Category: Laments for Lent

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.