LAMENT
When we feel blessed in life, when we experience goodness and wholeness, we turn to God in praise and thanksgiving. But what happens when we experience just the opposite? What happens when we are overcome by a pandemic, political strife, climate change, you know, the presence of chaos, brokenness, suffering and death.
One whole book, “Lamentations,” expresses the confusion and suffering felt after the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians in about 850 B.C
We have lost a certain sense of lamentation, and this has been, in the words of one scholar, “a costly loss.”
If we have the nerve to say, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” we then feel like we are losing our faith and “oh my,” we should never feel like that. In other words we have grave doubts. Faith is not simply an intellectual consent in the scriptures to some statement about God. It’s about the trusting, not belief, but trusting, of our entire selves to God.
Lament is not a failure of faith, but an act of faith. We cry out directly to God because deep down we know that our relationship with God counts; to us, and to God.
In the Scriptures, God does not say, “Do not fear, I will take away all the pain and struggle.” But God does say, “You have no need to fear, since I am with you.”
We may be tempted to look for cheap and easy answers in our desperation. Lament teaches us that there are indeed things we do not understand; in fact, we cannot understand. At times we can do no more than speak our confusion to God, and lament tells us that we should do no less.
It is only after we lament, after we face and express the pain and negativity and get it all out, that healing can begin. In more theological terms, we can say that it is only by facing and going through the death that we can come to new life, to resurrection.
So try it out here, and there are many more:
Awake! Why are you asleep, O Lord?
Arise! Cast us not off forever!
Why do you hide your face,
forgetting our woe and our oppression?
For our souls are bowed down to the dust,
our bodies are pressed to the earth. (Psalm 44:24-26)
How long, O Lord? Will you utterly forget me?
How long will you hide your face from me?
How long shall I harbor sorrow in my soul,
grief in my heart day after day?
How long will my enemy triumph over me? (Psalm 13:2-3)
Rise up, judge of the earth; render their deserts to the proud. How long, O Lord, shall the wicked, how long shall the wicked glory,
Mouthing insolent speeches, boasting, all the evildoers? (Psalm 94:2-4)
Or perhaps one like this:
Show us, O Lord, your kindness,
and grant us your salvation.
I will hear what God proclaims;
the Lord—for he proclaims peace.
To his people, and to his faithful ones,
and to those who put in him their hope.
Near indeed is his salvation to those
who are in awe of him,
glory dwelling in our land. (Psalm 85:8-10)
Many say, “Oh, that we might see better times!”
O Lord, let the light of your countenance shine upon us! You put gladness into my heart,
more than when grain and wine abound.
As soon as I lie down, I fall peacefully asleep,
for you alone, O Lord,
bring security to my dwelling. (Psalm 4:7-9)
Friends in Christ,
Mary M
