Lamentations

Lamentations is a collection of five poetic laments mourning the destruction of Jerusalem by Babylon in 586 BC. Tradition attributes it to the prophet Jeremiah, who witnessed the siege and its aftermath, which is why it follows his book in our Bibles. Four of the five poems are acrostics built on the Hebrew alphabet, grief given careful, deliberate form. The book sits at the lowest point of the Old Testament story: the temple burned, the king deposed, and the people carried into exile, just as the prophets had warned.

Each chapter circles the ruined city from a different angle. Jerusalem sits solitary like a widow; the Lord has become like an enemy in judgment; the poet himself has seen affliction; children faint in the streets while the once-precious sons of Zion are esteemed as clay pitchers. Yet at the exact center of the book comes its most famous turn: it is of the LORD's mercies that we are not consumed, his compassions are new every morning, and great is his faithfulness. The final chapter is a plea: turn thou us unto thee, O LORD.

Lamentations matters because it teaches God's people how to grieve honestly without letting go of God. It does not rush past pain or excuse sin; it names both, then anchors hope in the character of the Lord rather than in circumstances. The hymn Great Is Thy Faithfulness comes straight from its central chapter, and sufferers in every generation have found their own sorrow given words here.