{"id":14187,"date":"2025-03-30T22:08:50","date_gmt":"2025-03-31T02:08:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/?p=14187"},"modified":"2025-08-12T22:57:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-13T02:57:10","slug":"laments-for-lent-entreaty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/?p=14187","title":{"rendered":"Laments for Lent – Entreaty"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Psalm 10:12-15–<\/p>\n

Arise, LORD! Lift up your hand, O God.
\nDo not forget the helpless.
\nWhy does the wicked man revile God?
\nWhy does he say to himself,
\n“He won’t call me to account”?
\nBut you, God, see the trouble of the afflicted;
\nyou consider their grief and take it in hand.
\nThe victims commit themselves to you;
\nyou are the helper of the fatherless.
\nBreak the arm of the wicked man;
\ncall the evildoer to account for his wickedness
\nthat would not otherwise be found out.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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.<\/p>\n

As a review, here is the form most Laments in Psalms loosely follow:<\/p>\n

A \u2013 Address to God
\nC \u2013 Complaint
\nC \u2013 Confession of Trust
\nE \u2013 Entreaty
\nS \u2013 Sureness of Help
\nS \u2013 Subsequent Praise<\/p>\n

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.)<\/p>\n

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?<\/p>\n

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!<\/p>\n

Some more examples:<\/p>\n

Psalm 6:4–<\/p>\n

Turn, LORD, and deliver me;
\nsave me because of your unfailing love.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Psalm 17:7-9–<\/p>\n

Show the wonder of your great love,
\nyou who save by your right hand
\nthose who take refuge in you from their foes.
\nKeep me as the apple of your eye;
\nhide me in the shadow of your wings
\nfrom the wicked who are out to destroy me,
\nfrom my mortal enemies who surround me.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Psalm 22:19–<\/p>\n

But you, LORD, do not be far from me.
\nYou are my strength; come quickly to help me.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Here’s one to pray against people doing evil things, like depriving the vulnerable of their civil rights:
\nPsalm 28:4–<\/p>\n

Repay them for their deeds
\nand for their evil work;
\nrepay them for what their hands have done
\nand bring back on them what they deserve.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Psalm 35:22-25–<\/p>\n

LORD, you have seen this; do not be silent.
\nDo not be far from me, LORD.
\nAwake, and rise to my defense!
\nContend for me, my God and Lord.
\nVindicate me in your righteousness, LORD my God;
\ndo not let them gloat over me.
\nDo not let them think, “Aha! Just what we wanted!”
\nor say, “We have swallowed him up.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Some are very poetic and inspiring. I love this one:
\nPsalm 43:3–<\/p>\n

Send me your light and your faithful care,
\nlet them lead me;
\nlet them bring me to your holy mountain,
\nto the place where you dwell.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This Psalm of Confession has a beautiful one:
\nPsalm 51:7-12–<\/p>\n

Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean;
\nwash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
\nLet me hear joy and gladness;
\nlet the bones you have crushed rejoice.
\nHide your face from my sins
\nand blot out all my iniquity.
\nCreate in me a pure heart, O God,
\nand renew a steadfast spirit within me.
\nDo not cast me from your presence
\nor take your Holy Spirit from me.
\nRestore to me the joy of your salvation
\nand grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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!)<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Lord God, hear our prayer,
\nlisten to our cry.
\nWe come to before you tonight
\nabout vulnerable people
\nbeing abducted off the street
\nabout people being seized by men in hoodies and masks
\nwithout a warrant,
\nwithout a hearing,
\nwithout a phone call,
\nwithout notice to family,
\nwithout any kind of due process,
\nwithout any regard for human rights.
\nWe also pray about tourists put into detention
\nif someone doesn’t like what they find on their phone.
\nThey are imprisoned,
\ndeprived of medicine,
\ndeprived of sleep,
\ntreated as less than human,
\ndeprived of any rights.
\nLord, you see the sparrow fall.
\nYou see when vulnerable people are wronged.
\nLord, send forth your light and your faithful care;
\nlet them know that you are near.
\nDon’t let the secret police continue to terrorize;
\ncall them to account, Lord God!
\nFather, we know that evil doesn’t win in the end.
\nHelp us to learn from this
\nand root out the injustice built into our system.
\nWe know that you are a God of justice;
\nmay we hear the cries of joy when prisoners are released.
\nLord, we’ll never again take for granted
\nthat America is a refuge for the tired and poor and the huddled masses learning to be free.
\nMay we celebrate every immigrant we meet
\nand look forward to again being a place of refuge.<\/p>\n

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<\/em> to immigrate to again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65,62,55],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14187","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-laments","category-laments-for-lent","category-praying-with-the-psalmists"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14187","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14187"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14187\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14191,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14187\/revisions\/14191"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}