Category: Praying with the Psalmists

The photo above is from my now annual tradition of hiking the Bluebell Trail at Bull Run Regional Park. Peak is always pretty close to two weeks after cherry blossom peak, and today was three weeks after, but the blooms were still holding on, and it was a glorious day for a walk through the Spring forest, with songs from our Good Friday Cantata going through my head about God’s love.

I wanted to do one more Laments for Lent post for Good Friday, to finish out the series. I also would like to do a post on Easter about the Psalm of Trust Jesus quoted on the cross, so watch for that.

I mentioned when I started this series that I’m thinking of writing a book called Laments for Lent as a follow-up to my book Praying with the Psalmists – the one I’m still trying to find a publisher for. The Laments book will be shorter, focusing on the Laments and Psalms of Confession with 40 devotionals. Doing the blog series convinced me I could come up with enough material, and gives you a preview of the focus – praying our own laments.

In the previous posts, we’ve been looking at the parts of a Lament. I thought for Good Friday, let’s look at one Lament in particular – Psalm 22 – the one Jesus quoted from the cross. This Psalm will show what I mean by psalmists “loosely” following the form:

A – Address to God
C – Complaint
C – Confession of Trust
E – Entreaty
S – Sureness of Help
S – Subsequent Praise

Some friends who were early readers of Praying with the Psalmists took issue with me covering Psalm 22 in the Laments chapter instead of the Messianic Psalms chapter. I do maintain that a Psalm can be both, but since I was putting each Psalm into only one category, I feel that this Psalm is primarily a Lament – which ended up having Messianic implications. But from the perspective of the writer, David in this case, it was written as a Lament and has all the elements of a Lament. And didn’t David have plenty of times in his life on the run from Saul when he could have prayed this?

So let’s look at the parts of a Lament as they appear in Psalm 22.

The beginning Address to God is one of the many Laments that starts with an anguished question:

Psalm 22:1–

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from saving me,
so far from my cries of anguish?

As is common, the questioning Address bleeds right into the Complaint:

Psalm 22:2–

My God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer,
by night, but I find no rest.

Then we have kind of a short preview of the Confession of Trust:

Psalm 22:3-5–

Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One;
you are the one Israel praises.
In you our ancestors put their trust;
they trusted and you delivered them.
To you they cried out and were saved;
in you they trusted and were not put to shame.

Then cycling back to the Complaint:

Psalm 22:6-8–

But I am a worm and not a man,
scorned by everyone, despised by the people.
All who see me mock me;
they hurl insults, shaking their heads.
“He trusts in the LORD,” they say,
“let the LORD rescue him.
Let him deliver him,
since he delights in him.”

Then time for a further Confession of Trust, this one more personal:

Psalm 22:9-10–

Yet you brought me out of the womb;
you made me trust in you, even at my mother’s breast.
From birth I was cast on you;
from my mother’s womb, you have been my God.

And a short preview of the Entreaty:

Psalm 22:11–

Do not be far from me,
for trouble is near
and there is no one to help.

But the psalmist isn’t done with the Complaint:

Psalm 22:12-18–

Many bulls surround me;
strong bulls of Bashan encircle me.
Roaring lions that tear their prey
open their mouths wide against me.
I am poured out like water,
and all my bones are out of joint.
My heart has turned to wax;
it has melted within me.
My mouth is dried up like a potsherd,
and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth;
you lay me in the dust of death.

Dogs surround me,
a pack of villains encircles me;
they pierce my hands and my feet.
All my bones are on display;
people stare and gloat over mr.
They divide my clothes among them
and cast lots for my garment.

Here’s the fuller Entreaty, the request in the prayer. (Notice how, like usual, it’s much shorter than the Complaint. God has been told the details of the problem; we trust God to know the details of what to do.)

Psalm 22:19-21–

But you, LORD, do not be far from me.
You are my strength; come quickly to help me.
Deliver me from the sword,
my precious life from the power of the dogs.
Rescue me from the mouth of the lions;
save me from the horns of the wild oxen.

Okay, from here on out, we’ve got the Sureness of Help and the Subsequent Praise sections all tangled up together. But I’ll point out which verses I’d put with each element. This is the part where the Messianic import really takes off, looking far beyond David’s life to what will happen when the Messiah comes and makes everything right.

This is especially good to think about on Good Friday – knowing that Jesus’ horrible suffering on the cross had an outcome for which we can praise God.

And it’s good to think about today – Believing and trusting that one day Christ will put an end to oppression and make everything right.

Subsequent Praise:
Psalm 22:22-23–

I will declare your name to my people;
in the assembly I will praise you.
You who fear the LORD, praise him!
All you descendants of Jacob, honor him!
Revere him, all you descendants of Israel!

Sureness of Help: (I love the past tense that often shows up in this element before the prayer is finished.)

Psalm 22:24–

For he has not despised or scorned
the suffering of the afflicted one;
he has not hidden his face from him
but has listened to his cry for help.

And I’m going to call the rest Subsequent Praise, though it’s completely shot through with confidence that God will act.

Psalm 22:25-31–

From you comes the theme of my praise in the great assembly;
before those who fear you I will fulfill my vows.
The poor will eat and be satisfied;
those who seek the LORD will praise him–
may your hearts live forever!

All the ends of the earth
will remember and turn to the LORD,
and all the families of the nations
will bow down before him,
for dominion belongs to the LORD
and he rules over the nations.

[See how this goes way beyond David?]

