Tag Archives: lament

A prayer for a day of sad anniversaries

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nycWars and rumors of wars.
Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall.
An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.

How long, Sovereign Lord? How long?

Therefore pride is their necklace;
they clothe themselves with violence.
From their callous hearts comes iniquity;
the evil conceits of their minds know no limits.
They scoff, and speak with malice;
in their arrogance they threaten oppression.
Their mouths lay claim to heaven,
and their tongues take possession of the earth.
They say, “How can God know?
Does the Most High have knowledge?”

How long, Sovereign Lord? How long?

Too long have I lived among those who hate peace.
I am a man of peace; but when I speak, they are for war.

How long, Sovereign Lord? How long?

Awake, O Lord! Why do you sleep?
Rouse yourself! Do not reject us forever.
Why do you hide your face
and forget our misery and oppression?

How long, Sovereign Lord? How long?

He will judge between many peoples
and will settle disputes for strong nations far and wide.
They will beat their swords into plowshares
and their spears into pruning hooks.
Nation will not take up sword against nation,
nor will they train for war anymore.

How long, Sovereign Lord? How long?

The wolf will live with the lamb,
the leopard will lie down with the goat,
the calf and the lion and the yearling together;
and a little child will lead them.

How long, Sovereign Lord? How long?

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”
He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!”

How long, Sovereign Lord? How long?

Lament

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Part of what the Bible seeks to teach us is how to cry. How to be sad. Much time is spent showing us how God’s people mourn after a tragedy.

Little time is spent explaining the existence of evil or why bad things happen to good people. More time, much more, is showing how God’s people cry and how they cry out to him.

Much lament is also a confession of sin, but that’s not true of all lament. Sometimes the speaker is crying out to God after suffering unjustly, at least from their point of view.

Glenn Pemberton, who was my dorm RA back in the day, has written a book about the Psalms of Lament. I haven’t read it, but knowing Glenn’s work, I’m sure it’s excellent. Richard Beck wrote a blog post based on some of the information in that book. He included a graphic representing a comparison the book makes, comparing the Psalms to modern hymnals. It’s interesting:

Graph taken from Experimental Theology blog

Our culture doesn’t like to cry. No wailing at funerals like in other cultures. Tears are hidden and apologized for.

The church needs to learn to cry. If Jesus, knowing that Lazarus would soon be raised, could shed a tear at his friend’s tomb, we too can cry upon seeing the pain of others. After what happened on Friday in Connecticut, tears are more than appropriate.

“Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, became furious, and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had ascertained from the wise men. Then was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah: “A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be comforted, because they are no more.”” (Matthew 2:16–18)

Let the Bible teach us how to lament.

photo by ariadna on www.morguefile.com