Lamenting in the LORD

“You came near when I called on you; you said, ‘Do not fear!’ You have taken up my cause, O Lord, you have redeemed my life.” ~Lamentations 3:57-58 (NRSV).

Hidden, am I, with Christ in God,

No matter the trample of enemy, trod;

Enemy’s destined—lightly esteemed,

To the nightmare of my presence, I have dreamed.

Hidden, am I, from the joy of the Lord,

No matter how free, I cannot afford;

Could it be, my life consumed,

When it’s my dream this death be solemnly exhumed?

Hidden, am I, from peace, content,

Home’s my heart to riling lament;

But I will trust in the Lord, my Redeemer,

And not be revealed as an idolatrous dreamer.

Exilic encounters test our trust and obedience.

It’s the honest servant of the Lord who admits, and expresses, their lamentations. Every believer is a sinner and will experience some form of exile—the disposal from the felt Presence of the Lord. True aloneness on a scale that’s hellish.

But faithfulness is enjoined with patient trust, no matter how stark the exile seems. Faithfulness, thereabouts, gets us through... eventually.

Then we may truly attest to verses 57-58, above.

© 2011 S. J. Wickham.