July 28th, 2011
Today’s reading from Encounter with God

A Plea for Restoration

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Opening Prayer

Lord, You are the author of my joy, the bearer of my pain. I come now to worship and adore You.

Read Lamentations 5:1-22

[1] Remember, O LORD, what has happened to us; look, and see our disgrace. [2] Our inheritance has been turned over to aliens, our homes to foreigners. [3] We have become orphans and fatherless, our mothers like widows. [4] We must buy the water we drink; our wood can be had only at a price. [5] Those who pursue us are at our heels; we are weary and find no rest. [6] We submitted to Egypt and Assyria to get enough bread. [7] Our fathers sinned and are no more, and we bear their punishment. [8] Slaves rule over us, and there is none to free us from their hands. [9] We get our bread at the risk of our lives because of the sword in the desert. [10] Our skin is hot as an oven, feverish from hunger. [11] Women have been ravished in Zion, and virgins in the towns of Judah. [12] Princes have been hung up by their hands; elders are shown no respect. [13] Young men toil at the millstones; boys stagger under loads of wood. [14] The elders are gone from the city gate; the young men have stopped their music. [15] Joy is gone from our hearts; our dancing has turned to mourning. [16] The crown has fallen from our head. Woe to us, for we have sinned! [17] Because of this our hearts are faint, because of these things our eyes grow dim [18] for Mount Zion, which lies desolate, with jackals prowling over it. [19] You, O LORD, reign forever; your throne endures from generation to generation. [20] Why do you always forget us? Why do you forsake us so long? [21] Restore us to yourself, O LORD, that we may return; renew our days as of old [22] unless you have utterly rejected us and are angry with us beyond measure.

Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 International Bible Society. All rights reserved throughout the world. Used by permission of International Bible Society.

Meditate

“Lamentations gives us permission to express our sorrow as we do, not as we ought to do. It is permitted to have sure faith in God one minute and be cast down in doubt the next” (William H. Willimon).

Think Further

If you were to read this chapter aloud in Jewish worship, you’d repeat the next to last verse in order to end on a more positive note. The poem itself does not clear up all the problems or sum up all the perspectives on how we might cope with deep trauma. It does, however, point to the heart of the mystery: the nature of God, his ultimate sovereignty and freedom.

This last poem is not an acrostic, as are the others, but it does have 22 verses and, so, carries an echo of the structure of the other poems. The address is different, too; it’s a direct appeal to God and, so, feels more like a psalm than the other poems, even though the specific details refer back to earlier chapters (see, for example, Psa. 60). The balance, too, is more precarious: the list of disgraces at the hands of the conquerors runs to 18 verses, while there is only one positive verse (19), and the prayer for restoration in v. 21 is bracketed by doubts. One translator renders v. 22a, “Is this a final rejection?” It is a lover’s plea.

There is also profound learning about the true nature of God here; in some ways parallel to the lessons of ch. 3. The temple, the central sign of God’s presence, is destroyed. From that comes the recognition that God reigns forever on a throne that, unlike the one in Jerusalem, can’t be plundered (19). God’s answer to suffering is rarely an explanation; often it’s a hint of light. Faith amid great suffering means bringing to God our questions, our doubts and our longings (21), even when all still seems dark.

Apply

Ponder this: “How is it possible for people like us to stare tragedy in the face and to tell the truth about it? It is because Christians believe that…in the midst of mourning the worst tragedies, our God is there, with us” (William H. Willimon).

Closing prayer

Loving Father, may loss, grief, and hardship be used to form me spiritually. May they drive me deeper into Your heart and do work of radical transformation in me.

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