faithful lament
by winn collier
Posted under
christian living,
daily devotional,
death,
faith,
fear,
God's guidance,
God's power,
God's presence,
grief,
health,
hope (9 comments)
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Psalm 13
O Lord, how long will you forget me? Forever? (Psalm 13:1).
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Pray another psalm of lament, such as Psalm 22. What are the expressions of protest? And what are the expressions of faith and hope?
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What in your life is worthy of lament? What does it mean to consider offering this lament honestly to God without holding anything back?
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Last year we watched with sorrow and concern as an earthquake, tsunami, and ensuing nuclear disaster rocked Japan. MSNBC captured a particularly heart-wrenching photograph of 4-year-old Manami Kon having the sad occasion to practice her recently learned ability to write. Manami slowly penned a letter to her mom who had been missing since the quake: “Dear Mommy, I hope you’re alive. Are you okay?” It took her about an hour to write the short letter.
In her own, childlike way, Manami was practicing an old art: lament. To lament is to “express grief or doubt or rage.” It’s an expression of the turmoil in our heart. The Psalms model lament for us, providing some of the rawest words a human could pen. In biblical terms, a lament is a protest lodged against God, and this is the scandal of the Psalms—they’re not words shared human to human, but human to God. “O Lord,” begins the psalmist, making plain whom he’s addressing (Psalm 13:1). Midway through the song, the psalmist reiterates, “Turn and answer me, O Lord” (Psalm 13:3).
Lament is the bare acknowledgment that things aren’t right in this world, and that we shouldn’t pretend they are. Lament is the belief that God doesn’t want us to lie, especially to Him.
Lament not only acknowledges what is wrong, however; it also remembers that God will ultimately make what is wrong right. While lament is a protest lodged against God, it’s offered to Him because He’s the One who truly cares about the injustice and the pain and the destruction. Lament affirms that our hope, in the end, will not be thwarted. God will act on our behalf.
“I trust in Your unfailing love,” concludes the psalmist. “I will rejoice because You have rescued me” (Psalm 13:5).
NLT 365-day reading plan passage for today: Exodus 20:1-22
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These are helpful words, Winn. I appreciate how you say that lament actually means we believe in God, that he is able and willing to help us. It takes faith to lament.
seeing this truth was a game-changer for me.
How I’m looking forward to the time when Jesus will make “everything new” (Revelation 21:5). For now, as Paul wrote, “with eager hope, the creation looks forward to the day when it will join God’s children in glorious freedom from death and decay. For we know that all creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. And we believers also groan, even though we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, for we long for our bodies to be released from sin and suffering” (Romans 8:20-23).
Love this one! Important to remember, I think as Christians we sometimes feel we must not allow ourselves to get down in our mood, or complain, or wonder why. To push those feelings down inside ourselves and not release them as needed will hurt us more in the end.
It will hurt us, as any form of dishonesty does. To refuse to acknowledge what we truly experience is not being faithful but dishonest. God tell us not to lie, so we bring our true selves to God, even the murky stuff.
This devotional is right on time because am certainly lamenting and groaning…its assuring that He listens and that its okay to lament.Thanks for the reminder.
i love this line:
“Lament not only acknowledges what is wrong, however; it also remembers that God will ultimately make what is wrong right.”
thank you for your post. for i am indeed lamenting to God at this very moment. its very assuring to know that God wants us to come sincere and honest before Him and just trust in His handling
I agree with this and agree that God desires that we be honest with Him. Having lost most of my immediate family in untimely deaths in a short period of time, I have learned to lament the injustice of this world, I have discovered that to many Christians, this is judged as being ungrateful & bitter towards God when it is neither. When we lament, we are grieving but with God as our focus and we are being honest with our pain. How ironic that those who have suffered the least in this world are so quick to judge those of us who’ve felt real pain, loss & suffering? I have learned that many Christians in our prosperous culture, are like Job’s friends when things go wrong and feel free to criticize what they do not understand. To grieve with hope does not mean that we put on a fake happy face & not feel sad at the loss of loved ones! Yes, we are happy they are with our Lord but we deeply miss those we love that have departed this world (especially when they are young & the loss makes no sense to us).
yes, indeed. And Paul tells us that death is an enemy, and enemy that Jesus Christ has conquered and one day will finally dispel from our world. We pray and hope and believe toward that end.