The night has taken Israel

and drawn its blackness across the world like a shroud. 

The dark has bound us 

like our hopes, sealed up in a tomb. 

Does the God of Israel sleep?

Does the LORD forget His people?

A mother cannot sleep. 

A mother cannot forget her child. 

I have rocked him in my arms, 

cradled him against the cold. 

I have held his tiny fingers in my own, 

wondering at that miracle of life. 

But now these hands shake, emptied of their treasure,

and my heart trembles, full of throbbing loss. 

I watched him die today, 

saw the life pour out of his broken body,

but my arms could not hold him,

and my heart could only bleed with Him. 

Does the God of Israel sleep?

Does the LORD forget His promises?

A mother cannot sleep. 

A mother cannot forget Your promises. 

I have guarded them like jewels.

I have treasured them in hope. 

Every day I have searched the rising sun.

Eagerly, I have waited for Your promises. 

I thought I saw them, riding on a donkey.

I thought I saw them in the branches, in the praise. 

But they have dropped like empty pots. 

They have shattered on the ground. 

Can the dead save?

Can the fallen reign?

Oh, God of Israel, do not sleep!

Oh, LORD, do not forget Your own. 

A mother cannot sleep tonight.

A mother cannot forget her grief. 

It  consumes my soul.

It devours me as the worms will, his flesh. 

It is not like You, oh LORD.

It is not like You to cast Your promises beyond time. 

Have Your people stolen them?

Have the faithless hidden them forever in death? 

But I have held Your word in my heart.

I have believed You. 

Why am I now ashamed?

Why does my heart wail like a pagan woman when her idols burn to ash? 

Well may she weep—for idols can but sleep.

The gods of the nations cannot know. 

But a Father does not sleep. 

A Father does not forget. 

Oh LORD God of Israel, keep your word to your servant

although I cannot understand. 

Deliver us according to Your wisdom

from this night that has taken Israel

and drawn its blackness across the world like a shroud,

from the dark that has bound us 

like our hopes, sealed up in a tomb.

For You, oh LORD, are strong.

The God of Israel is mighty to save.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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