A Cry in the Wilderness: Why Lamentations 5 Is Screaming at American Christians Right Now

We don’t read Lamentations much anymore. It’s too raw. Too uncomfortable. Too much like looking in a mirror we’ve spent decades trying to avoid.

But chapter 5 is not poetry for the faint of heart. It is a naked, desperate prayer from a people who finally realized the party was over and the bill had come due. Jerusalem lies in ashes. The temple is gone. Children are starving in the streets. Princes hang from enemy gallows. Women are violated in the holy city itself. And the survivors—those who once boasted of their heritage, their covenant, their “blessings”—now lift trembling voices and say:

“Remember, O LORD, what has come upon us;  

look, and see our disgrace!” (Lam 5:1)

They are not whining. They are confessing.  

They are not blaming Babylon. They are blaming themselves.

And if that doesn’t terrify Bible-believing Christians in America today, nothing will.

Because everything they describe is here.  

Everything.

Our inheritance has been handed over to strangers. Our houses to aliens. Our water and wood come at a price we can no longer pay. Our children bear the iniquity of their fathers—only now it’s not just three or four generations; it’s fentanyl, porn addiction, transgender confusion, and TikTok nihilism served straight into their veins before they’re twelve.

Slaves rule over us.  

The wicked prosper.  

The elders have ceased from the gate.  

The young men have stopped their music.  

Joy of our heart is gone.  

Our dancing has turned to mourning.  

The crown has fallen from our head.

Woe to us, for we have sinned.

We murdered sixty-five million babies and called it “healthcare.”  

We redefined marriage and called it “progress.”  

We ordained sodomites and called it “love.”  

We platformed drag queens in schools and called it “inclusion.”  

We silenced preachers and called it “tolerance.”  

We built bigger barns while the house of God crumbled, and we called it “the blessing.”

And now the famine is here—not of bread, but of hearing the words of the LORD (Amos 8:11). The pulpits are full of motivational speakers. The worship stages are full of light shows. The youth groups are full of pizza and games and zero confrontation with sin.

We are Judah 586 B.C. with better lighting and Wi-Fi.

But here’s what slays me about Lamentations 5: in the middle of their absolute devastation, they still know where to look.

“You, O LORD, remain forever;  

Your throne from generation to generation.”(v. 19)

That’s not denial. That’s doctrine.  

That’s not positive thinking. That’s theology hammered out on the anvil of suffering.

They know the throne hasn’t moved.  

They know the Judge hasn’t changed.  

They know the only hope left is sovereign, intervening, converting grace.

“Turn us back to You, O LORD, and we shall be turned;  

renew our days as of old.”(v. 21)

They don’t ask God to fix Babylon.  

They ask God to fix them.

That’s the prayer we’re too proud to pray.

We want Trump or whoever to “make America great again.”  

We want the Supreme Court to save us.  

We want another revival conference with better worship leaders.

But the remnant in Jerusalem knew better. Only God can turn a nation when He first turns His people.

So here’s the question burning in my bones tonight:

Will we keep playing church while the crown lies in the dust?  

Or will we finally fall on our faces and pray the only prayer that ever saved anybody:

“Turn us, O God. We cannot turn ourselves.  

We have played the harlot long enough.  

Remember not our sins, but remember Your covenant.  

Remember the blood of Your Son.  

Remember mercy.  

Restore us—not because we deserve it, but because Your name is at stake  

and the nations mock that You have abandoned Your people.”

If enough of us pray that prayer—really pray it, with fasting, with tears, with repentance that costs us something—then maybe, just maybe, the God who remains forever will look down from His throne and have pity.

Because He still answers that prayer.  

He answered it at Nineveh.  

He answered it at the cross.  

He will answer it again.

The only question is whether we will finally be desperate enough to pray it.

DMMC 

11-15-25