cry out in the night

Lamentations 2:17-22 (JDV)

Lamentations 2:17 Yahveh has done what he planned; he has accomplished his decree, which he ordained in days of old. He has demolished without compassion, letting the enemy gloat over you and exalting the horn of your adversaries.
Lamentations 2:18 The hearts of the people cry out to the Lord. Wall of Daughter Zion, let your tears run down like a river day and night. Give yourself no relief and your eyes no rest.
Lamentations 2:19 Get up, cry out in the night from the first watch of the night. Pour out your heart like water in front of the Lord’s presence. Lift up your hands to him for the lives of your children who are passing out from hunger at the head of every street.
Lamentations 2:20 Yahveh, look and consider to whom you have done this. Should women eat their own children, the infants they have nurtured? Should priests and prophets be killed in the Lord’s sanctuary?
Lamentations 2:21 A young man and an old man are lying on the ground in the streets. My young women and young men have fallen by the sword. You have killed them in the day of your anger, slaughtering without compassion.
Lamentations 2:22 You summon those who terrorize me on every side, as if for an appointed festival day; on the day of Yahveh’s anger no one escaped or survived. My enemy has destroyed those I nurtured and reared.

cry out in the night

We can theologize all we want, talking about human autonomy and freedom. But when disaster strikes, we learn very quickly that we cannot control it. It strikes the young and old, the good and the bad. It leaves us bewildered. We quickly run out of resources and ideas.

That’s when — if we are wise — we follow the advice we see here. We get up and cry out to God in the night. We pour out our hearts to God like water.

O God who made us, we have no one to go to but you. Bring healing and restoration to us!