Look and See

How lonely sits the girl who was once full of life?

How like a widow she has become. She who was well known.

She who held stature has become a slave.

She weeps bitterly in the night with tears on her cheeks,

she has no one to comfort her,

all her friends have dealt treacherously with her.

She dwells among the nations yet

finds no place of rest.

Her enemies prosper, because the Lord has afflicted her

for the multitude of her sins.

She remembers in the days of her affliction and wandering

all the precious things that were hers from days of old.

All who honored her despise her, for they have seen

her nakedness, she groans and turns her face away.

Her filth was within, she took no thought of her future,

therefore her fall is terrible, she has no comforter.

Is it nothing to you, all who pass by?

Look and See.

For these things she weeps, her eyes flood with tears,

a comforter is far and so one to revive her spirit.

The Lord is right, for she has rebelled against his word.

Look, Lord, she is in distress, her stomach turns,

 her heart wrings, because of her rebellion.

The Lord in his anger has set a cloud over her.

He has withdrawn his hand.

He has multiplied her mourning and lamentation.

Her eyes are spent with weeping, her stomach turns, and bile pours fourth.

Her ruin is as vast as the sea, who can heal her?

She cries to the Lord, streams of tears like a flood day and night.

She cries out in the night, pouring out her heart

like water before the presence of the Lord. She lifts her hands to him.

Look, O Lord, and see!

Her soul is bereft of peace; she has forgotten what happiness is. She says, “my endurance has perished, so has my hope from the Lord.”

Her soul continuously remembers her affliction.

But this she calls to mind, and therefore she has hope.

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end.

They are new every morning, great is his faithfulness!

The Lord is my portion, says her soul, therefore I will hope in him!

He is good to those who wait for him, the soul who seeks him.

It is good to wait quietly for his salvation. The Lord will not cast off forever, though he allows grief he will have compassion, according to the

abundance of his steadfast love.

Let us test and examine our ways, and return to the Lord.

Let us lift up our hearts and hands to God in heaven.

She said, “I am lost.” She called from the depths of the pit and he heart her plea. He came near when she called and said, “Do not fear.”

He has redeemed her.