Alone – Lamentations 1:2

She weeps bitterly in the night; tears run down her cheeks. Among all who loved her she has no one to bring her comfort. Her friends have all betrayed her; they have become her enemies.

The Revised English Bible (Cambridge; New York; Melbourne; Madrid; Cape Town; Singapore; São Paulo; Delhi; Dubai; Tokyo: Cambridge University Press, 1996), La 1:2.

I want to be clear about something as I go through these passages. Too often Christians read the Hebrew scriptures from a platform of judgment. We are looking to see all the mistakes those Israelites made, and that we, being more advanced, have overcome.

But one of my purposes here is to talk about honesty, particularly honesty with ourselves. When we look at the Israelites with judgment, we are not honest. In their situation, with their knowledge, I doubt we would have done any better. I get this doubt from watching us today. We have the weaknesses of the Israelites, because we both have the weaknesses of humans. As we begin looking at the verses that talk about the reasons why the city, Jerusalem, is desolate, I will bring this topic up more and more.

So let’s read this book, not as people who are doing well, but as people who have things to regret and to correct.

This verse brings into focus one of the great problems of lament in the church. The person who is lamenting is very frequently alone. My own experience has been that I have found those who sympathize, those who encourage, and who help in my most difficult moments. I don’t have a personal complaint here. But I have seen many people who were in difficulty, grieving, or suffering who have been left alone.

The person who weeps is often a very lonely person. As a church, we should be companions to those who mourn, to those in trouble. Those who weep bitterly in the night need our companionship.

But I need to turn and point to myself again. One of the reasons I have always found people so helpful is that I am so rarely willing to tell them what my difficulties are. My natural reaction to being in trouble is to isolate myself.

This is a problem with at least two facets: 1) We don’t want to spend time with the troubled person. It’s a great deal of work. It tends to be a downer. 2) We don’t want to be the troubled person, because we know, deep inside, how we might react.

These things involved an inappropriate judgment. Just as we tend to read Hebrew scriptures from a seat of superiority, one to which we are not entitled, so we tend to see people in trouble from the position of one who’s life is so much better.

We’ll have more time to discuss this as we read. But there’s one key lesson: God is there, waiting for the person who knows how bad their condition and their situation is, ready to act. In the honesty of lament lies a path to healing.

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