The Wanderer in the Valley of Vision [Christian Poetry] (Full Manuscript)

Lamentations 3

I am the man who affliction has seen
By the rod of His wrath
He has led me and made me
Walk in dark paths
Surely He has turned His Hand against me
Repeatedly, daily

He has aged my skin and my flesh
And broken all my bones
He has besieged me with bitterness
And surrounded me with woe
Setting me in dark places
Like the dead of long ago

He has hedged me in
So that I cannot get out
He has made my chain heavy
Even when I cry and shout

He shuts out my prayer
And blocks my ways with hewn stone
He has been to me like a bear
Like a lion in my ways to tear my flesh and bones
Making me desolate, He bends His bow
And sets me as a target for the arrow

He loosed the arrows of His quiver to pierce my soul
I have become a taunting song to my people, to ridicule
He has made me drink wormwood, filling me with bitterness
Breaking my teeth with gravel and covering me with ashes

You have moved my soul far from peace
I have forgotten prosperity
And I said, "My strength and my hope
Have perished from the Lord."

Oh, the wormwood and the gall!
My soul sinks within me as I remember it all!
Remember my affliction, when I roamed!
This I recall to mind, therefore I have hope

Through the Lord's mercies
We are not consumed
Because His compassions
Unfailing, are anew
Every morning
Your faithfulness is great
In this my soul gives praise:
"The Lord is my portion
Therefore I hope in Him!

The Lord is good to those who on Him wait and seek
Indeed, it is good that one should wait quietly
And hope
For the salvation of the Lord
It is good for the youth to bear the yoke

Let him sit alone and keep quiet
Because on him God has laid it
Let him put his mouth in the dust
There may yet be hope
Let him give his cheek to be struck
And be full of reproach

For the Lord will not cast off forever
Though He causes grief
He will again show compassion
According to His mercies
For He does not willingly bring affliction
Neither to grieve our children

Bringing prisoners under one's feet to dominate
Turning aside man's justice that is due
Before the Most High's face
To subvert man's cause— the Lord does not approve

Who is he who speaks and it comes to pass
When the Lord has not given command?
Is it not from the Most High's mouth
That woe and well-being proceed?
Why should a living man cry out
For the punishment of his sinful deeds?

Let us search out and examine our ways
And turn back to the Ancient of Days
Lifting our hearts and hands to Him
For we have rebelled
And He has not pardoned

You cover Yourself with an angry cloud
That prayer should not pass through
You do not pity, but slay and surround
In the midst of the peoples
Have made us an offscouring and refuse

Opening wide their mouths against us, our foes
Overtake us with evil
While with rivers of water my eyes overflow
For the destruction of the daughter
Of my people

My eyes flow without interruption, they do not cease
Till the Lord from heaven looks down and sees
Because of all the daughters of my city
My eyes bring to my soul only suffering

My enemies without right
Like a bird hunted me down
In the pit they silenced my life
Like mighty waves that drown
And I said, "I am cut off!"

From the lowest depth
O Lord, I called on Your Name
You have heard my cry for help
Do not hide Yourself from my shame
On the day I called on You, You drew near
And said in that day to me, "Do not fear!

O Lord, You have pleaded my soul's case
My life You have redeemed
O Lord, the wrong done is before Your face
All their vengeance You have seen
All their schemes against me

You have heard their reproach all along
Their schemes plotted against me
See their sitting down and rising up
All day their lips whispering
And I am their taunting song

Repay, O Lord
And condemn
According to the work of their hands
Give them a veiled heart
And Your curse be upon them!
In Your anger pursue and destroy
From under the heavens
Of the Lord