All the rich of the earth will feast and worship;
all who go down to the dust will kneel before him –
those who cannot keep themselves alive.
Posterity will serve him;
future generations will be told about the Lord.
They will proclaim his righteousness,
declaring to a people yet unborn:
He has done it!

Amen!

I like this meditation for Good Friday. And tonight I get to declare God’s praises and sing about God’s unfailing love before “the great congregation.”

Psalm 61:8 —

Then I will ever sing in praise of your name
and fulfill my vows day after day.

It’s Palm Sunday! This week, we’ll look at the sixth part of a Lament in Psalms, Subsequent Praise. The prof of my Psalms class called this “Vow to Praise.” The lovely thing about this part is that the psalmists visualize how happy they’ll be after God answers and talk about how they will praise God.

Again, my acrostic for the parts of a Lament is:

A – Address to God
C – Complaint
C – Confession of Trust
E – Entreaty
S – Sureness of Help
S – Subsequent Praise

This final part almost sounds like bargaining with God – because they do make vows that they’ll sacrifice thank offerings when God answers their prayer. But I like to take the perspective that they are so sure of God’s help, they’re already visualizing how they will praise God when God comes through.

And that seems perfect for Palm Sunday. Because “Hosanna” means “Save us.” They hailed Jesus as the one who came in the name of the Lord to save. And we cry the same words in faith that it will happen – even though we haven’t seen it yet.

Yes, the crowd in Jesus’ day probably thought he was about to overthrow the Romans. But we repeat their cries, knowing and believing that Jesus saves and Jesus is the King – even though we haven’t seen it on earth yet.

The “Subsequent Praise” section is about having so much confidence in God that we praise God even before we see the answer. And the answer is so sure – maybe not the specifics, maybe not the timing – that we can already visualize how we will rejoice when the answer comes, and we can already thank God for hearing our prayer.

This section doesn’t appear in every single Lament in Psalms, and it’s often mixed together with the “Sureness of Help” section, not always the last part, but let me list some examples that fit.

Psalm 5:11–

But let all who take refuge in you be glad;
let them ever sing for joy.
Spread your protection over them,
that those who love your name may rejoice in you.

Psalm 13:6–

I will sing the LORD’s praise,
for he has been good to me.

Psalm 22:25–

From you comes the theme of my praise in the great assembly;
before those who fear you I will fulfill my vows.

I love these ones that are so sure God has heard, they start up the praise as soon as the request has been made with past tense.

Psalm 28:6-7–

Praise be to the LORD,
for he has heard my cry for mercy.
The LORD is my strength and my shield;
my heart trusts in him, and he helps me.
My heart leaps for joy,
and with my song I praise him.

Psalm 43:4–

Then I will go to the altar of God,
to God, my joy and my delight.
I will praise you with the lyre,
O God, my God.

From a Psalm of Confession, Psalm 51:13–

Then I will teach transgressors your ways,
so that sinners will turn back to you.

Psalm 56:12–

I am under vows to you, my God;
I will present my thank offerings to you.

Psalm 59:16–

But I will sing of your strength,
in the morning I will sing of your love;
for you are my fortress,
my refuge in times of trouble.

I’m going to stop there for tonight, but there are plenty more examples. When you read Psalms, notice how often the Laments end with praise or a promise to praise. I think they live out what Paul said later in Philippians 4:6–

Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.

The “with thanksgiving” part is built right into the form of the Lament.

And now, as usual, I’m going to pray an example lament – hoping you will try it, too. (And feel free to paste a lament into the comments!) My topic – my heart is just still so heavy that our country has sent people to death camps. And, well, I’ll put it, again, in the lament.

A Lament for Human Rights

Lord God hear my prayer,
listen to my cry.
I’m only one person,
but there are many more who feel this way,
and you’ve promised that when two or three gather in your name,
you are in the midst of them.
You’ve said that if we ask for bread,
you won’t give a stone.

Father, my heart is still heavy
that my own country has sent people to a death camp,
without hearings,
without warrants,
without evidence presented,
without any kind of sentence.
And my own country is revoking visas and green cards
again without hearings,
and apparently based on social media –
in a country where we used to have free speech.
And my own country is not allowing transgender people
to get passports under their correct name
or receive medical care
or serve in the military
or tell their own story.

Lord, this weekend I read not one but two children’s books
set during the Holocaust.
In both books, people didn’t leave Germany on time
and ended up dying.
Is this that time for transgender people?
For immigrants?
For Hispanics?
Is my own country replaying World War Two –
this time with the United States playing the villain?

Father, I do not understand,
I don’t begin to comprehend,
why you let World War Two happen,
where you were during the Holocaust.
But I do believe that you were present
with each one who suffered.
And I would like to think that humankind
learned a thing or two.
And I do trust that you will be with us
even if the worst happens,
that you will give us strength and guidance
to rise to the occasion,
to help the oppressed and stand against injustice.

But God, please act first!
Please let the US Constitution hold!
Let would-be oppressors be thwarted,
let propaganda be shown for what it is.
This time, let them fail to find informants
to send neighbors away to death camps.
Help humankind to do better this time
and stand for what’s right.
Help me to know what I can do,
how I can help.
May staying in America not be a tragic mistake
for transgender folks
or for immigrants
or visa holders.
And please set the prisoners free.

I always believe that justice wins in the end.
May we see it happen sooner this time.
May the people of America stop
any new Holocaust,
any new world war,
and may we again be the land of the free.
May the Bill of Rights apply
to everyone within our shores.
For you are a God of justice,
a God who cares for the fatherless and oppressed.

We look forward to praising your name
at disaster averted,
and having a joyous dance with our transgender friends
celebrating their beautiful lives.

