{"id":14192,"date":"2025-04-06T22:02:02","date_gmt":"2025-04-07T02:02:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/?p=14192"},"modified":"2025-08-12T22:56:43","modified_gmt":"2025-08-13T02:56:43","slug":"laments-for-lent-sureness-of-help","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/?p=14192","title":{"rendered":"Laments for Lent – Sureness of Help"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Psalm 4:8–<\/p>\n

In peace I will lie down and sleep,
\nfor you alone, LORD,
\nmake me dwell in safety.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It’s the fifth Sunday of Lent, and we’ll be looking at the fifth part of a Lament – Sureness of Help.<\/p>\n

The form of a Lament is:<\/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

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.<\/p>\n

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<\/em> believe that God hears and answers.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

I know that typing out some examples will lift my spirit:<\/p>\n

Psalm 3:8–<\/p>\n

From the LORD comes deliverance.
\nMay your blessing be on your people.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Psalm 5:12–<\/p>\n

Surely, LORD, you bless the righteous;
\nyou surround them with your favor as with a shield.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

From a Psalm of Confession:
\nPsalm 6:9–<\/p>\n

The LORD has heard my cry for mercy;
\nthe LORD accepts my prayer.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Oo, I like this one for today:
\nPsalm 10:17-18–<\/p>\n

You, LORD, hear the desire of the afflicted;
\nyou encourage them, and you listen to their cry,
\ndefending the fatherless and the oppressed,
\nso that mere earthly mortals
\nwill never again strike terror.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Psalm 13:5–<\/p>\n

But I trust in your unfailing love;
\nmy heart rejoices in your salvation.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Here’s another from a Psalm of Confession:
\nPsalm 32:6-7–<\/p>\n

Therefore let all the faithful pray to you
\nwhile you may be found;
\nsurely the rising of the mighty waters
\nwill not reach them.
\nYou are my hiding place;
\nyou will protect me from trouble
\nand surround me with songs of deliverance.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

You can tell I haven’t gotten very far into the Laments, but I’m going to stop there for tonight.<\/p>\n

The message of this part of a Lament: We can pray our troubles to God, and we know God hears.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n

A Lament for People Being Treated as Objects–<\/p>\n

Lord, hear our prayer,
\nlisten to our cry for help.<\/p>\n

People are being treated as objects,
\nwith years of public service discounted as nothing.
\nNo rationale is given
\nand no recourse made available.
\nPeople’s lives and livelihoods are being snatched from them
\nwith no rhyme or reason
\nor regard for the valuable work they do.
\nProper procedures – designed to protect people
\n– are not being followed.
\nThere’s no reason given for the public to believe
\nthat there is any fraud, waste, or abuse
\nexcept on the part of the group doing the firing.<\/p>\n

Lord, hear the cry
\nof those unjustly fired;
\nlisten to the confusion and fear
\nof those who don’t know where to turn.
\nAnd help your people to also see
\nand speak up against injustice.<\/p>\n

You, LORD, hear the desire of the afflicted;
\nyou encourage them, and you listen to their cry,
\ndefending the fatherless and the oppressed,
\nso that mere earthly mortals
\nwill never again strike terror.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And thank you that people are beginning to see
\nthe injustices being carried out
\nand people are beginning to speak out
\nand raise their voices.<\/p>\n

When the oligarchy falls down –
\nas all governments ultimately do –
\nwe will thank you, Lord,
\nand celebrate in the streets
\nand may we embrace anew
\njustice for the oppressed.
\nMay we once again take in the tired and poor
\nand be a land of freedom and opportunity.<\/p>\n

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!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 \u2013 Address to God C \u2013 Complaint C […]<\/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-14192","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\/14192","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=14192"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14192\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14196,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14192\/revisions\/14196"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}