson;
30we can also learn from insults and hard knocks.
31The Lord won’t always reject us!
32He causes a lot of suffering,
but he also has pity because of his great love.
In his classic treatment of suffering, The Problem of Pain, C. S. Lewis wrote:
God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pain: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.
Lewis argues that not only is it possible to find God when life is hard, but also it is in some sense easier than when life is good.
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33The Lord doesn’t enjoy sending grief or pain.
34Don’t trample prisoners under your feet
35or cheat anyone out of what is rightfully theirs.
God Most High sees everything,
36and he knows when you refuse
to give someone a fair trial.
37No one can do anything
without the Lord’s approval.
38Good and bad each happen
at the command of God Most High.
Psalm 33:11 (New Living Translation)
But the Lord’s plans stand firm forever; his intentions can never be shaken.
_________________________
39We’re still alive!
We shouldn’t complain
when we are being punished for our sins.
40Instead, we should think
about the way we are living,
and turn back to the LORD.
41When we lift our hands
in prayer to God in heaven,
we should offer him our hearts
and say, 42“We’ve sinned!
We’ve rebelled against you,
and you haven’t forgiven us!
43Anger is written all over you,
as you pursue and slaughter us
without showing pity.
44You are behind a wall of clouds
that blocks out our prayers.
from My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
GOD’S SILENCE — THEN WHAT?
When He heard that he was sick, He stayed two more days in the place where He was —John 11:6
Has God trusted you with His silence — a silence that has great meaning? God’s silences are actually His answers. Just think of those days of absolute silence in the home at Bethany! Is there anything comparable to those days in your life? Can God trust you like that, or are you still asking Him for a visible answer? God will give you the very blessings you ask if you refuse to go any further without them, but His silence is the sign that He is bringing you into an even more wonderful understanding of Himself. Are you mourning before God because you have not had an audible response? When you cannot hear God, you will find that He has trusted you in the most intimate way possible— with absolute silence, not a silence of despair, but one of pleasure, because He saw that you could withstand an even bigger revelation. If God has given you a silence, then praise Him— He is bringing you into the mainstream of His purposes. The actual evidence of the answer in time is simply a matter of God’s sovereignty. Time is nothing to God. For a while you may have said, “I asked God to give me bread, but He gave me a stone instead” (see Matthew 7:9). He did not give you a stone, and today you find that He gave you the “bread of life” (John 6:35).
A wonderful thing about God’s silence is that His stillness is contagious— it gets into you, causing you to become perfectly confident so that you can honestly say, “I know that God has heard me.” His silence is the very proof that He has. As long as you have the idea that God will always bless you in answer to prayer, He will do it, but He will never give you the grace of His silence. If Jesus Christ is bringing you into the understanding that prayer is for the glorifying of His Father, then He will give you the first sign of His intimacy— silence.
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45You allowed nations
to treat us like garbage;
46our enemies curse us.
47We are terrified and trapped,
caught and crushed.”
48My people are destroyed!
Tears flood my eyes,
49and they won’t stop
50until the LORD looks down from heaven and helps.
51I am horrified when I see what enemies have done
to the young women of our city.
52No one had reason to hate me,
but I was hunted down like a bird.
53Then they tried to kill me
by tossing me into a pit and throwing stones at me.
54Water covered my head–
I thought I was gone.
55From the bottom of the pit, I prayed to you, LORD.
56I begged you to listen.
“Help!” I shouted. “Save me!”
You answered my prayer
57and came when I was in need.
You told me, “Don’t worry!”
58You rescued me and saved my life.
Hello, Jonah! To see more wall murals by Jerry Wallace, click HERE.
Jonah 2:5-7 (New Living Translation)
“I sank beneath the waves, and the waters closed over me. Seaweed wrapped itself around my head. I sank down to the very roots of the mountains. I was imprisoned in the earth, whose gates lock shut forever. But you, O Lord my God, snatched me from the jaws of death! As my life was slipping away, I remembered the Lord. And my earnest prayer went out to you in your holy Temple.”
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59You saw them abuse me, LORD,
so make things right.
60You know every plot they have made against me.
61Yes, you know their insults and their evil plans.
62All day long they attack with words and whispers.
63No matter what they are doing, they keep on mocking me.
64Pay them back for everything they have done, LORD!
