How long, O Lord? Must we cry out to your Name?
How long, O Lord? Will our pleas echo in the chamber of your throne-room?
How long, O Lord? Will you turn your face away from
We feel the social distance from you.
Every day the isolation suffers like a prison sentence.
How long will we be forced into solitude?
Every day the news is dar
As we seek to find the light.
The number sickened by COVID-19 climbs,
While the number of available PPE’s diminishes.
Unemployment rates are rising,
As businesses struggle to stay afloat.
With high school seniors, born about the time of 9-11,
Graduating in the midst of a Pandemic.
And churches no longer able to assemble;
The online experience only fills a temporary void,
Like empty calories inside empty church buildings.
How long, O Lord? Till the tide turns?
We look to you for an answer,
But what we hear is white noise.
They say, “God is punishing the Land for its sins:
By closing athletic venues for worshiping athletes;
By shutting down theaters for propping up entertainers;
By collapsing the stock market for embracing greed;
By locking down the parks for focusing on the creation instead of the Creator.”
And when they speak we fall into despair.
Hear our petitions and respond to our cries,
Like a parent who wakes in the night at their child’s cry;
Like a parent who wakes in the night at their child’s cry.
Send us your comfort for we are shaken and fearful,
For we feel abandoned;
For we feel forsaken.
We wait for you in the night,
Knowing the night is always darkest before the dawn.
What shall we do until you speak?
How shall we proceed until you act?
We shall remember your great deeds of the past,
We shall hope and live in your promises.
We shall pray diligently and passionately,
For our own confession and repentance,
And to intercede on behalf of the wounded and afflicted.
We shall sing your praises
And we shall sing them to the top of our lungs.
We shall be your Comfort to those needing comforting,
And bring the Light to those in the darkness.
For our hope and trust is rooted in you,
And in your salvation through your Son.
As we long for a day when your people will assemble again,
We long for that Day when we assemble in your very presence.
For it is your love that sustains us,
And your grace which holds us together.
And your promise that give us hope.
Soli Deo Gloria!
(i.e. only God is glorified!)
Inspired by Psalm 13 ● Lament is a passionate expression of grief or sorrow