Psalm 4:8–

In peace I will lie down and sleep,
for you alone, LORD,
make me dwell in safety.

It’s the fifth Sunday of Lent, and we’ll be looking at the fifth part of a Lament – Sureness of Help.

The form of a Lament is:

A – Address to God
C – Complaint
C – Confession of Trust
E – Entreaty
S – Sureness of Help
S – Subsequent Praise

I should clarify – I got the parts of a Lament from a Psalms class I took at Biola University in the 1980s, and I made up the acronym to remember the parts. The Laments in Psalms only follow this form loosely, but using this form is a great tool for writing your own laments.

And the last two parts are the loosest. Sometimes one or both of them doesn’t appear, and this isn’t necessarily the order. [In my Psalms class notes, I see that my prof called them “Words of Assurance” and “Vow to Praise.” I gave them S names.] Bottom line, at the end of a Lament, the psalmists generally give themselves a pep talk, reminding themselves that they do believe that God hears and answers.

Don’t believe me? Go through the book of Psalms and look at the ending verses of the individual Psalms. No matter how despairing the psalmist sounds at the beginning, the vast majority end on a hopeful note.

I know that typing out some examples will lift my spirit:

Psalm 3:8–

From the LORD comes deliverance.
May your blessing be on your people.

Psalm 5:12–

Surely, LORD, you bless the righteous;
you surround them with your favor as with a shield.

From a Psalm of Confession:
Psalm 6:9–

The LORD has heard my cry for mercy;
the LORD accepts my prayer.

Oo, I like this one for today:
Psalm 10:17-18–

You, LORD, hear the desire of the afflicted;
you encourage them, and you listen to their cry,
defending the fatherless and the oppressed,
so that mere earthly mortals
will never again strike terror.

Psalm 13:5–

But I trust in your unfailing love;
my heart rejoices in your salvation.

Here’s another from a Psalm of Confession:
Psalm 32:6-7–

Therefore let all the faithful pray to you
while you may be found;
surely the rising of the mighty waters
will not reach them.
You are my hiding place;
you will protect me from trouble
and surround me with songs of deliverance.

You can tell I haven’t gotten very far into the Laments, but I’m going to stop there for tonight.

The message of this part of a Lament: We can pray our troubles to God, and we know God hears.

As with the entreaty, the words of assurance in this part are a little general. God sees. God listens. God encourages. God protects. God blesses.

This isn’t a vending machine God, doing magic tricks if we say the right words, but we do believe that God hears and sees and has compassion on us. And after asking for God’s help is a good time to remember that we trust God to be with us.

And – let me write an example lament again. I’m writing these on the spot, hoping that my lack of eloquence will make you think, “I can do that!” Tonight the Sureness of Help section is good, because I was encouraged by the Hands Off protest I attended yesterday – and the many, many honks of support we got from passing cars, besides the many who came out to protest.

Though there are so many things to pray about, my heart is still heaviest about people abducted and sent to prison camps without any warrant or hearing. But I’ve been praying about that the last couple weeks.  This morning, I also heard a story about the atrocious way federal employees at HHS learned they were being put on administrative leave – lining up to enter the building and discovering whether their card worked or not. So I’m going to pray about that tonight, with all the other wrongs in the back of my mind as well.

A Lament for People Being Treated as Objects–

Lord, hear our prayer,
listen to our cry for help.

People are being treated as objects,
with years of public service discounted as nothing.
No rationale is given
and no recourse made available.
People’s lives and livelihoods are being snatched from them
with no rhyme or reason
or regard for the valuable work they do.
Proper procedures – designed to protect people
– are not being followed.
There’s no reason given for the public to believe
that there is any fraud, waste, or abuse
except on the part of the group doing the firing.

Lord, hear the cry
of those unjustly fired;
listen to the confusion and fear
of those who don’t know where to turn.
And help your people to also see
and speak up against injustice.

You, LORD, hear the desire of the afflicted;
you encourage them, and you listen to their cry,
defending the fatherless and the oppressed,
so that mere earthly mortals
will never again strike terror.

And thank you that people are beginning to see
the injustices being carried out
and people are beginning to speak out
and raise their voices.

When the oligarchy falls down –
as all governments ultimately do –
we will thank you, Lord,
and celebrate in the streets
and may we embrace anew
justice for the oppressed.
May we once again take in the tired and poor
and be a land of freedom and opportunity.

Okay, I don’t feel like it’s eloquent – but again, I hope you will give this form a try! I’d love to see your own examples in the comments!

Psalm 10:12-15–

Arise, LORD! Lift up your hand, O God.
Do not forget the helpless.
Why does the wicked man revile God?
Why does he say to himself,
“He won’t call me to account”?
But you, God, see the trouble of the afflicted;
you consider their grief and take it in hand.
The victims commit themselves to you;
you are the helper of the fatherless.
Break the arm of the wicked man;
call the evildoer to account for his wickedness
that would not otherwise be found out.

For this fourth Sunday of Lent, I’m looking at the fourth part of a Lament – the Entreaty, where the psalmist asks God to help.

As a review, here is the form most Laments in Psalms loosely follow:

A – Address to God
C – Complaint
C – Confession of Trust
E – Entreaty
S – Sureness of Help
S – Subsequent Praise

Something that has long struck me about the Entreaties I find in Psalms is that they are pretty general. While the psalmists get very specific in the complaint, describing their troubles, in the Entreaty, they ask God to act without really telling God what to do. (Though you can argue with me about “Break the arm of wicked men.” – I’m typing that rather enthusiastically, with a broken finger.)