“Jeremiah lamenting the destruction of Jerusalem” by Rembrandt, 1630 (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam)
Lamentations 2
(Contemporary English Version)
The LORD Was Like an Enemy
This chapter is also an acrostic poem, the verses of which begin with the successive letters of the Hebrew alphabet.
The Prophet Speaks:
1The Lord was angry!
So he disgraced Zion though it was Israel’s pride
and his own place of rest.
In his anger he threw Zion down from heaven to earth.
2The LORD had no mercy!
He destroyed the homes of Jacob’s descendants.
In his anger he tore down every walled city in Judah;
he toppled the nation together with its leaders,
leaving them in shame.
Psalm 89:39-40 (New International Version)
You have renounced the covenant with your servant and have defiled his crown in the dust. You have broken through all his walls and reduced his strongholds to ruins.
3The Lord was so furiously angry
that he wiped out the whole army of Israel
by not supporting them when the enemy attacked.
He was like a raging fire
that swallowed up the descendants of Jacob.
4He attacked like an enemy with a bow and arrows,
killing our loved ones.
He has burned to the ground the homes on Mount Zion.
I know a woman whose house burned to the ground. She says that even now, years after, she is sometimes jolted awake by the memory of yet another thing that was lost. The blanket her grandmother had knit for her when she was born. The baptismal dress her children wore. Their wedding invitation, framed in a mother-of-pearl frame. Her scrapbook of her brother’s senior year in high school, beginning with football practice (he was the quarterback) and ending with the car wreck the night after graduation. Totally random, she says, the things she remembers. And always with a pain deep inside. Life can be hard.
_________________________
5The Lord was like an enemy!
He left Israel in ruins
with its palaces and fortresses destroyed,
and with everyone in Judah moaning and weeping.
6He shattered his temple like a hut in a garden;
he completely wiped out his meeting place,
and did away with festivals and Sabbaths
in the city of Zion.
In his fierce anger he rejected our king and priests.
7The Lord abandoned his altar and his temple;
he let Zion’s enemies capture her fortresses.
Noisy shouts were heard from the temple,
as if it were a time of celebration.
Psalm 74:7-8 (New International Version)
They burned your sanctuary to the ground; they defiled the dwelling place of your Name. They said in their hearts, “We will crush them completely!” They burned every place where God was worshiped in the land.
8The LORD had decided
to tear down the walls of Zion stone by stone.
So he started destroying and did not stop
until walls and fortresses mourned and trembled.
9Zion’s gates have fallen
facedown on the ground;
the bars that locked the gates are smashed to pieces.
Her king and royal family are prisoners in foreign lands.
Her priests don’t teach,
and her prophets don’t have a message from the LORD.
10Zion’s leaders are silent.
They just sit on the ground,
tossing dirt on their heads and wearing sackcloth.
Her young women can do nothing
but stare at the ground.
11My eyes are red from crying,
my stomach is in knots, and I feel sick all over.
Psalm 22:14 (New International Version)
I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart has turned to wax; it has melted within me.
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My people are being wiped out,
and children lie helpless in the streets of the city.
12A child begs its mother for food and drink,
then blacks out
like a wounded soldier lying in the street.
The child slowly dies in its mother’s arms.
13Zion, how can I comfort you?
Isaiah 40:1-2 (New International Version)
Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed, that her sin has been paid for, that she has received from the LORD’s hand double for all her sins.
_________________________
How great is your pain?
Lovely city of Jerusalem,
how can I heal your wounds, gaping as wide as the sea?
14Your prophets deceived you
with false visions and lying messages–
they should have warned you
to leave your sins and be saved from disaster.
15Those who pass by shake their heads and sneer
as they make fun and shout,
“What a lovely city you were, the happiest on earth,
but look at you now!”
“Colorful Town” by Dora Ficher, 2009.
Psalm 50:2 (English Standard Version)
Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God shines forth.
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16Zion, your enemies curse you and snarl like wild animals,
while shouting, “This is the day we’ve waited for!
At last, we’ve got you!”
17The LORD has done everything
that he had planned and threatened long ago.
He destroyed you without mercy
and let your enemies boast about their powerful forces.
18Zion, deep in your heart you cried out to the Lord.
Now let your tears overflow your walls day and night.
