[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.