God

The hearts of the people cry out to the Lord. O wall of the Daughter of Zion, let your tears run down like a river day and night. Give yourself no relief, and your eyes no rest.

Arise, cry out in the night from the first watch of the night. Pour out your heart like water in the presence of the Lord. Lift up your hands to Him for the lives of your children who are fainting from hunger on the corner of every street.

Look, O LORD, and consider: Whom have You ever treated like this? Should women eat their offspring, the infants they have nurtured? Should priests and prophets be killed in the sanctuary of the Lord?

Both young and old lie together in the dust of the streets. My young men and maidens have fallen by the sword. You have slain them in the day of Your anger; You have slaughtered them without compassion.

You summoned my attackers on every side, as for the day of an appointed feast. In the day of the LORD’s anger no one escaped or survived; my enemy has destroyed those I nurtured and reared.

I am the man who has seen affliction under the rod of God’s wrath.

Indeed, He keeps turning His hand against me all day long.

He has worn away my flesh and skin; He has shattered my bones.

He has walled me in so I cannot escape; He has weighed me down with chains.

Even when I cry out and plead for help, He shuts out my prayer.

He has barred my ways with cut stones; He has made my paths crooked.

He forced me off my path and tore me to pieces; He left me without help.

He bent His bow and set me as the target for His arrow.

He pierced my kidneys with His arrows.

He has filled me with bitterness; He has intoxicated me with wormwood.

He has ground my teeth with gravel and trampled me in the dust.

So I say, “My strength has perished, along with my hope from the LORD.”

Because of the loving devotion of the LORD we are not consumed, for His mercies never fail.

They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness!

“The LORD is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in Him.”

The LORD is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul who seeks Him.

It is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD.

Let him offer his cheek to the one who would strike him; let him be filled with reproach.

For the Lord will not cast us off forever.

Even if He causes grief, He will show compassion according to His abundant loving devotion.