In the ruins of the Temple, dust still flies, and the sound of weeping mingles with the almost petrified silence. The people of Israel stand amongst the rubble of a once magnificent building, now a bitter memory. They had not only lost the building, but also lost their direction: how to celebrate God when His house was crumbling? How to call Him King when enemies desecrate His name without retribution? At that point, lament became the only language left. But lament is not just a lament; it is an honest prayer, an attempt by the human heart to hold on to hope in the midst of darkness.

The psalmist in this chapter does not stop at lament. After describing his sense of being left behind and humiliated, he suddenly turns to the past. "Yet you, O God, are my King from ancient times" (verse 12). The word "yet" serves as a bridge. Lament does not close the eyes from the wound, but neither does it cut off the memory of God's work. The people recalled the mighty God who defeated the sea, who destroyed the dragon and Leviathan. In the mythology of the surrounding nations, the chaos could only be conquered through the war of the gods. But Israel proclaimed that only the true God conquers chaos and from His hand comes an orderly world. He opened the springs, dried the rivers, regulated the seasons, and set the boundaries of the earth. By remembering these ancient works, the people were not just being nostalgic. They are planting hope in the fractured soil of their suffering. If God was once sovereign over cosmic chaos, is He not also able to rescue people from the ruins now?"

That's why the next cry is so bold, "Remember how the enemy reproached you, O Lord" (verse 18). The people call themselves like fragile doves, they plead for the covenant not to be forgotten, for the voice of the oppressed not to be lost in silence, and finally, in an almost admonitory tone, they say "Arise, O God, plead your cause" (verse 22).

Friends of the Bible, the lament expressed by the psalmist is very human. Lament is a dialectic between absurdity and faith. The people dare to question God, even "wake him up". But it is precisely in this courage that they strengthen their relationship. They realized that the only place to lean on was God. Lament, then, is not a sign of loss of faith, but rather a way of faith breathing when the world is crumbling.