The Beauty of Lament
As a deer pants for flowing streams,
so pants my soul for you, O God.
My soul thirsts for God,
for the living God.
When shall I come and appear before God?
My tears have been my food
day and night,
while they say to me all the day long,
“Where is your God?”
These things I remember,
as I pour out my soul:
how I would go with the throng
and lead them in procession to the house of God
with glad shouts and songs of praise,
a multitude keeping festival.
Why are you cast down, O my soul,
and why are you in turmoil within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
my salvation and my God.
My soul is cast down within me;
therefore I remember you
from the land of Jordan and of Hermon,
from Mount Mizar.
Deep calls to deep
at the roar of your waterfalls;
all your breakers and your waves
have gone over me.
By day the Lord commands his steadfast love,
and at night his song is with me,
a prayer to the God of my life.
I say to God, my rock:
“Why have you forgotten me?
Why do I go mourning
because of the oppression of the enemy?”
As with a deadly wound in my bones,
my adversaries taunt me,
while they say to me all the day long,
“Where is your God?”
Why are you cast down, O my soul
and why are you in turmoil within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
my salvation and my God.
Psalm 42
The book of Psalms is one of those books I’ve read all the way through and keep coming back to. It’s fitting for every season. It’s the antidote to my every mood. Though I have many favorites (Psalm 139, Psalm 91, Psalm 1, Psalm 40, etc.), recently I read a blog post on The Daily Grace Co. that centered on Psalm 42. It brought me back to a topic that has been on my heart lately. Lament.
The dictionary describes lament as deep sorrow, mourning, regret, or to cry out in grief. In a biblical sense, lamenting is so much richer than that. It is an honest heart to heart with God. It cries out against injustice, it releases deep pain, it reveals your deepest vulnerability. It is being real with the Lord. Some people may think that lament and praise are the opposite of each other, but often they coincide. In our lamenting, we bring our suffering and hurt to God. We offer our hearts, broken as they may be, and speak one on one with Him. Your worship can be desperate and still be beautiful to God’s ears. There is no need to be perfect, just come as you are, and He will meet you there. Often in lamenting, our bond is strengthened with the Lord. In this Psalm, the psalmist offers his lament and then reminds himself of who God is and how He has always been there for him. Sometimes you just have to feel it and let it out, and when you’re done, remember who your God is, and lay it all at His feet. Praise Him, thank Him, cling to Him. Lament and praise go hand in hand. Suffering does not destroy our faith, it refines it, strengthens it.
It’s exactly because the psalmist believes and trusts in God’s sovereignty that he keeps coming back to Him with his petitions and laments. If the psalmist had decided that God was unfaithful, he would not keep returning to Him with his complaints and pain. It is because of his faith that the psalmist comes back again and again, because he knows God is the only one who could heal him. In Mark Vroegop’s book Dark Clouds, Deep Mercy: Discovering the Grace of Lament, he writes that “lament stands in the gap between pain and promise… To cry is human, to lament is Christian.” Lament is not simply crying or complaining but is a deeper conversation with the Almighty. In Vroegop’s book, he states that lament is “prayer in pain that leads to trust.”
Do you ever notice how good it feels to unload your overwhelming burdens and share them with a loved one? When it’s all left your body and out in the open, there is a relief that swims through you. There is an immediate calmness that consumes you and then you can move forward to the next stage in the process- healing. Lament begins the path to praise through our brokenness that ultimately leads to a closer bond with our Savior. It leads to restoration and renewal. A plant doesn’t simply bloom, it must first break down and open up to take root, before the process of growing and flourishing can begin. It is the same in prayer, it is the same in all things spiritual. You must first come to God honestly, vulnerably, and confess it all before you can move forward together.
Lament is so beautiful because it reveals the space that God fills. We are not complete without God. We are limited by nature. Everything that we lack, He fills. It was designed that way, so that we may always reach towards the One who heals.
In Psalms 42, the psalmist says “As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.” In John 4:14, Jesus says, “Whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” Without living water, we will always be thirsty, searching for worldly things that will never quench us. We cannot fill others when we ourselves are empty and in our order for our cup to be full, to be overflowing, we keep returning to our Living Water. Only He can refresh us. It’s why the Lord’s prayer in Matthew 6:12 says, “Give us this day our daily bread.” This day. He is the bread. He is our daily nourishment. He is our food; He is the thing that keeps us full. Trust Him with today. He will sustain you day by day, moment by moment, step by step, season by season. Search for Him, reach for Him, come to Him, again and again.
When the Lord gave manna (bread) to the Israelites in the wilderness after they’d left Egypt, He only gave them enough for a day (Exodus 16). He wanted them to know He would supply their needs. He wanted them to trust in Him every single day. He wanted them to know He was their Provider.
“Then Jesus declared “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”” John 6:35
In the Beatitudes mentioned in Matthew 5, Jesus says “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.” `God is our comforter. He is our strength, our friend, our healer, our protector, our Heavenly Father who desires a personal relationship with us. What better way to grow a personal relationship with someone else than simply talking to them daily? Blessed are those who mourn, who repent, who come to Him with broken hearts because we chose to come to Him first. We made the step towards Him and walking towards God with our pain is always better than walking away from Him with our pain. Whether in joy or suffering, each day, choose to walk towards Him.
“The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.” Psalm 34:18
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” Matthew 11:28
