Faces on Faith: Learning to lament
“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
Is it over the line to talk like that God? Thoughts like that might skulk around in the shadows of our souls, especially as the marathon of Hurricane Ian recovery plods on month after month. We might feel like God has walked out on us. But certainly we wouldn’t have the audacity to say it so boldly.
That quotation comes from Psalm 22:1. The Psalms are a collection of Hebrew poetry originally set to music and sung in Israel’s worship. The Psalms contain many sub-genres like praise, thanksgiving or trust. But the most common category of Psalm is the lament. Psalms are church music for singing the blues.
That’s surprising, because we often think that having faith in God means you’re always upbeat, positive and brimming with “hallelujahs.” Yet in a sinful world, we need God’s word to help us grieve the brokenness of life. Think about it: God himself, in his word, has given us words for expressing our negative feelings toward God.
But lest we think that lament is just a biblically sanctioned pity party, we also notice that laments include statements of confidence in God’s goodness. That same Psalm 22 also has lines like “In you our fathers trusted; they trusted and you delivered them” (22:4) and “On you was I cast from my birth, and from my mother’s womb you have been my God” (22:10).
Biblical lament is not the mocking rant of a bitter skeptic. It’s a song of faith set in a minor key. Laments weave together the truths about God that our minds know with the present experiences of evil and suffer that our hearts and bodies feel.
If there is any doubt that we should learn to lament, we have to look no further than to Jesus’ suffering. Psalm 22 is also a prophecy about the crucifixion. The suffering Psalmist speaks prophetically of being surrounded by mockers (22:6-9), wracked with suffering (22:14-15) and violated by evildoers (22:16-18). That violation includes both pierced hands and feet and a garment divided by lots. And it was at the height of his suffering on the cross that Jesus quoted Psalm 22:1, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
Suffering remains a mystery. But Psalms of lament invite us to bring honest grief to Jesus who knows our every sorrow and who can save us from our every sin.
Pastor Jeramie Rinne is the senior pastor at the Sanibel Community Church.