I was told growing up to pray specific requests, so you know when God answers them. But isn’t that treating God a bit like a vending machine? Why not pray for God to deal with the situation – and trust God to figure out how to do that?

I mean, I’ve been praying, “Call the evildoer to account for his wickedness that would not otherwise be found out,” but I would never have dreamed of asking God to have someone add a journalist to their text chain about bombing civilians! There’s a lot more room for God to work!

Some more examples:

Psalm 6:4–

Turn, LORD, and deliver me;
save me because of your unfailing love.

Psalm 17:7-9–

Show the wonder of your great love,
you who save by your right hand
those who take refuge in you from their foes.
Keep me as the apple of your eye;
hide me in the shadow of your wings
from the wicked who are out to destroy me,
from my mortal enemies who surround me.

Psalm 22:19–

But you, LORD, do not be far from me.
You are my strength; come quickly to help me.

Here’s one to pray against people doing evil things, like depriving the vulnerable of their civil rights:
Psalm 28:4–

Repay them for their deeds
and for their evil work;
repay them for what their hands have done
and bring back on them what they deserve.

Psalm 35:22-25–

LORD, you have seen this; do not be silent.
Do not be far from me, LORD.
Awake, and rise to my defense!
Contend for me, my God and Lord.
Vindicate me in your righteousness, LORD my God;
do not let them gloat over me.
Do not let them think, “Aha! Just what we wanted!”
or say, “We have swallowed him up.”

Some are very poetic and inspiring. I love this one:
Psalm 43:3–

Send me your light and your faithful care,
let them lead me;
let them bring me to your holy mountain,
to the place where you dwell.

This Psalm of Confession has a beautiful one:
Psalm 51:7-12–

Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean;
wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
Let me hear joy and gladness;
let the bones you have crushed rejoice.
Hide your face from my sins
and blot out all my iniquity.
Create in me a pure heart, O God,
and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
Do not cast me from your presence
or take your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of your salvation
and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.

And I’m going to stop there for tonight. The Entreaty is the easiest part to find in the Laments – the part where the psalmist asks God to do something. Watch for this as you read Psalms.

And now, as I do each week, I’m going to pray a sample lament, using the six parts as prompts. My hope is that you will try this at home. (And I’d love to have some pasted into the comments!)

Still on my heart very much are people being abducted off the street without a warrant, their Constitutional rights stripped from them. (And there’s nothing in our Constitution that says the Bill of Rights is only for citizens.) So tonight’s lament is for them.

Lord God, hear our prayer,
listen to our cry.
We come to before you tonight
about vulnerable people
being abducted off the street
about people being seized by men in hoodies and masks
without a warrant,
without a hearing,
without a phone call,
without notice to family,
without any kind of due process,
without any regard for human rights.
We also pray about tourists put into detention
if someone doesn’t like what they find on their phone.
They are imprisoned,
deprived of medicine,
deprived of sleep,
treated as less than human,
deprived of any rights.
Lord, you see the sparrow fall.
You see when vulnerable people are wronged.
Lord, send forth your light and your faithful care;
let them know that you are near.
Don’t let the secret police continue to terrorize;
call them to account, Lord God!
Father, we know that evil doesn’t win in the end.
Help us to learn from this
and root out the injustice built into our system.
We know that you are a God of justice;
may we hear the cries of joy when prisoners are released.
Lord, we’ll never again take for granted
that America is a refuge for the tired and poor and the huddled masses learning to be free.
May we celebrate every immigrant we meet
and look forward to again being a place of refuge.

Okay, that’s my offering for tonight. I’m having a harder time with the “Subsequent Praise” section when it’s harder for me to imagine the resolution happening soon. But that’s part of the power of the Lament – imagining our joy after God works. And we’ll talk about that in a couple weeks. For now, I’ll keep trying to imagine an America that people want to immigrate to again.

Psalm 3:3-6–

But you, LORD, are a shield around me,
my glory, the One who lifts my head high.
I call out to the LORD,
and he answers me from his holy mountain.
I lie down and sleep;
I wake again, because the LORD sustains me.
I will not fear though tens of thousands
assail me on every side.

For the third Sunday of Lent in my Laments for Lent series, we’re looking at the third part of the Lament, the Confession of Trust.

Here again is the acronym I made for the parts of a Lament in Psalms:

A – Address to God
C – Complaint
C – Confession of Trust
E – Entreaty
S – Sureness of Help
S – Subsequent Praise

It doesn’t surprise anyone that Laments contain a Complaint. But right after the Complaint, or sometimes in the middle of the Complaint, it’s as if the psalmists step back, take a deep breath, and remind themselves they really do trust God, and there’s a reason they’re coming to God in prayer.

These verses are beautiful expressions of trust – coming in the midst of deep trouble.

Here are a few more examples:

Psalm 143:5-6–

I remember the days of long ago;
I meditate on all your works
and consider what your hands have done.
I spread out my hands to you;
I thirst for you like a parched land.

Psalm 74 is a group Lament from the nation of Israel. First it talks about how the nation has been ravaged and prophets are silent, and then we get this passage:

Psalm 74:12-17–

But God is my King from long ago
he brings salvation on the earth.
It was you who split open the sea by your power;
you broke the heads of the monster in the waters.
It was you who crushed the heads of Leviathan
and gave it as food to the creatures of the desert.
It was you who opened up springs and streams;
you dried up the ever-flowing rivers.
The day is yours, and yours also the night;
you established the sun and moon.
It was you who set all the boundaries of the earth;
you made both summer and winter.

