The worst calamity imaginable for the people of God has taken place. The Kingdom is destroyed, the people taken into exile in a foreign land, the city is in ruins, and all hope of earthly wellbeing has turned to despair. But that’s not the calamity; the great calamity is that the temple is utterly destroyed. The temple is the meeting place of God on the earth.
If the presence of God is gone, where can we meet him, how can we pray, how can we gain access to our God? Indeed, where is God? Is there a God for us? Is the Enemy stronger than our Lord? Now there is no place to turn, no One to help, no way to find a way out. We can live without king and kingdom, land and city, but we can’t live without God.
Though all is lost, no answer comes, and no solution is in sight, God’s people still pray and plead. We call on our Lord to look at His Holy Place, to see what the Enemy has done, to remember Creation Power, and to arise and act again. Without visible hope in the presence of defeat we still pray to the God of Promises.