Psalm 193 from Beyond Psalm 150
The book of Lamentations serves mainly as a postscript to the book of Jeremiah. It consists of five funeral dirges that mourn the loss of Jerusalem, as proclaimed in Jeremiah’s prophecy.
Many Bible scholars consider Jeremiah to be the author of Lamentations, and some ancient translations list the book’s title as the “Lamentations of Jeremiah.”
We can read these five psalms of lament as a progression, a story arc that begins with Jerusalem’s fall and ends with a response from those who remain.
Throughout this, God is central. We must take care, however, to not build our understanding of God based on how the author perceives him in these poems.
Instead, we should receive these words as a reflection of the writer’s deepest despair.
The first four of the five chapters (laments) are acrostic poems in Hebrew, with each verse beginning with a successive letter in the 22-character Hebrew alphabet.
Though this structure has no real impact when we read these psalms in English, it confirms the forethought and intentionality of the author.
The first psalm in Lamentations, corresponding to the first chapter of the book, focuses on the fall of Jerusalem and the resulting desolation. It stands as an apt poetic funeral dirge to the central city of the nation of God’s chosen people.
It’s a solemn reminder of what happens when we ignore Yahweh.
How the city sits solitary,
Lamentations 1 (WEB)
that was full of people!
She has become as a widow,
who was great among the nations!
She who was a princess among the provinces
has become a slave!
She weeps bitterly in the night.
Her tears are on her cheeks.
Among all her lovers
she has no one to comfort her.
All her friends have dealt treacherously with her.
They have become her enemies.
Judah has gone into captivity because of affliction,
and because of great servitude.
She dwells among the nations.
She finds no rest.
All her persecutors overtook her within the straits.
The roads to Zion mourn,
because no one comes to the solemn assembly.
All her gates are desolate.
Her priests sigh.
Her virgins are afflicted,
and she herself is in bitterness.
Her adversaries have become the head.
Her enemies prosper;
for Yahweh has afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions.
Her young children have gone into captivity before the adversary.
All majesty has departed from the daughter of Zion.
Her princes have become like deer that find no pasture.
They have gone without strength before the pursuer.
Jerusalem remembers in the days of her affliction and of her miseries
all her pleasant things that were from the days of old;
when her people fell into the hand of the adversary,
and no one helped her.
The adversaries saw her.
They mocked at her desolations.
Jerusalem has grievously sinned.
Therefore she has become unclean.
All who honored her despise her,
because they have seen her nakedness.
Yes, she sighs, and turns backward.
Her filthiness was in her skirts.
She didn’t remember her latter end.
Therefore she has come down astoundingly.
She has no comforter.
“See, Yahweh, my affliction;
for the enemy has magnified himself.”
The adversary has spread out his hand on all her pleasant things;
for she has seen that the nations have entered into her sanctuary,
concerning whom you commanded that they should not enter into your assembly.
All her people sigh.
They seek bread.
They have given their pleasant things for food to refresh their soul.
“Look, Yahweh, and see;
for I have become despised.”
“Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by?
Look, and see if there is any sorrow like my sorrow,
which is brought on me,
with which Yahweh has afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger.
“From on high has he sent fire into my bones,
and it prevails against them.
He has spread a net for my feet.
He has turned me back.
He has made me desolate and I faint all day long.
“The yoke of my transgressions is bound by his hand.
They are knit together.
They have come up on my neck.
He made my strength fail.
The Lord has delivered me into their hands,
against whom I am not able to stand.
“The Lord has set at nothing all my mighty men within me.
He has called a solemn assembly against me to crush my young men.
The Lord has trodden the virgin daughter of Judah as in a wine press.
“For these things I weep.
My eye, my eye runs down with water,
because the comforter who should refresh my soul is far from me.
My children are desolate,
because the enemy has prevailed.”
Zion spreads out her hands.
There is no one to comfort her.
Yahweh has commanded concerning Jacob,
that those who are around him should be his adversaries.
Jerusalem is among them as an unclean thing.
“Yahweh is righteous;
for I have rebelled against his commandment.
Please hear all you peoples,
and see my sorrow.
My virgins and my young men have gone into captivity.
“I called for my lovers,
but they deceived me.
My priests and my elders gave up the spirit in the city,
while they sought food for themselves to refresh their souls.
“Look, Yahweh; for I am in distress.
My heart is troubled.
My heart turns over within me,
for I have grievously rebelled.
Abroad, the sword bereaves.
At home, it is like death.
“They have heard that I sigh.
There is no one to comfort me.
All my enemies have heard of my trouble.
They are glad that you have done it.
You will bring the day that you have proclaimed,
and they will be like me.
“Let all their wickedness come before you.
Do to them as you have done to me for all my transgressions.
For my sighs are many,
and my heart is faint.
Reflections on A Lament of Desolation
Yahweh repeatedly warned his children what would happen if they disregarded his words. Throughout the centuries, they received some punishment for their disobedience, but God offered them much more mercy than judgment.
However, at last, judgment remains the only option. Jerusalem falls. The kingdom of God’s people ends.
Hidden in the middle of this agonizing poem is the line “She didn’t remember her latter end.” That is, the people of Jerusalem didn’t consider their future.
In effect, they lived for today without a care for the consequences of their actions. Yet consequences caught up with them.
Do we have a future-focused perspective or a live-for-today mentality? Do we expect to receive God’s mercy and dismiss his judgment?
May a God-honoring perspective cover our life today and our outlook for tomorrow.
Explore the other psalms—sacred songs of praise, petition, and lament—scattered throughout the Bible in Peter’s book Beyond Psalm 150.
Discover more sacred songs of praise, petition, and lament throughout the Bible.
Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront a status quo faith and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.
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