We Have Reached the Border, And There is No One To Help

My God, my God, why have you forsaken us? Why are you so far from saving us, so far from our cries of anguish?

My God, we cry out by day, but you do not answer, by night, but we find no rest. We are homeless, hungry, immigrants and refugees, the oppressed, yet you are enthroned as the Holy One; you are the one we praise.

In you our ancestors put their trust; more than armies, or economies, or governments, they trusted and you delivered them.

To you they cried out and were saved; in you they trusted and were not put to shame. They were not rejected, vilified, put in cages, imprisoned, or torn from their families.

But we are treated like worms and not humans, scorned by everyone, despised by the people. ICE hunts us, many Americans hate us.

All who see us mock us; they hurl insults, shoot canisters of tear gas at us, shaking their heads. “If they trust in the Lord,” they say, “let the Lord rescue them.

Let him deliver them, since they delights in him.” Yet you brought us out of the womb; you made us trust in you, even at our mother’s breast.

From birth we were cast on you; from our mother’s womb you have been my God.

Do not be far from us, for trouble is near, we have reached the border, and there is no one to help.

Many soldiers surround us; strong officers encircle us.

Roaring lions that tear their prey, open their mouths wide against us. They beat us, arrest us, incarcerate us, shoot us, then blame us. We are poured out like water, and all our bones are out of joint. Our hearts have turned to wax; they have melted within us.

Our mouths are dried up, for we’ve walked thousands of miles, and our tongue sticks to the roof of our mouth; you lay us in the dust of death.

Police dogs surround us, a pack of villains encircles us; they pierce our hands and our feet. All our bones are on display; people stare and gloat over us. They divide our clothes among them, and cast lots for our garments. They abuse us.

But you, Lord, do not be far from us.

You are our strength; come quickly to help us.

Deliver us from the guns of America, our precious lives from the power of the politicians. Rescue us from the jails of the police; save us from the barbed wire of the border patrol.

We will declare your name to our people; in the church we will praise you. You who fear the Lord, praise him!

For he has not despised or scorned the suffering of the afflicted ones; he sees the immigrants, refugees, and the oppressed. he has not hidden his face from them but has listened to their cry for help.

The poor will eat and be satisfied; those who seek the Lord will praise him — may your hearts live forever!

All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations, democrats and republicans, conservatives and liberals, will bow down before him, for dominion belongs to the Lord — not a president; and he rules over the nations.

All the rich of the earth will feast and worship; all who go down to the dust will kneel before him — those who cannot keep themselves alive.

Future generations will be told about the Lord. They will proclaim his righteousness, declaring to a people yet unborn: He has done it! He has saved the immigrant and the refugee, He has saved the oppressed!