Lament Over the Ruins

Jerusalem has fallen. The city that was once full of life sits empty and alone, grieving like a widow. This is what it sounds like when everything you thought was permanent disappears — and you realize some of it was your own doing.

The poet stares at the ruins of Jerusalem and says what no one else will — God did this. Sacred spaces demolished, children dying in the streets, enemies celebrating. And somehow, in the middle of all that devastation, the only place left to turn is back toward the one who let it happen.

A man who has lost everything pours out the rawest grief in the Bible — and right in the middle of it, finds something he can't let go of. His mercies are new every morning. These words have carried people through the worst moments of their lives, and they were born in the worst moment of his.

The poet of Lamentations walks through Jerusalem's shattered streets and describes what he sees — precious people discarded, children starving, and a city everyone thought was untouchable reduced to ashes. It's brutal to read. But the poet wrote it because someone had to.