Encouragement

Lifting Up the Downcast Isaiah 40

by Avigail David 
08/06/21
Not For Sale
Author requests article critique

  Message Writer
  Hire Writer

Tweet

Lifting Up the Downcast (Isaiah 40)

With the dawn progressing I trudge, I slump.
To the outlines of an immense camp.
Behind me, engine’s whistle
Before me, stretches the visible
Barbed wire fences, search lights towers, humans tramp.

Trekking along the desolate road.
To what destination, I do not know.
Mothers, fathers, children
Death throes of six million
To the gallows, desolate humans cling to hope.

Optimism hesitates, faints… and fades.
Where’s God? Why are we with’ring like grass to waste?
Delusions of reprieve
Ruin, soul-sick, deceive
A condemned man, innocent… I’m bereft.

I call to the LORD from the narrow prison, He is my portion.
A drowning man-- to the pit of corpses, or to the gas chamber.
SS Gestapo decides
Who lives or dies?
I call to the LORD like clutching the last straw, He does not slumber.

We bury our dead among us, we race with death.
Three years prison camp is eternal hell of the living dead.
My spirit on the verge of silence
I plead for Strength, “Renew me.”
I call to the LORD in winter nights. Sleep comes His grace descend.

***
Liberation came in 1945,
White flag hoisted above.
With tired, timid steps
We, dragged to the camp gates
Filled with wonder, still, could not grasp it.

We walked slowly, legs hurt, feeble and dull.
Prisoners gave a hand to the weaker, legs threatened to buckle.
But we limped on
As free men, move on
To see the camp’s surroundings for the first time, to ponder.

The LORD has answered with mercy and grace.
Mothers, fathers and orphaned children embrace.
“‘Give comfort, O, give comfort’”
“’to My people,’ says the LORD;”
“Say kind words to the faint heart of Jerusalem.’”

“Your warfare has ended; I have honoured Israel’s impossible trust in Me.”
“I’ve seen the evil deeds of your enemies”
“You shall now rejoice in My portion”
“You shall not be shamed much longer.”
“In Zion, You, My people shall possess. Everlasting joy is yours; shall it ever be.”

“‘Give comfort, O, give comfort to My people,’ says the LORD;”
Tell to the faint heart of Jerusalem, “Take heart, my friend.”
Jerusalem’s weary-laden warfare,
You have wept with her.
Our warfare is ended, bless the LORD, that our guilt is pardoned.

----
References: Isaiah 40; Isaiah 13; Zion: Isaiah 2:3; 2Samuel 5:7; 1King 8:1; Lam.4:2; Psalm78:68; Psalm 87:2