{"id":14198,"date":"2025-04-13T22:11:39","date_gmt":"2025-04-14T02:11:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/?p=14198"},"modified":"2025-08-12T22:56:14","modified_gmt":"2025-08-13T02:56:14","slug":"laments-for-lent-subsequent-praise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/?p=14198","title":{"rendered":"Laments for Lent – Subsequent Praise"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Psalm 61:8 —<\/p>\n

Then I will ever sing in praise of your name
\nand fulfill my vows day after day.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Again, my acrostic for the parts 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

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Psalm 5:11–<\/p>\n

But let all who take refuge in you be glad;
\nlet them ever sing for joy.
\nSpread your protection over them,
\nthat those who love your name may rejoice in you.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Psalm 13:6–<\/p>\n

I will sing the LORD’s praise,
\nfor he has been good to me.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Psalm 22:25–<\/p>\n

From you comes the theme of my praise in the great assembly;
\nbefore those who fear you I will fulfill my vows.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Psalm 28:6-7–<\/p>\n

Praise be to the LORD,
\nfor he has heard my cry for mercy.
\nThe LORD is my strength and my shield;
\nmy heart trusts in him, and he helps me.
\nMy heart leaps for joy,
\nand with my song I praise him.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Psalm 43:4–<\/p>\n

Then I will go to the altar of God,
\nto God, my joy and my delight.
\nI will praise you with the lyre,
\nO God, my God.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

From a Psalm of Confession, Psalm 51:13–<\/p>\n

Then I will teach transgressors your ways,
\nso that sinners will turn back to you.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Psalm 56:12–<\/p>\n

I am under vows to you, my God;
\nI will present my thank offerings to you.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Psalm 59:16–<\/p>\n

But I will sing of your strength,
\nin the morning I will sing of your love;
\nfor you are my fortress,
\nmy refuge in times of trouble.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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–<\/p>\n

Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The “with thanksgiving” part is built right into the form of the Lament.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

A Lament for Human Rights<\/p>\n

Lord God hear my prayer,
\nlisten to my cry.
\nI’m only one person,
\nbut there are many more who feel this way,
\nand you’ve promised that when two or three gather in your name,
\nyou are in the midst of them.
\nYou’ve said that if we ask for bread,
\nyou won’t give a stone.<\/p>\n

Father, my heart is still heavy
\nthat my own country has sent people to a death camp,
\nwithout hearings,
\nwithout warrants,
\nwithout evidence presented,
\nwithout any kind of sentence.
\nAnd my own country is revoking visas and green cards
\nagain without hearings,
\nand apparently based on social media –
\nin a country where we used to have free speech.
\nAnd my own country is not allowing transgender people
\nto get passports under their correct name
\nor receive medical care
\nor serve in the military
\nor tell their own story.<\/p>\n

Lord, this weekend I read not one but two children’s books
\nset during the Holocaust.
\nIn both books, people didn’t leave Germany on time
\nand ended up dying.
\nIs this that time for transgender people?
\nFor immigrants?
\nFor Hispanics?
\nIs my own country replaying World War Two –
\nthis time with the United States playing the villain?<\/p>\n

Father, I do not understand,
\nI don’t begin to comprehend,
\nwhy you let World War Two happen,
\nwhere you were during the Holocaust.
\nBut I do believe that you were present
\nwith each one who suffered.
\nAnd I would like to think that humankind
\nlearned a thing or two.
\nAnd I do trust that you will be with us
\neven if the worst happens,
\nthat you will give us strength and guidance
\nto rise to the occasion,
\nto help the oppressed and stand against injustice.<\/p>\n

But God, please act first!
\nPlease let the US Constitution hold!
\nLet would-be oppressors be thwarted,
\nlet propaganda be shown for what it is.
\nThis time, let them fail to find informants
\nto send neighbors away to death camps.
\nHelp humankind to do better this time
\nand stand for what’s right.
\nHelp me to know what I can do,
\nhow I can help.
\nMay staying in America not be a tragic mistake
\nfor transgender folks
\nor for immigrants
\nor visa holders.
\nAnd please set the prisoners free.<\/p>\n

I always believe that justice wins in the end.
\nMay we see it happen sooner this time.
\nMay the people of America stop
\nany new Holocaust,
\nany new world war,
\nand may we again be the land of the free.
\nMay the Bill of Rights apply
\nto everyone within our shores.
\nFor you are a God of justice,
\na God who cares for the fatherless and oppressed.<\/p>\n

We look forward to praising your name
\nat disaster averted,
\nand having a joyous dance with our transgender friends
\ncelebrating their beautiful lives.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 […]<\/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-14198","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\/14198","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=14198"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14198\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14204,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14198\/revisions\/14204"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}