Our songbooks have a big hole in them.
Actually, don’t get me started because there are many holes in them, but let us focus on one in particular.
30-40% of the Psalms contain “laments”. 15% of them are exclusively laments.
“What is a lament?” I hear you say.
My point, exactly. We don’t even know, and yet it was more than a third of the Biblical songbook.
A Lament is a specific kind of prayer or song, with a specific structure and pattern. The main feature of it is that it laments the way that things are. It is raw and honest. It is heartfelt and comes from brokenness and it is grounded in reality.
The structure would be something like this (using Psalm 22 as an example) :
- A cry about the way things are not the way that they are meant to be – this may be personal or on a national scale and could be the main content of the psalm, song, prayer:
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from helping me, from the words of my groaning?
O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer;
and by night, but find no rest… (v.1-2)
2. This is followed by a recognition of who God is:
…Yet you are holy,
enthroned on the praises of Israel.
In you our ancestors trusted;
they trusted, and you delivered them.
To you they cried, and were saved;
in you they trusted, and were not put to shame… (v.3-5)
This pattern for 1 and 2 may be repeated – as in Psalm 22, but…
3. It always finishes with praise:
…All the ends of the earth shall remember
and turn to the LORD;
and all the families of the nations
shall worship before him.
For dominion belongs to the LORD,
and he rules over the nations… (v.27-28)
A lament takes us on journey, from the real struggles of our lives and recognising the pain of the world, enabling us to voice them, leading us to an acknowledgement of who God is, and then, in the context of all of this, through to praising him.
Often, I have sat in our meetings, when something horrific has been happening in the world, and thought that there has been no recognition or reference to this. Sadly, we are not alone in this bubble. We need to ground our meetings/worship in the world we live in and in our real experience fro them to be authentic.
Lament enables us to anchor our worship in the real world rather than isolating ourselves from it.
Lament is gritty and honest.
Lament enables us to say, “I am not having a great time, but I know who you are and I will still praise you”.
Lament stops us from pretending or putting on a happy, smiley face for show.
Laments are more than one third of the Psalms for a reason.
Let us give each other permission to cry out and to be honest in our expression of worship. Let us recognise that our Daddy does not want children who pretend, but children who are honest and willing to express that to Him rather than hide it. Let us be willing to come together and weep over the state of the world, our nation and our city. Let us be free to express that together.
Let us learn together how to recapture lament.
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