LAMENT LEADS TO TRUST
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LAMENT LEADS TO TRUST
LAMENT LEADS TO TRUST
LAMENT implies a profound or demonstrative expression of sorrow.
Webster: Intransitive verb: to mourn aloud: WAIL
Transitive verb: to express sorrow, morning, or regret often demonstratively: MOURN
Transitive verb 2: to regret strongly
Lament—Noun: A crying out in grief: WAILING; COMPLAINT
PSALM 5
“David being grievously oppressed by the cruelty of his enemies, and apprehending still more mischief, earnestly beseeches God for help. And the more easily to obtain what he asks, after having, by the earnestness of his prayers, manifested the greatness of his grief, he first brings forward the intolerable malice of his enemies, showing how inconsistent it would be with the character of God, were they to be left unpunished. He next speaks of his own faith and patience, and even comfort; having no doubt whatever of a happy issue. Finally, he concludes, that when he shall be delivered, the benefits resulting from his deliverance would not be limited to himself, but would extend to all the godly.” (Calvin)
David first of all means a confused muttering, such as described in the Song of Hezekiah in
Isaiah 38:14 “Like a swallow or a crane I chirp; I moan like a dove. My eyes are weary with looking upward. O Lord, I am oppressed; be my pledge of safety!”
“David’s purpose seems to be, to encourage himself to trust in God, by assuming this as a general principle—that whoever calls upon God in their calamities never meet with a repulse or denial from God” (Calvin).
*In his book, Dark Clouds Deep Mercy, Mark Vroegop calls Lamentations 5 “A Roadmap to Grace.” Restore us to yourself O Lord. Lamentations 5:21. Chapter 5 helps us see, “Lament as the language of spiritual reorientation. Lament identifies the way back to God and even the gospel itself.”
(Chapter 5) This Lament is filled with hope. There are no “and they lived happily ever after” moments in Lamentations.
This historic lament concludes without resolution and with questions lingering. It ends by telling us where to look in pain, not by giving us the rest of the story.
A Roadmap to Grace
English Standard Version (Psalm 5)
Lead Me in Your Righteousness
5 TO THE CHOIRMASTER: FOR THE FLUTES. A PSALM OF DAVID.
1 Give ear to my words, O LORD;
consider my groaning.
2 Give attention to the sound of my cry,
my King and my God,
for to you do I pray.
3 O LORD, in the morning you hear my voice;
in the morning I prepare a sacrifice for you and watch.
4 For you are not a God who delights in wickedness;
evil may not dwell with you.
5 The boastful shall not stand before your eyes;
you hate all evildoers.
6 You destroy those who speak lies;
the LORD abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man.
7 But I, through the abundance of your steadfast love,
will enter your house.
I will bow down toward your holy temple
in the fear of you.
8 Lead me, O LORD, in your righteousness
because of my enemies;
make your way straight before me.
9 For there is no truth in their mouth;
their inmost self is destruction;
their throat is an open grave;
they flatter with their tongue.
10 Make them bear their guilt, O God;
let them fall by their own counsels;
because of the abundance of their transgressions cast them out,
for they have rebelled against you.
11 But let all who take refuge in you rejoice;
let them ever sing for joy,
and spread your protection over them,
that those who love your name may exult in you.
12 For you bless the righteous, O LORD;
you cover him with favor as with a shield.
ILLU: Lament can be a road map to God’s grace.
A man named Brian is an attorney with the Neighborhood Christian Legal Clinic. Every day he uses his legal skills to re- lieve injustice in Indianapolis. He advocates for people whose poverty makes them targets for abuse. He sees community pain daily. But Brian and his wife, Melissa, had a front-row seat to a new tragedy a few years ago. In a moment of personal crisis, they learned the value of lament. Actually, they learned how to lead in lament.
Brian and Melissa lived in a quiet neighborhood on the West Side of Indianapolis, a middle-class community of young families, playgroups for kids, and caring neighbors. The kind of neighborhood filled with children laughing on play sets, bikes everywhere, and backyard barbecues. But on November 10, 2015, their peaceful neighborhood was shattered by a home invasion and a brutal murder.
One morning three armed men targeted a neighbor’s home. It belonged to a young couple who moved to Indianapolis with a dream of planting a church. After the husband left for the gym, the men entered the home. Amanda, a pregnant twenty- eight-year-old mother, was murdered while their toddler slept in his crib. The senseless slaying shook the city and drew the attention of national media.
The police interviewed neighbors, reviewed security footage, and searched the city for the three men. Meanwhile Brian and Melissa, along with another couple from our church, walked their neighbors through the grief that invaded their neighbor- hood. They opened their home for lament. The first night over fifty neighbors crowded their living room to read the Bible,
pray, and weep together. Many were believers; others were not. But all of them were in pain. The tragedy brought them to- gether. Brian became their guide.