Psalm 42 and 43 make a Lament together, and the Confession of Trust is a repeated refrain:

Psalm 42:5 & 11 and 43:5—

Why, my soul, are you downcast?
Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
For I will yet praise him,
My Savior and my God.

Another comforting one:
Psalm 56:3-4—

When I am afraid, I put my trust in you.
In God, whose word I praise –
In God I trust and am not afraid.
What can mere mortals do to me?

And I’ll finish with a simple one:
Psalm 54:4—

Surely God is my help;
The Lord is the one who sustains me.

Again, not every Lament in Psalms has every part, sometimes the parts merge together, and sometimes they’re in a different order or parts are split up (the most common way having some more of the Complaint after a Confession of Trust). But you will find a theme that even in a hard time, after pouring out their hearts about their troubles, psalmists will remind themselves of God’s faithfulness and that they really do trust God – when they stop to think about it.

And that’s what I’d like to get out of the Laments this week. Don’t be afraid to pour out your heart to God in Complaint – but also take a minute and remember God’s faithfulness. Do you trust God? Take a moment to express that. It will calm your heart and help you be ready for the Entreaty – asking God to act.

As always, my hope is that you’ll try this form in your own prayers, so I’ll offer an example.

This week, I’m still thinking about politics and the horror that my own government is grabbing people without a trial or a warrant or any kind of hearing and sending them to El Salvador to be imprisoned and tortured, without a call to a lawyer or any notification of their loved ones. I’m going to pray for those people, made in God’s image, that this evil would stop.

Lord, hear our prayer,
and listen to our cry.

Humans, made in your image,
with families and loved ones
maybe some criminals, but maybe not,
maybe some gang members, but maybe not,
maybe people seeking a safer home,
maybe people looking for a better life,
maybe people here legally,
maybe people whose legal status was revoked–
but we don’t know any of it,
because they’ve been abducted in secret
with no warrant,
with no hearing,
with no trial,
with no due process of any kind,
with no regard for their human rights.

And they’re powerless to stop it;
and we feel powerless to stop it, too.
And a judge tried to stop it –
but is he powerless, too?

Father, if you see a sparrow fall
and know the number of hairs on each of our heads,
then you know the name of each one imprisoned
and you know every heart’s anguish and hear their cries.

O Lord, please act!
Please work in the hearts of your children
not to harden their hearts
because a politician told them to.
Show us how to speak;
show us how to act
to be able to stand against injustice
and bring the powerful to account.

Lord, I look forward to seeing your hand at work,
to seeing justice win victories large and small.
(May that justice come sooner rather than later.)

And may I remember to praise you after each victory, big or small,
and look forward to the day when the leaves of the tree of life
will bring healing to all the nations.
Even so, bring that healing, Lord.

[Forgive me, but this picture of a heron on a gray day suits my mood, which fits the Complaint part of a Lament.]

Psalm 55:4-8–

My heart is in anguish within me;
the terrors of death have fallen on me.
Fear and trembling have beset me;
horror has overwhelmed me.
I said, “Oh, that I had the wings of a dove!
I would fly away and be at rest.
I would flee far away and stay in the desert;
I would hurry to my place of shelter,
far from the tempest and storm.”

For the second Sunday of Lent in my Laments for Lent series, we’re looking at the second part of a Lament, the Complaint.

Here again is my acronym for the parts of a Lament:
A – Address to God
C – Complaint
C – Confession of Trust
E – Entreaty
S – Sureness of Help
S – Subsequent Praise

You’ll find the form is very loose for Laments in Psalms – but what they all have in common is the Complaint.

The Complaint usually comes after the Address to God, but sometimes the psalmist jumps right into the Complaint. Some that begin with questions combine the Address to God with the Complaint:

Psalm 13:1-2–

How long, LORD? Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me?
How long must I wrestle with my thoughts
and day after day have sorrow in my heart?
How long will my enemy triumph over me?

The passage I quoted at the top of this post is only a small part of the Complaint from Psalm 55. The psalmist weaves a Complaint through all the other parts, coming back to it more than once.

And the main way the Psalms of Repentance are different from the Laments is in the Complaint section. In these Psalms, instead of the Complaint, there’s a Confession of Sin – now the trouble the psalmist is in is their own fault.

Here’s an example from a beautiful Psalm of Repentance:

Psalm 51:3-5–

For I know my transgressions
and my sin is always before me.
Against you, you only, have I sinned
and done what is evil in your sight;
so you are right in your verdict
and justified when you judge.
Surely I was sinful at birth
sinful from the time my mother conceived me.

As gloomy as the Complaints sound when taken out of the rest of the Laments – they inspire me.

Because the Complaints in Laments decisively give the lie to the idea that we can only bring a happy face when we come before God, that acknowledging negative emotions means we’re lacking in trust.

No! If the psalmists can bring such gloom to God, then surely I can tell the Lord how I really feel.

It’s tricky to talk about this part of Laments, because most of the Complaint sections are not short. The psalmists really do tend to go on with this part. But you know what? That means that we can too, if that’s what we need. We can open our hearts and pour it all out to the Lord.

Here’s a list of Psalms I categorized as Laments: Psalms 3, 4, 5, 10, 12, 13, 17, 22, 28, 35, 42, 43, 54, 55, 56, 59, 60, 61, 64, 70, 74, 79, 80, 83, 85, 86, 88, 102, 109, 137, 140, 142, and 143.

And the Psalms of Repentance: Psalms 6, 32, 38, 41, 51, 69, and 130.

