{"id":14205,"date":"2025-04-18T16:23:56","date_gmt":"2025-04-18T20:23:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/?p=14205"},"modified":"2025-08-12T22:55:01","modified_gmt":"2025-08-13T02:55:01","slug":"laments-for-lent-good-friday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/?p=14205","title":{"rendered":"Laments for Lent – Good Friday"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

The photo above is from my now annual tradition of hiking the Bluebell Trail at Bull Run Regional Park. Peak is always pretty close to two weeks after cherry blossom peak, and today was three weeks after, but the blooms were still holding on, and it was a glorious day for a walk through the Spring forest, with songs from our Good Friday Cantata going through my head about God’s love.<\/p>\n

I wanted to do one more Laments for Lent post<\/a> for Good Friday, to finish out the series. I also would like to do a post on Easter about the Psalm of Trust Jesus quoted on the cross, so watch for that.<\/p>\n

I mentioned when I started this series that I’m thinking of writing a book called Laments for Lent<\/em> as a follow-up to my book Praying with the Psalmists<\/a><\/em> – the one I’m still trying to find a publisher for. The Laments<\/em> book will be shorter, focusing on the Laments and Psalms of Confession with 40 devotionals. Doing the blog series convinced me I could come up with enough material, and gives you a preview of the focus – praying our own laments.<\/p>\n

In the previous posts, we’ve been looking at the parts of a Lament. I thought for Good Friday, let’s look at one Lament in particular – Psalm 22 – the one Jesus quoted from the cross. This Psalm will show what I mean by psalmists “loosely” following the form:<\/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

Some friends who were early readers of Praying with the Psalmists<\/em> took issue with me covering Psalm 22 in the Laments chapter instead of the Messianic Psalms chapter. I do maintain that a Psalm can be both, but since I was putting each Psalm into only one category, I feel that this Psalm is primarily a Lament – which ended up having Messianic implications. But from the perspective of the writer, David in this case, it was written as a Lament and has all the elements of a Lament. And didn’t David have plenty of times in his life on the run from Saul when he could have prayed this?<\/p>\n

So let’s look at the parts of a Lament as they appear in Psalm 22.<\/p>\n

The beginning Address to God<\/em> is one of the many Laments that starts with an anguished question:<\/p>\n

Psalm 22:1–<\/p>\n

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
\nWhy are you so far from saving me,
\nso far from my cries of anguish?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As is common, the questioning Address<\/em> bleeds right into the Complaint<\/em>:<\/p>\n

Psalm 22:2–<\/p>\n

My God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer,
\nby night, but I find no rest.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Then we have kind of a short preview of the Confession of Trust<\/em>:<\/p>\n

Psalm 22:3-5–<\/p>\n

Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One;
\nyou are the one Israel praises.
\nIn you our ancestors put their trust;
\nthey trusted and you delivered them.
\nTo you they cried out and were saved;
\nin you they trusted and were not put to shame.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Then cycling back to the Complaint<\/em>:<\/p>\n

Psalm 22:6-8–<\/p>\n

But I am a worm and not a man,
\nscorned by everyone, despised by the people.
\nAll who see me mock me;
\nthey hurl insults, shaking their heads.
\n“He trusts in the LORD,” they say,
\n“let the LORD rescue him.
\nLet him deliver him,
\nsince he delights in him.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Then time for a further Confession of Trust<\/em>, this one more personal:<\/p>\n

Psalm 22:9-10–<\/p>\n

Yet you brought me out of the womb;
\nyou made me trust in you, even at my mother’s breast.
\nFrom birth I was cast on you;
\nfrom my mother’s womb, you have been my God.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And a short preview of the Entreaty<\/em>:<\/p>\n

Psalm 22:11–<\/p>\n

Do not be far from me,
\nfor trouble is near
\nand there is no one to help.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But the psalmist isn’t done with the Complaint<\/em>:<\/p>\n

Psalm 22:12-18–<\/p>\n

Many bulls surround me;
\nstrong bulls of Bashan encircle me.
\nRoaring lions that tear their prey
\nopen their mouths wide against me.
\nI am poured out like water,
\nand all my bones are out of joint.
\nMy heart has turned to wax;
\nit has melted within me.
\nMy mouth is dried up like a potsherd,
\nand my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth;
\nyou lay me in the dust of death.<\/p>\n

Dogs surround me,
\na pack of villains encircles me;
\nthey pierce my hands and my feet.
\nAll my bones are on display;
\npeople stare and gloat over mr.
\nThey divide my clothes among them
\nand cast lots for my garment.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Here’s the fuller Entreaty,<\/em> the request in the prayer. (Notice how, like usual, it’s much shorter than the Complaint<\/em>. God has been told the details of the problem; we trust God to know the details of what to do.)<\/p>\n

Psalm 22:19-21–<\/p>\n

But you, LORD, do not be far from me.
\nYou are my strength; come quickly to help me.
\nDeliver me from the sword,
\nmy precious life from the power of the dogs.
\nRescue me from the mouth of the lions;
\nsave me from the horns of the wild oxen.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Okay, from here on out, we’ve got the Sureness of Help<\/em> and the Subsequent Praise<\/em> sections all tangled up together. But I’ll point out which verses I’d put with each element. This is the part where the Messianic import really takes off, looking far beyond David’s life to what will happen when the Messiah comes and makes everything right.<\/p>\n

This is especially good to think about on Good Friday – knowing that Jesus’ horrible suffering on the cross had an outcome for which we can praise God.<\/p>\n

And it’s good to think about today – Believing and trusting that one day Christ will put an end to oppression and make everything right.<\/p>\n

Subsequent Praise<\/em>:
\nPsalm 22:22-23–<\/p>\n

I will declare your name to my people;
\nin the assembly I will praise you.
\nYou who fear the LORD, praise him!
\nAll you descendants of Jacob, honor him!
\nRevere him, all you descendants of Israel!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Sureness of Help<\/em>: (I love the past tense that often shows up in this element before the prayer is finished.)<\/p>\n

Psalm 22:24–<\/p>\n

For he has not despised or scorned
\nthe suffering of the afflicted one;
\nhe has not hidden his face from him
\nbut has listened to his cry for help.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And I’m going to call the rest Subsequent Praise<\/em>, though it’s completely shot through with confidence that God will act.<\/p>\n

Psalm 22:25-31–<\/p>\n

From you comes the theme of my praise in the great assembly;
\nbefore those who fear you I will fulfill my vows.
\nThe poor will eat and be satisfied;
\nthose who seek the LORD will praise him–
\nmay your hearts live forever!<\/p>\n

All the ends of the earth
\nwill remember and turn to the LORD,
\nand all the families of the nations
\nwill bow down before him,
\nfor dominion belongs to the LORD
\nand he rules over the nations.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

[See how this goes way beyond David?]<\/p>\n

All the rich of the earth will feast and worship;
\nall who go down to the dust will kneel before him –
\nthose who cannot keep themselves alive.
\nPosterity will serve him;
\nfuture generations will be told about the Lord.
\nThey will proclaim his righteousness,
\ndeclaring to a people yet unborn:
\nHe has done it!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Amen!<\/p>\n

I like this meditation for Good Friday. And tonight I get to declare God’s praises and sing about God’s unfailing love before “the great congregation.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The photo above is from my now annual tradition of hiking the Bluebell Trail at Bull Run Regional Park. Peak is always pretty close to two weeks after cherry blossom peak, and today was three weeks after, but the blooms were still holding on, and it was a glorious day for a walk through the […]<\/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-14205","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\/14205","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=14205"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14205\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14209,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14205\/revisions\/14209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14205"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14205"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}