Don’t ever lose hope or let your tears stop.
19Get up and pray for help all through the night.
Pour out your feelings to the Lord, as you would pour water out of a jug.
“Oh, the comfort, the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person, having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words, but pouring them all out, just as they are, chaff and grain together, certain that a faithful hand will take and sift them, keep what is worth keeping, and with a breath of kindness blow the rest away.”
Dinah Craik (1826-1887), English poet and novelist
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Beg him to save your people,
who are starving to death at every street crossing.
Jerusalem Speaks:
20Think about it, LORD!
Have you ever been this cruel to anyone before?
Is it right for mothers to eat their children,
or for priests and prophets to be killed in your temple?
21My people, both young and old, lie dead in the streets.
Because you were angry,
my young men and women were brutally slaughtered.
22When you were angry, LORD,
you invited my enemies like guests for a party.
No one survived that day;
enemies killed my children,
my own little ones.
_________________________
Music:
One morning in March 1991, four year old Conor Clapton, son of the important and influential English guitarist, singer, and song-writer Eric Clapton, died when he fell from a 53rd-story window in a New York City apartment. He landed on the roof of an adjacent four-story building. This song is Clapton’s expression of grief at the loss of his little boy. I remember when this happened; we were living in Italy at the time and I had two precious sons — Sean was 5 and Devlin was not quite 1.
To all the fathers and mothers who have lost a child, beginning with Adam and Eve and continuing to this very day — the promise is sure. There will be no “Tears in Heaven.”
(with love to Judy, Marlys, Mary, Jan and Don, Cary and Andy . . .)
Would you know my name If I saw you in heaven Will it be the same If I saw you in heaven I must be strong, and carry on Cause I know I don’t belong Here in heaven
Would you hold my hand If I saw you in heaven Would you help me stand If I saw you in heaven I’ll find my way, through night and day Cause I know I just can’t stay Here in heaven
Time can bring you down Time can bend your knee Time can break your heart Have you begging please Begging please
(instrumental)
Beyond the door There’s peace I’m sure. And I know there’ll be no more… Tears in heaven
"How deserted lies the city!" engraving by Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld, 1860.
The five chapters of Lamentations are five poems, each lamenting the destruction and desolation that came to Jerusalem as a result of the Babylonians in 586 BCE. The first chapter, for example, is an acrostic poem; each verse begins with a successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet. The poems function as a formal ritual by which the exiles could grieve over the calamity, over their pain and loss.
Traditionally the book has been ascribed to the prophet Jeremiah, although no name is attached to it. No matter who wrote it, as one scholar noted, “the whole song stands so near the events that one feels everywhere as if the terrible pictures of the destruction stand still immediately before the eyes of the one lamenting.”
Orthodox Jews read aloud the entire book on the ninth day of the month Ab, the traditional date of the destruction of Solomon’s Temple. In Christian traditions, Lamentations is often read during the days of Holy Week.
Lamentations 1
(Contemporary English Version)
Lonely Jerusalem
The Prophet Speaks:
1Jerusalem, once so crowded,
lies deserted and lonely.
This city that was known
all over the world
is now like a widow.
This queen of the nations
has been made a slave.
“It was common in the Old Testament for cities to be portrayed as women,” says the footnote for this verse in The Archaeological Study Bible.
2Each night, bitter tears flood her cheeks.
None of her former lovers
are there to offer comfort;
her friends have betrayed her and are now her enemies.
The “lovers” and “friends” refer to foreign allies who had promised to help Judah, but did not.
3The people of Judah are slaves,
suffering in a foreign land,
with no rest from sorrow.
Their enemies captured them
and were terribly cruel.
Yes, we have read of the offenses the people of Israel endured from the Babylonians — their Temple ransacked and burned, the city walls of Jerusalem destroyed, the people carried off into exile, the king blinded . . .
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4The roads to Zion mourn
because no one travels there
to celebrate the festivals.
Before the fall of Jerusalem, the people of Israel celebrated seven annual feasts:
Passover – to remember how the Lord rescued his people from bondage in Egypt
Feast of Unleavened Bread – to avoid yeast, a symbol of evil; to be ready to follow God
Offering of Firstfruits – to celebrate God’s gracious provision at the beginning of the barley harvest
Pentecost – to show gratitude for the wheat harvest
Feast of Trumpets – to usher in a month with particularly significant holy days
Day of Atonement – to fast, pray, and confess on the holiest day of the year
Feast of Booths – to recall life in the wilderness by constructing small huts and camping out while also praising God for the year’s harvest
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The city gates are deserted;
priests are weeping.