So you see there are many to choose from. Read a few and notice the Complaint sections. Some of them sound a little whiny! But we’re allowed to be whiny to God!

And again, though the psalmists don’t precisely follow the form I’ve given for a Lament, they loosely do. But it makes a good list for us to follow in our prayers – no, not necessarily every time, but as a helpful tool when you have something to lament.

And again, my main goal in writing my book and these posts is to get others to try using these patterns from Psalms in their own prayers.

And each week I’ll give you a sample lament.

Today, though what I feel most grumpy about is my broken pinky finger, my heart is heavy because of the news of what our leaders are doing. My plan in writing an example psalm was to focus on current issues from today, and pull in some actual Complaints from the Laments in Psalms. But as I started doing that, Psalm 10 ended up hijacking the whole thing.

But I figure that’s all good. Another kind of example. I’ll leave in my beginning so you know what I’m thinking about when I use the words of the Psalm.

I do know that as soon as tomorrow, there will be more issues heavy on my heart, so I’m going to call this example:

A Lament for March 16, 2025:

Lord, I lift my voice to you;
I write this lament to you
and ask that you listen to my prayer
and hear my cry.

Lord, it seems that no one can stop the people in charge –
an urgent court order was ignored.
People are being disappeared and deported
without a warrant
and without due process.

“Not a word from their mouths can be trusted;
their heart is filled with malice.
Their throat is an open grave;
with their tongues they tell lies.” [Psalm 5]

[And now from Psalm 10:]
“In his arrogance the wicked man hunts down the weak,
who are caught in the schemes he devises.
He boasts about the cravings of his heart;
he blesses the greedy and reviles the LORD.
In his pride the wicked man does not seek him;
in all his thoughts there is no room for God.
His ways are always prosperous;
your laws are rejected by him;
he sneers at all his enemies.
He says to himself, “Nothing will ever shake me.”
He swears, “No one will ever do me harm.”

His mouth is full of lies and threats;
trouble and evil are under his tongue.
He lies in wait near the villages;
from ambush he murders the innocent.
His eyes watch in secret for his victims;
like a lion in cover he lies in wait.
He lies in wait to catch the helpless;
he catches the helpless and drags them off in his net.
His victims are crushed, they collapse;
they fall under his strength.
He says to himself, “God will never notice;
he covers his face and never sees.”

Arise, LORD! Lift up your hand, O God!
Do not forget the helpless.
Why does the wicked man revile God?
Why does he say to himself,
“He won’t call me to account”?
But you, God, see the trouble of the afflicted;
you consider their grief and take it in hand.
The victims commit themselves to you;
you are the helper of the fatherless.
Break the arm of the wicked man;
call the evildoer to account for his wickedness
that would not otherwise be found out.
. . .
You, LORD, hear the desire of the afflicted;
you encourage them, and you listen to their cry,
defending the fatherless and the oppressed,
so that mere earthly mortals
will never again strike terror.”

Lord God, you’ve told us not to rejoice
when our personal enemy stumbles,
but may we live to see
the oppressor brought low,
and the greedy tyrant thwarted,
and may our hearts be glad
and our tongues praise you.

You all know who I’m talking about. See how applicable Psalms can be? But something I like about Psalms is they show us we don’t have to hold back when praying against evil – but they also remind us that God is bigger. I do believe that Good will win in the end – I only hope it will be sooner rather than later.

And I hope that God’s people are praying for justice. I hope that my small contribution encourages you to do so.

Psalm 5:1-3–

Listen to my words, LORD,
consider my lament.
Hear my cry for help,
my King and my God,
for to you I pray.

In the morning, LORD, you hear my voice;
in the morning I lay my requests before you
and wait expectantly.

I’m writing a series Laments for Lent, and each week I will talk about one part of a Lament found in Psalms. I do encourage you to read the entire Psalm – we’re going to focus on one part.

Here’s an acronym for the form of a Lament:
A – Address to God
C – Complaint
C – Confession of Trust
E – Entreaty
S – Sureness of Help
S – Subsequent Praise

First, let me say that this is a very loose form – with few of the Laments having all the parts. However, you will find most of the parts in most of the Laments, and usually in that general order. More important is that the form makes a nice pattern for us to use in our prayers.

This week, we’re looking at the first part of most Laments – the Address to God.

This beginning doesn’t happen in all the Laments – some go straight to the Complaint. And you will find similar words in Psalms of other types – but this is a common beginning to these Laments where the psalmists are turning to God in a time of trouble.

The Address to God is what it says it is – telling God you’re here and asking God to hear your prayer. I love the one above from Psalm 5, especially because those are the words of a chorus I’ve sung since high school.

And when better to come to God than in a time of trouble? As the season of Lent begins, may we purpose in our hearts that the Lord will hear our voice in the morning.

Here are some more beginnings of Laments. Notice the parallelism we talked about last time.

Psalm 88:1-2–

LORD, you are the God who saves me;
day and night I cry out to you.
May my prayer come before you;
turn your ear to my cry.

Psalm 102:1-2–

Hear my prayer, Lord;
let my cry for help come to you.
Do not hide your face from me
when I am in distress.
Turn your ear to me;
when I call, answer me quickly.

[This is the point in writing this post where I broke my left pinky finger and typing got harder. I may rethink this blog series, but want to at least finish this post.]

Psalms of Repentance have a similar form to Laments, but their address to God usually starts right off asking for mercy.

Psalm 51:1-3–

Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your unfailing love;
according to your great compassion,
blot out my transgressions.
Wash away all my iniquity
and cleanse me from my sin.

