Jerusalem, the great capital, was in ruins. The Babylonians were in control. It was the beginning of the famed Babylonian Captivity. All the symbols of power, wealth, prestige, and influence were gone. No wonder so many Hebrews were in despair and that songs of lamentation like the one we just read as today’s First Lesson were composed and long remembered.

Have you ever felt that way? Have you ever felt that life’s moorings had been cut loose? Maybe it was the loss of a dear loved one, a child gone bad, a once-bright promising career destroyed by downsizing. Perhaps it has been a life lived without a special companion for whom you have yearned or a life lived in the depths of poverty and despair without hope. In those instances your heart has probably cried out just like the author of Lam…