I’ve been thinking about lament a lot recently. In both of my ministry settings (local church and University), I have had many conversations with others about struggling in this season.
Especially as we consider those near us, I’m certain many have concerns about their own health and mental health. This can include depression, bouts of anxieties, or fear of personal safety or for loved ones. Maybe you are not struggling like others, but you are growing weary. Some could be struggling with compassion fatigue.
So, I want to pose these questions for us. What is lament and how do we help others lament in this season?
Lament is expressing sorrow and grief over travesty, injustices, sicknesses, death, or other brokenness within a fallen world. This includes the ramifications of sin within a fallen world and the emotional responses to those sins and how they affect you. Lament includes the emotional side of the sin affecting you.
Christians may not feel welcome to lament or they may not feel like they have permission to have this type of response. Three reasons for this come to mind. First, in Philippians 4, Christians are called to be joyful. So, if Christians are called to be joyful, is there room for Christian Lament?
To lament includes a way to approach God with rightly ordered emotions and a resolve to trust God.
Second, Christians are to have a resolve of trust in God. But does lament demonstrate a wavering of commitment to God? Last, Christians are to extol God’s glory with their words and their heart.
Is there any room to lay bare a complaint or emotional turmoil to God?
We need to re-envision what it means to lament. To lament does include sadness and it includes hope. To lament also includes some type of un-surety about the future but it also includes a resolve to hope in God. To lament includes a way to approach God with rightly ordered emotions and a resolve to trust God.
Patterns of Lament in the Psalms
In the Psalms, there is a pattern to lament.[1] Roughly speaking, fifty Psalms of lament occur in the Psalter. Some of these Psalms include an individual that laments to God. Other Psalms of lament include individuals that lament to God on behalf of a corporate group. Generally, each Psalm of lament includes a particular structure.
- Approaching God
- Laying open emotions and complaints to God
- Affirmation of Trust in God and his Promises
- Hymn of Blessing
To pattern our lament after this structure invites us to read the Psalms along with the author.
If this is a hard season, by all means lament. It’s okay to lament. Have freedom to lament. And, when you do so, (1) approach God through prayer, (2) lay open all your emotions to God, (3) resolve to rest in God and his promises, and (4) even end with a hymn of praise in your own soul.
Lament without hope or sorrow without hope is despair.
Lament without hope or sorrow without hope is despair. Lament is both laying open your emotions to God as well as affirming trust in God and his promises. May we relearn and reorient ourselves to pattern our own personal lament like this fourfold pattern: to approach God, to lay open your emotions and complaints before God, to resolve one’s trust in God and his promises, and to offer a hymn of praise within your own soul.
Psalm 23 through the Eyes of Lament
Psalm 23 is a well-known psalm. While Psalm 23 is not a formal Lament Psalm, it is a Psalm that describes how the presence of the Lord comforts his people. In the following, I read Psalm 23 with an eye towards lament and the how the presence of the Lord comforts his people.
Psalm 23:1–3: The Lord is the Shepherd who leads and restores his children
1 The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. 2 He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. 3 He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.
Psalms 23:4: The Presence of the Lord provides comfort over death
4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
Psalm 23:5–6: The Goodness of God follows you for all days
5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. 6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
Imagine a well that you can dip down to drink water. Envision this image as we minister to others. Sometimes, we minister to others irrespective and maybe not always in consideration of our own spiritual health. So, it’s an empty well that offers very little to drink for others and it’s a full well that offers plenty to drink.
Ministry and helping others are often like a well that sits within our own soul. Sometimes we minister to others irrespective of whether our well is full or whether our personal well is empty. Before helping others in lament, may we walk through our own lament and tend to the needs of our own souls.
Before walking people to the Good Shepherd, I want to ask us this question: have you yourself been brought near to the Shepherd, have you laid in his field, have you drunk from his brook, have you eaten at his table?
Sometimes lament is so odd that we want to bypass it in our own souls. When we help others in their own Lament, may we first be led by the Shepherd into his presence.
So, what is Christian Lament?
Lament consists of both the appropriate responses of sorrows and rest in God. Lament includes deep remorse and sadness over the travesty in the world—even the physical travesty and emotional turmoil in our lives. Yet, sorrow without hope is not lament. Sorrow without hope is despair.
True Christian lament still possesses a deep resolve to trust God in all his promises. These pursuits of lament might require us to treasure the quiet life and the darknesses in life to be met by God.
Lament is being able to approach God, laying bare all the depths of your emotions to God, still resolving to trust God in all his promises, often ending with a hymn of praise.
Helpful Sources:
Todd Billings. Rejoicing In Lament: Wrestling with Incurable Cancer & Life in Christ. Grand Rapids: Brazos, 2015.
Rebekah Eklund. Practicing Lament. Cascade Companions. Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2021.
[1] See: Todd Billings, Lament; Longmann, Introduction to the OT, 248.