Psalm 38:1–

Lord, do not rebuke me in your anger
or discipline me in your wrath.

And then there are the Laments that address God with a question. I go back and forth between thinking they just went straight to the Complaint and thinking yes, this is a different kind of Address to God.

Psalm 10:1–

Why, Lord, do you stand far off?
Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?

Psalm 13:1–

How long, Lord? Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me?

And of course we can’t leave out this one:
Psalm 22:1–

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from saving me,
so far from my cries of anguish?

So my thoughts about this part of the Lament are these:
We can come before God.
We can come asking for mercy when we don’t feel like we deserve God’s favor.
We can even come to God with our angry questions. (And be sure to read the rest of those Psalms – they don’t end angry.)

Myself, I’ve gotten a habit of starting my prayers with “Dear Heavenly Father…” Think about mixing it up a little and starting your prayers with an Address to God like one of the ones above

For an example lament this week, even though I have plenty of questions about the political situation, I’m going to go petty this time with a smaller concern, trying to make the point that we can bring anything to God.

Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your unfailing love.

Father, I feel so foolish.
I should have paid more attention.
I tripped on a crack in the sidewalk
and broke my left pinky finger.
Now it hurts to type,
so my plans for a blog series for Lent,
catching up on posting reviews,
posting Sonderbooks25
are going to be tougher.
For that matter, even washing dishes
and getting dressed
has become tougher.
And who am I to complain
when literally any other finger
would have been much worse?

But Lord Christ, I believe that you have lessons for me
when I fall on my face.
And I know you have compassion.
You never forgot that I am dust
and fallible –
but I have trouble remembering
and have now been reminded.

Jesus, grant me your peace.
Holy Spirit grant me healing and grace.
I suspect that dealing with my new limitations
will be tougher for me than dealing with pain.
Grant me that wisdom
and a sense of humor
and the joy of letting myself off the hook
for getting quite so much done.

Lord, I learned that my Mother once broke her left pinky finger, too.
And she said you don’t really appreciate your left pinky finger
until it’s hurting.
Just like you pointed out
that every member of the body of Christ
is important.
May I play my small part
and appreciate the other members of the body
who help me out when I’m hurting.

And may I remember,
when the splint comes off,
to thank you for my left pinky finger
and wiggle it with joy!

The above is offered as evidence that when you use the Lament form, the result doesn’t have to be profound!

I’m hoping next week to talk about Part 2 – the Complaint.

Psalm 103:8-18 (New International Version):

The LORD is compassionate and gracious,
slow to anger, abounding in love.
He will not always accuse,
nor will he harbor his anger forever;
he does not treat us as our sins deserve
or repay us according to our iniquities.
For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is his love for those who fear him;
as far as the east is from the west,
so far has he removed our transgressions from us.

As a father has compassion on his children,
so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him;
for he knows how we are formed,
he remembers that we are dust.
The life of mortals is like grass,
they flourish like a flower of the field;
the wind blows over it and it is gone,
and its place remembers it no more.
But from everlasting to everlasting
the Lord’s love is with those who fear him,
and his righteousness with their children’s children —
with those who keep his covenant
and remember to obey his precepts.

Okay, I’m cheating a little here. I’m beginning a series called Laments for Lent (Here’s my Intro post.) – and I’m beginning with Psalm 103, which is not a Lament, but a Psalm of Praise.

But this is my post for Ash Wednesday. (Yes, I know it’s happening Wednesday and Lent hasn’t started yet – but on Wednesday I’ll be going straight from work to singing in the choir for an Ash Wednesday service, so I thought I’d go ahead and post today.) And on Ash Wednesday, we think about how we came from dust and will return to dust. We also examine ourselves and repent of our sins.

And I want to encourage everyone: The Lord remembers that we are dust. We’re not surprising God with our failures and foibles. The Lord has compassion on us.

One of my favorite writers is the Irish mystic Lorna Byrne, and she says that in God’s eyes, we all are children. This matches what Psalm 103 teaches. When a toddler learning to walk stumbles, do good parents scold and berate them? No! God is a Father who has compassion on us, with love higher than the heavens.

I’m also using this passage as an introduction to Psalms. For the rest of Lent, I’m going to be looking at Laments and Psalms of Confession, but first let me point out the parallelism in Psalms. Hebrew poetry, rather than rhyming, takes the form of parallelism – a wonderfully translatable form. And yes, there are nuances in the original language, but speaking generally, ideas are repeated and lines mirror each other. Look at the parallelism in these lines:

He will not always accuse;
nor will he harbor his anger forever;
he does not treat us as our sins deserve
or repay us according to our iniquities.

In the next verses, two lines are reflected at a time:

For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is his love for those who fear him;
as far as the east is from the west,
so far has he removed our transgressions from us.

Psalm 103 became my favorite 20 years ago after I found out my then-husband was seeing another woman behind my back. (I didn’t know then that it was actually an affair.) You’d think that would have filled him with shame, and it probably did. But his reaction was to tell me all the ways I was a terrible wife and he was “forced” to look elsewhere for “friendship.” And that I did not deserve his love or affection.

And the sad part of the story is that I bought it. Mind you, almost all his accusations were based in truth – he listed off things I’d done or said in anger over 18 years of marriage. Never mind if I hadn’t intended them as harsh as the way they’d come out. Never mind if I’d apologized. I was told that I was a terrible person and not even a good friend to my husband and didn’t deserve love.

And I was used to believing my husband. I thought he loved me. I knew I was a lovable person because he loved me. And he hadn’t clued me in on how hurt he was by the things I’d done and said until it all came out after I found out about him seeing this “friend” behind my back.  So I believed him that my terrible actions and words had destroyed my own marriage and hurt the one I loved most.

