“Arise, cry out in the night, At the beginning of the watches; Pour out your heart like water before the face of the Lord. Lift your hands toward Him For the life of your young children,
Who faint from hunger at the head of every street.” (Lamentations 2:19 NKJV)

Lamentations was written to “lament” (to grieve and mourn) the destruction of Jerusalem by the prophet Jeremiah. It calls the remnant of Judah to “cry out” to the Lord in their distress. Like the book of Job, it puzzles over the results of evil and suffering in the world. But unlike Job, which dealt with apparently undeserved evil, Jeremiah lamented a suffering that was of the people’s own making. It is a difficult book to read. Yet, it reminds us of our need to genuinely repent of sin and the suffering that inevitably follows. It calls us to lament over sin’s consequence and to beg God’s forgiveness, mercy and restoration. Only those who have hit life’s bottom seem to understand this lament of Jeremiah. Only those who are ready to “cry out in the night” find that these words give expression to the state of their hearts.