Restore us to yourself, Lord, that we may return; renew our days as of old unless you have utterly rejected us and are angry with us beyond measure. – Lamentations 5:21-22
Jerusalem has fallen. | WATCH ON YOUTUBE
The Book of Lamentations is a collection of five poems where Jeremiah is lamenting the catastrophic defeat and conquest of Jerusalem and the Kingdom of Judah. Jeremiah recounts and contrasts between happy, prosperous Jerusalem and the lonely, empty conquered city after Babylon’s conquest. Jerusalem that once was full of people is now empty and desolate. Once she was great among the nations, now she is like a slave. Jeremiah weeps with and for Jerusalem and Judah.
God seems to have forgotten His people. The only hope they have is to cry out to God, to repent. But these people didn’t even seem to have the power to repent properly on their own. Jeremiah recognized that they needed God to turn back to them. And if God would turn back to His people, they would surely be restored.
Our hearts are so often hardened or too low or helpless that we are not even repentant. God alone can give us hearts of true repentance and restore us completely. While ‘I repent’ is a good and right prayer, ‘turn me back to you Lord, and give me the gift of true repentance’ may be a better prayer.
Jeremiah asks that the Lord renew and revive His people. When God turns us back to Him, we can and should expect a revival. If we have backslidden or declined, we can pray that God would grant us hearts that are repentant so that we may be renewed.
Do you need to come back to the Lord in repentance?
Lord, give me a heart of repentance and turn me back to you, I pray.
Extended Reading — Lamentations 3:37-66; Lamentations 4; Lamentations 5:1-22
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