Lamentations 5
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Remember, O Lord, what is come upon us: consider, and behold our reproach.
2 Our inheritance is turned to strangers, our houses to aliens.
3 We are orphans and fatherless, our mothers are as widows.
4 We have drunken our water for money; our wood is sold unto us.
5 Our necks are under persecution: we labour, and have no rest.
6 We have given the hand to the Egyptians, and to the Assyrians, to be satisfied with bread.
7 Our fathers have sinned, and are not; and we have borne their iniquities.
8 Servants have ruled over us: there is none that doth deliver us out of their hand.
9 We gat our bread with the peril of our lives because of the sword of the wilderness.
10 Our skin was black like an oven because of the terrible famine.
11 They ravished the women in Zion, and the maids in the cities of Judah.
12 Princes are hanged up by their hand: the faces of elders were not honoured.
13 They took the young men to grind, and the children fell under the wood.
14 The elders have ceased from the gate, the young men from their musick.
15 The joy of our heart is ceased; our dance is turned into mourning.
16 The crown is fallen from our head: woe unto us, that we have sinned!
17 For this our heart is faint; for these things our eyes are dim.
18 Because of the mountain of Zion, which is desolate, the foxes walk upon it.
19 Thou, O Lord, remainest for ever; thy throne from generation to generation.
20 Wherefore dost thou forget us for ever, and forsake us so long time?
21 Turn thou us unto thee, O Lord, and we shall be turned; renew our days as of old.
22 But thou hast utterly rejected us; thou art very wroth against us.
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Commentary
"Remember, O Lord, what has happened to us!"
Joy has vanished from many of our hearts. Mourning has become our mother tongue. So we cry out to God, asking Him to see our deepest hurts and our fainting hearts. We ask to be noticed, to be remembered, to be restored.
Remember us, Lord: we were abused and neglected as children. Remember me, Lord, I was sex trafficked; I was raped. Remember me, Lord: I was betrayed by my spouse. Remember us, Lord: we are unemployed and homeless. Lord, see our shame, our despair, our broken hearts. See our needs, our hopes, our longings.
Heaven’s courts resound with the sound of our heart cries: “Remember me, Lord!”
Our longing to be remembered is truly the heart’s need to be treasured, healed and redeemed. It is a longing for relational redemption.
Our scarred Lord sees our deepest wounds, and He remembers! He remembers each tear that falls, each heart that breaks, each mind that disintegrates. He remembers each agony, and He promises to one day wipe away all tears, to mend all hearts, and to restore all lives.
Friend, Christ remembers all you have suffered. One day, scars will be stars!
Lori Engel
Chaplain (currently disabled), Eugene, Oregon USA
