Where are you, Father? I cannot see you.
We are lost.
I am worn out from groaning;
all night long I flood my bed with weeping
and drench my couch with tears. (1)
What have we been building, all this time? What have we been working for?
We have left our homes, our families.
We have given our time, our prayers, our money, our families.
We saw His power, we recognized His greatness
We believed He would change the world.
And now we have nothing.
The world is the same, and we have nothing.
Our wound is incurable,
our injury beyond healing.
There is no one to plead our cause,
no remedy for our sore, no healing for us. (2)
How could we have been wrong? Your power was so clearly with him.
He did marvelous, amazing things.
He changed us - changed me. We knew he could change us all.
He changed so many, but they have all left.
Some are teaching others - some have lost faith.
Our numbers are few, so few.
So much fewer than the hundreds, the thousands; we are scattered.
Those who survived the exile and are back in the province are in great trouble and disgrace. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates have been burned with fire. (3)
Where are you, Father? What are You doing? What could You possibly be doing?
Why, O Lord, do you stand far off?
Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble? (4)
Where do we go from here?
Return home - try to teach what we have learned.
Or stay, clinging to each other as those stranded at sea
desperate, afraid, and hopeless.
How the precious sons of Zion, once worth their weight in gold,
are now considered as pots of clay, the work of a potter's hands! (5)
How could this be the end?
We listened to Your voice. We followed You.
You led us here, and now we are lost.
Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt? (6)
In everything, we have sought to listen to Your voice
and follow Your commands.
Have we done wrong?
Show me where we have faltered, and I will repent -
I will pay for it a thousand times over.
Only do not withdraw your favor from us;
let your presence remain with us.
Do not cast me away from Your presence
or take your Holy Spirit from me. (7)
They have murdered Your servant, my Lord.
He was innocent and they called for his blood.
Your eyes are too pure to look on evil;
you cannot tolerate wrong.
Why then do you tolerate the treacherous?
Why are you silent while the wicked
swallow up those more righteous than themselves? (8)
Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines
though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food,
though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls,
yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior.(9)
For men are not cast off by the Lord forever.
Though he brings grief, he will show compassion,
so great is his unfailing love.
For he does not willingly bring affliction or grief to the children of men. (10)
I remain confident in this:
I will see the goodness of the Lord
in the land of the living.
Wait for the Lord;
be strong and take heart
and wait for the Lord. (11)
(1) Psalm 6:6\
(2) Jeremiah 30:12-13
(3) Nehemiah 1:3
(4) Psalm 10:1
(5) Lamentations 4:2
(6) Exodus 14:11
(7) Psalm 51:11
(8) Habakkuk 1:13
(9) Habakkuk 3:17-18
(10) Lamentations 3:31-33
(11) Psalm 27:13-14
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