Our Psalm of Lament

May 13

A Lament is a prayer of pain and hope, turning toward God with our raw, desperate emotions when despair tempts us to run away. We pour out our grief, sorrow, and anger to the Lord, confident that our prayers are heard and held by a loving Father. Laments are holy. The Bible is filled with lament. In fact, over a third of the Psalms are laments. A lament normally has four components:

Turning to God in prayer.
Bringing our complaints before God.
Being bold in asking for God’s help.
Choosing to trust God and praise Him despite our suffering.

I love the idea of lament because it reminds us that God wants us to bring him our whole hearts. He already knows everything we are feeling, but it brings him joy when we tell him anyway and pour out our suffering, our anger, our doubt and fear and any other messy, hard, ugly feelings we may have. He wants us to have confidence in his love for us and his desire to comfort us. He longs for us to approach him with holy boldness and ask for everything we need, even that which seems impossible. We affirm our faith and trust, even the size of a mustard seed, by choosing to trust him and praise him even in the darkness of grief.

The book of Habakkuk shows us a beautiful example of lament. I have clung to these passages many times in my own emptiness and grief when the road seemed especially dark and hope was hard to find.

For though the fig tree does not blossom and no fruit appears on the vine, Though the yield of the olive fails and the terraces produce no nourishment, Though the flocks disappear from the fold and there is no herd in the stalls … Yet I will rejoice in the LORD and exult in my saving God. (Hab 3:17-18)

I love the word YET. It pivots my heart from focusing on despair and sadness to the promises of God and his great love for me. It allows me to hold both of those realities at the same time.

During a recent gathering of Red Bird mothers, we wrote a psalm of lament together. Each woman shared a line of complaint and a line of trust or praise. We read them aloud as a prayer together, my eyes filling with tears.

The heart of a grieving mother is holy ground. Each of these prayers is raw and honest and springs from the depths of suffering that gouged by the death of her child. I have only changed identifying names and put them in order. I pray that our Psalm of Lament will be a comfort to you that you are not alone in your grief. We love you and we are with you in your sorrow, and your tears are held by the Lord.