By H. Mark Abbott
The psalms, said fourth century church leader, Athanasius, "become like a mirror to the person singing them." The psalms reflect our deepest feelings -- all of them. And sometimes those deepest feelings are not bright and cheery. David, and the other psalmists, lamented their sins. But the psalmists also lamented the tragedies happening around them. The psalmists lamented and protested the troubles of human life. The psalmists lamented their enemies -- expressing anger against them to God. The psalmists knew how to lament.
We may not feel comfortable with prayers of lament, especially in congregational worship. Someone has suggested that the true religions of America are optimism and denial. We are often urged to "put on a happy face." We may feel embarrassed by our darker feelings. We feel the need to cover them up lest people think poorly of us. In congregational worship we'd much rather praise God than lament.
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On the other hand, many voices today urge us to "let it all hang out." Let all emotions be immediately and publicly vented. Complain, whine, be a victim! Go on the Jerry Springer Show and tell the world how you've been mistreated. Find a sympathetic news reporter and tell her how bad things are with you.
But the psalms of lament head in a different direction. They are prayers to God, not just complaints to anybody who will listen.
Before us this morning is a compact psalm, one of the classic psalms of lament. It's apparently a prayer to be sung in church. The heading says: "For the Director of Music. A Psalm of David." David knew how to sing praises to God with exuberance. But David also knew how to sing songs of lament. This Lenten Season, let us learn from David's psalm how to lament.
In the first movement of his lament, David openly asks questions of God. Four times, the anguished question is flung godward: "How long O Lord?" Each time, there's a companion question, detailing the pain and distress of the prayer. He feels forgotten by God. He feels like God has hidden His face from him. He is wrestling with painful, sorrowful thoughts. His enemy has the upper hand over him. How long, O Lord, is this going to continue? How long must I suffer? Do we know anything about those kinds of questions? Do we? It would do us good to express them openly to God.
Along with questions, many of the psalms of lament are full of protest. The poets protest the injustice of their enemies. The poets protest God's apparent silence and inactivity in the face of this injustice. "Why, O Lord, do you stand far off. Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?" (
Ps. 10). "O my God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer, by night and am not silent" (
Ps. 22).
There's raw anger, in some psalms, even curses at the unjust and the oppressors. "May those who seek my life be disgraced and put to shame; may those who plot my ruin be turned back in dismay" (
Ps. 35). "Smash their teeth, O Lord!" cries another psalm.