‘deaf:’ – our sixth study, reflection, on the book of lamentations begins at the opening chapter three, ( my reflections on individual verse sections will be in italics today )

3:1 ‘I am the man who has seen affliction…’

( three leg operations in a year; alone, alone with pain, I have not really taken a long stroll, a walk, in a year )
by the rod of the Lord’s wrath. ( my leg now has a rod inserted; this rod helps me to move with little pain – I walk )
2 He has driven me away and made me walk
in darkness rather than light;
3 indeed, he has turned his hand against me
again and again, all day long. ( again&again&again I am rejected on, in this earth )

4 He has made my skin and my flesh grow old
and has broken my bones. ( again and again )
5 He has besieged me and surrounded me
with bitterness and hardship.
6 He has made me dwell in darkness
like those long dead. ( my failures; my failings; those I have betrayed; all appear, as visible ghosts, before my eyes – the long dead live, I pass)

7 He has walled me in so I cannot escape;
he has weighed me down with chains. ( like an Ebenezer Scrooge )
8 Even when I call out or cry for help,
he shuts out my prayer. ( even when I whisper, no words sound )
9 He has barred my way with blocks of stone;
he has made my paths crooked…’

Every, each ‘paths.’ Alone, rejected, self-silenced, and silenced by others denials, they hear not my falls, cries or calls, I lament.

I lament as mute; deaf,

even to myself.

Tags: deaf, lament 6