Every weekday evening for three weeks, Brian and Melissa’s home became a place of lament. As they waited for the suspects to be caught and as their neighbors tried to recover, they used Psalm 13 as their base text. They cried out together, “How long, O Lord!” allowing it to direct them toward trust and worship. Over the weeks, the size of the group varied, but Brian’s home became a sanctuary for sorrow.
As the believers in Brian’s neighborhood entered the pain and fearful questions of their neighbors, the believers were able to give their neighbors a path toward hope. Lament opened the door for many important spiritual conversations.
Looking into the book of Lamentations “is a good reminder that the message of the gospel is where lament should lead. The sorrow of loss can lead us to the man of sorrows because Jesus is the answer to the cause of every pain.” Mark Vroegop
PSALM 13
“The subject of this psalm is almost the same as that of the preceding. David, being afflicted, not only with the deepest distress, but also feeling himself, as it were, overwhelmed by a long succession of calamities and multiplied afflictions, implores the aid and succour of God, the only remedy which remained for him; and, in the close, taking courage, he entertains the assured hope of life from the promise of God, even amidst the terrors of death.” (Calvin)
Have you ever felt that God had forgotten you? Perhaps in the middle of your afflictions have you ever felt that perhaps God really didn’t care about you? That like David, you were forsaken by God? But then, like David, your mind was guided by the light of faith and penetrated by grace, even while both were hidden by the darkness. But it is faith that helps us to have hope and continue seeking God.
Choose to Trust
English Standard Version (Psalm 13)
How Long, O LORD?
13 TO THE CHOIRMASTER. A PSALM OF DAVID.
1 How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me?
2 How long must I take counsel in my soul
and have sorrow in my heart all the day?
How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?
3 Consider and answer me, O LORD my God;
light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death,
4 lest my enemy say, “I have prevailed over him,”
lest my foes rejoice because I am shaken.
5 But I have trusted in your steadfast love;
my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.
6 I will sing to the LORD,
because he has dealt bountifully with me.
“All true songs of worship are born in the wilderness of suf- fering,” says musician and author Michael Card.1 In reflect- ing on the laments of David, Card suggests that without the “rocky terrain of his lonely life,” we would not have many of the psalms of David that we cherish.2 In other words, David’s pain created his worshipful laments.
Pain can bring clarity.
Loss affirms trust.
The words of the English poet William
Cowper (1731–1800) are full of meaning and depth. Cow- per (pronounced Cooper) struggled with debilitating bouts of depression, even landing him in an insane asylum for a time.3 Most of his life he wrestled with how to turn his sorrow into trust. Aside from composing beloved hymns such as “There Is a Fountain Filled with Blood” and “O for a Closer Walk with God,”
Cowper wrote “God Moves in a Mysterious Way” in 1774. It is believed to be the last hymn he wrote.
God moves in a mysterious way His wonders to perform;
He plants his footsteps in the sea, And rides upon the storm.
Deep in unfathomable mines Of never-failing skill,
He treasures up his bright designs, And works his sovereign will.
Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take, The clouds ye so much dread Are big with mercy, and shall break
In blessings on your head!
Judge not the Lord by feeble sense, But trust him for his grace: Behind a frowning providence
He hides a smiling face.
His purposes will ripen fast, Unfolding every hour;
The bud may have a bitter taste, But sweet will be the flower.
Blind unbelief is sure to err, And scan his work in vain:
God is his own interpreter, And he will make it plain!
Conclusion:
I’ll end with this question: Will you remain stuck in your complaints to God and never move past your requests and what you want God to do for you, like most will, or will you choose to be different, and choose to trust?
Lament will help you get there.
10THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT LAMENT AND LAMENTATION
A lament is a loud cry, a howl, or a passionate expression of grief.
Anywhere from a third to a half of the Psalms are Psalms of Lament. They
are the largest category of Psalms.
Laments are found throughout the Old and New Testaments— not just in
Lamentations.
The author of Lamentations isn’t named but most agree that Jeremiah wrote it
(see 2 Chron. 35:25).
The book consists of five poems explaining the judgment—death—of
Jerusalem because of her sin.
Each chapter is an acrostic poem built on the twenty-two letters of the
Hebrew alphabet, with Chapter 3 giving three verses to each letter instead of
one.
Lamentations was likely written between 586-583 BC, either during the
destruction of Jerusalem in 586 or shortly thereafter.
Laments can vary greatly in nature: personal or communal, confessional or
imprecatory, mourning or protesting, based on God’s actions or His seeming
failure to act, they can be prayerful or more descriptive, and they can mourn
deserved suffering (Lamentations) or undeserved suffering (Job).
Laments are often joined with or an avenue to praise. Lament isn’t the
opposite of praise but often the path to praise.
Lamentations emphasizes God’s justice in judging and punishing sin when
there is no repentance, as well as His patience in waiting to execute such
justice.