But in my devastation, thank God I came across this passage.

God will not always accuse.
The Lord will not harbor his anger forever.

I was told I didn’t deserve love. Well,
the Lord does not treat me as my sins deserve.

And now, twenty years later, happily single – sometimes I see friends agonizing over their own shortcomings. It seems like they think God is like my ex-husband, parceling out love only if we deserve it.

But no, God is like a good Father, having compassion on God’s children far greater than an earthly parent’s love.

And the Lord remembers that we are dust. Our mistakes don’t surprise God the way they do us. They don’t make God lash out in anger. Instead, like a Father or like a Mother, the Lord shows us compassion and helps us do better.

So those are my thoughts for Ash Wednesday and receiving the ashes.

In the upcoming series, for the remaining six Sundays of Lent plus Easter, I’m going to look at each of the parts of a Lament. I’ve made an acronym to help remember them:

A – Address to God
C – Complaint
C – Confession of Trust
E – Entreaty
S – Sureness of Help
S – Subsequent Praise

I also – always – am about encouraging folks to write their own psalms. For this introductory week, think about trying a little parallelism in your prayers. Pray a request, and then think of another way to say it. If nothing else, it helps slow things down and makes your prayer more meditative.

I’m going to close by writing a short sample lament. Wanting to keep it short, I will not go into as much detail as many of the Psalms do. I’m thinking of all my neighbors and friends who are federal employees facing chaos, so here’s a lament for them, including the seven parts.

Lord, I come before you
as a child to a compassionate parent.
I know that you hear;
I believe that you listen.

Lord, our government is in chaos;
norms and rules are being ignored.
People are losing their jobs willy-nilly,
with no notice
with no severance
with no chance to prepare.
Lives are being upended
and people don’t know where to turn.
Even worse is all the good work
being disregarded and denigrated
as if hard work serving others
is all a grift to steal from the very people they serve.

Father, we do trust you.
If you see the sparrow fall,
then you know about each life
facing the difficulties of job loss
or the withdrawal of benefits
depended on to get out of a hard space.

Lord, we ask you to act!
We ask you to work for justice!
Help those who have been wrongfully terminated,
those who have been abandoned,
those wrongfully detained and deported,
and all others harmed by recent actions.

Christ, there’s so much,
we don’t even know how to respond.
Send your Spirit and show us
what we can do
to speed the cause of justice,
to help the oppressed,
to call the mighty to account,
to aid the destitute.

Lord, the arc of the universe
does bend toward justice;
the path of history
does show oppressors losing.

We will rejoice with each victory,
big or small.
And we will watch to see
all the ways you will bring triumph out of loss.

May it be so, Lord. Thank you that though we came from dust, your compassion for us never fails.

The season of Lent is almost here.

And this year it’s coming at a rough time in northern Virginia. A large proportion of the population here is federal workers and federal contractors. And they’re suddenly losing their jobs, or at the very least losing their coworkers. Many who aren’t in that category themselves have family members who are. Every single person who lives in this area knows people affected by this chaos and turmoil.

I didn’t grow up in churches that observed Lent, but even the more conservative church I joined eighteen years ago had an Ash Wednesday service, and now it’s an important part of services at the United Methodist Church I attend. As I understand it, Lent is a time of self-reflection and confession in preparation for Easter.

And it seems like a good time to think about Laments.

I wrote a book called Praying with the Psalmists that takes the reader through the entire book of Psalms in 12 weeks. My full manuscript for that book is currently being considered by an agent – so instead of dithering and spinning my wheels as to what she might be thinking about it, I’ve decided to start on my next book. And I decided a wonderful follow-up will be Laments for Lent. [I know that title won’t necessarily attract readers – most people aren’t as enamored with Laments as I am. So I’m trying to come up with a good subtitle – if you have any ideas, post them in the comments!]

I love the Laments in Psalms, which may come as a surprise to folks not familiar with them. Here’s the thing: Laments prove that God can handle our pain. Laments prove that we don’t have to always wear a happy face when we approach God in prayer.

But besides that, Laments are surprisingly faith-building, surprisingly full of trust. The Laments in Scripture follow a specific form – and the form itself includes reminders that, though times are hard, we really do trust God. In fact, a large number finish off by visualizing how happy they’re going to be when God acts.

So – Laments seem all the more appropriate for this time we find ourselves in. So much is going wrong, it’s hard to keep track of it all. And going through the parts of a Lament during this Lenten season I hope will help me bring the troubles before God and encourage me at the same time. And I hope that sharing these thoughts will help others, too.

My plan for the book Laments for Lent is a smaller scope than Praying with the Psalmists. I’m thinking it will be a series of daily devotionals for the 40 days of Lent plus Sundays, and each day we’ll look at one of the Laments or Psalms of Confession. And each week we’ll look at a different part of a Lament and think about opening our own hearts to God.

For the blog series, I’m not going to post daily, but I would like to post weekly. I’m thinking sort of a rough draft/initial plan for what the book will be about, sketching out the themes I’ll hit with each week’s devotionals. I’m going to try to post every Sunday during Lent, and by the end I should have an idea if I’ve really got enough to say for a book. I’m also hoping I’ll get plenty of comments and feedback to direct that project.

And this introductory post has gotten longer than I intended – I was going to lead right into an Ash Wednesday post. But why don’t I leave this as an introduction and I’ll come back for Ash Wednesday, beginning with words from Psalms.