the precious things that were

Jerusalem remembers

in the days of her affliction and wandering

all the precious things

that were hers from days of old.

When her people fell into the hand of the foe,

and there was none to help her,

her foes gloated over her;

they mocked at her downfall.

Lamentations 1:7

In 1931 Salvador Dali painted a bizarre dreamscape of surreal melting watches across a wasteland entitled “The Persistence of Memory”. The painting is a masterpiece of modern art, drawing the viewer to contemplate not only the passage of time, but the plastic nature of our memories over time. It has always interested me that the artist chose the bleakest of desert landscapes to capture this message. It conveys the reality that the memories that persist may be tinged most with loss, regret, pain, and difficulty. And so it is with biblical lament. Difficult memories should be expressed in our cries to God… especially when we feel them coming from our driest places.

In this passage the broken, widowed, limping Lady Jerusalem remembers her worst loss. She weeps in her affliction in the aftermath of traumatic assault. She mourns those fallen at the hand of the foe. She grieves that no one came to help her and instead she was gloated over, humiliated after her assault, and mocked at her ruin.

Sandwiched in the middle of all this pain-filled lament is a tenderly tragic mental anguish: She remembers “all the precious things that were hers from the days of old.” This is heart-wrenching. It is exactly what happens to those who grief the people they have lost who are dearest to them. It is what is left after a major traumatic event. The city of Jerusalem, pictured throughout the first lines of Lamentations as a once noble princess, has been beaten, raped, traumatized by watching her defenders killed in front of her eyes. She has been mocked, stripped, and ridiculed by cruel attackers. Yet in her head, unable to be consoled, are countless precious memories of what once was… the past splendor… the past beauty… the past joys… the past loves… the precious things. Her attackers might leave her wounded, naked, unsheltered, and alone, but they cannot rob her of those precious memories. The best things that still persist in extreme loss are precious memories. 

Biblical lament must recognize that remembering those precious things we have lost, taking persistent memory to the Lord both in gratitude for having had them, and in tears for having lost them, is a way to find His perspective in the loss. It helps us to persistently hold onto His good in what is still precious to us. It helps us to mourn. The “precious things that were” become helpful anchors to hope IF we will pray into those persistent memories, thank God for them, mourn for their loss, accept that things have changed from those days, own ways in which we have wrongly idolized the memories or disobeyed God during those times, and release to God a willingness to trust Him that new precious things can emerge from what He will renew from our loss.