Young women are raped; Zion is in sorrow!
5Enemies now rule the city
and live as they please.
The LORD has punished Jerusalem
because of her awful sins;
he has let her people be dragged away.
6Zion’s glory has disappeared.
Her leaders are like deer
that cannot find pasture;
they are hunted down
till their strength is gone.
7Her people recall the good life
that once was theirs;
now they suffer and are scattered.
The Garden of Exile at the Jewish Museum in Berlin
No one was there to protect them from their enemies
who sneered when their city was taken.
8Jerusalem’s horrible sins
have made the city a joke.
Those who once admired her
now hate her instead–
she has been disgraced;
she groans and turns away.
9Her sins had made her filthy,
but she wasn’t worried about what could happen.
And when Jerusalem fell,
it was so tragic.
No one gave her comfortwhen she cried out,
“Help! I’m in trouble, LORD! The enemy has won.”
Psalm 25:18-19 (English Standard Version)
Consider my affliction and my trouble, and forgive all my sins.
Consider how many are my foes, and with what violent hatred they hate me.
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10Zion’s treasures were stolen.
Jerusalem saw foreigners
enter her place of worship,
though the LORD
had forbidden them to belong to his people.
11Everyone in the city groans
while searching for food;
they trade their valuables
for barely enough scraps to stay alive.
Jerusalem shouts to the LORD,
“Please look and see how miserable I am!”
Jerusalem Speaks:
12No passerby even cares.
Why doesn’t someone notice
my terrible sufferings?
You were fiercely angry, LORD,
and you punished me worst of all.
Lamentations 1:12 (NIV)
“Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by? Look around and see. Is any suffering like my suffering?”
The first time this verse registered with me was during a season of Lent sometime when I was in high school. The local Methodist church put a cross out, draped in a purple cloth, with a sign that read, “Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by?” I see it clearly in my mind’s eye still, and I answer — Yes, Lord, your crucifixion is something to me! It is your wounds, and my healing! It is your sorrow, and my joy! It is your death, and my life! Thank you with all my heart!
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13From heaven you sent a fire
that burned in my bones;
you set a trap for my feet
and made me turn back.
All day long you leave me
in shock from constant pain.
14You have tied my sins
around my neck, and they weigh so heavily
that my strength is gone.
You have put me in the power
of enemies too strong for me.
15You, LORD, have turned back my warriors
and crushed my young heroes.
Judah was a woman untouched,
but you let her be trampled like grapes in a wine pit.
16Because of this, I mourn,
and tears flood my eyes.
No one is here to comfort or to encourage me;
we have lost the war–
my people are suffering.
The Prophet Speaks:
17Zion reaches out her hands,
but no one offers comfort.
Isaiah 1:15 (New International Version)
When you spread out your hands in prayer, I hide my eyes from you; even when you offer many prayers, I am not listening.
Your hands are full of blood!
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The LORD has turned the neighboring nations
against Jacob’s descendants.
Jerusalem is merely a filthy rag to her neighbors.
Jerusalem Speaks:
18The LORD was right,
but I refused to obey him.
Now I ask all of you to look
at my sufferings–
even my young people have been dragged away.
19I called out to my lovers,
but they betrayed me.
My priests and my leaders died
while searching the city for scraps of food.
20Won’t you look and see
how upset I am, our LORD?
My stomach is in knots,
and my heart is broken
because I betrayed you.
In the streets and at home,
my people are slaughtered.
21Everyone heard my groaning,
but no one offered comfort.
My enemies know of the trouble
that you have brought on me,
and it makes them glad.
Hurry and punish them, as you have promised.
22Don’t let their evil deeds escape your sight.
Punish them as much as you have punished me
because of my sins.
I never stop groaning–
I’ve lost all hope!
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Music:
Where to go for comfort? Where to go for hope? “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life!”
1 Peter 1:3 (NIV)
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
“My Hope Is Built on Nothing Less” sung by Deborah Liv Johnson.
Posted by Rebecca 
DWELLING in the Word 
