David openly, honestly asked his questions, made his protests to God. And so may we. I urged pastors in Central Africa last year to help their people offer prayers of lament. How else should believers in civil war-torn Burundi pray? How else should people in earthquake ravaged areas of the world pray? How else should Palestinians and Israelis pray? How else should you pray after the utter folly of Fat Tuesday? How else should you pray when you get news that your spouse is having an affair, maybe is leaving you for someone else? How else should we pray over a loved one ravaged by cancer or Alzheimers? How else should we pray when our petitions for healing don't seem to be answered? How else should we pray when we have received horrible news about some tragedy or unjust event? How better to pray when life seems to have spiraled out of control and you're sinking into depression.

We must not feel obligated to clean up our prayers. We must not feel that we should only offer God praise in the midst of problems. But that's not all there is in Psalm 13.

There's a second movement in the great song of lament: David honestly lays his need before God. "Look on me and answer, O Lord my God Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death

Was the psalmist ill, threatened by death? Maybe so. He continues: "My enemy will say, I have overcome him,' and my foes will rejoice when I fall." Whatever David's problem was, he laid it fully and openly before God.

In another great prayer of lament, Psalm 55, David cries out: "Listen to my prayer, O God ... hear me and answer me ...." That psalm also contains the raw, angry feelings flung before God. In this case, it is apparently a friend, a trusted friend, who has betrayed him. But David moves through his anger and sense of betrayal. "Evening, morning and noon, I cry out in my distress, and He hears my voice." And David sings: "Cast your cares on the Lord and He will sustain you ...." Lay your needs honestly before God. God always hears those cries, and God will sustain us in our need.

There is intensity about prayers of lament that much of our intercession lacks. There's deep desire, even desperation in one's turn toward God. It's like: "O God, you've got to help me. There's no one else to whom I can turn. O God, what am I going to do?" Ever been there? Maybe you're there today.

David lamented by turning his angry questions honestly toward God. David lamented by bringing his deep needs and laying them openly before God. There's a final movement in David's lament: David returns to trust in the midst of trouble. Now David sings: "But I trust in your unfailing love. My heart rejoices in your salvation. I will sing to the Lord For he has been good to me."

Remember the contemporary psalm of Ann Weems? Remember her questions? "How could You have allowed this to happen? I thought you protected Your own! You are the power: Why didn't You use it?"

But she concludes: "O Holy One, I am confident that You will save me .... You are the power and the glory. You are justice and mercy. You are my God forever." Sometimes, psalms of lament aren't as tidy as this. They don't progress neatly through a three point prayer. It's not like: "Ok, I guess I'm thru with questions and offering petitions, so it's time for trust." Psalm 22, for example, alternates back and forth between the poet's trouble and his trust. In some psalms, even after a lyrical passage of trust, there's an outburst of anger. Prayers of lament don't have to be neat and tidy. Prayer, any prayer, doesn't have to be neat and tidy! Prayer, any prayer, but especially the prayer of lament, may be a process of working thru questions, expressing desperate petition, and yes, reaching out in faith and affirming trust in the One we believe in despite our trouble.

Are prayers of thanks and praise hard for us to do? Maybe we need to lament for a while. Then we can push thru the lament to praise and trust.

Practice prayers of lament this Lenten season. Maybe you don't feel the need for lamenting right now. Maybe you're a personality type that usually sees life in bright, summer tones. But there will come a time when nothing but lament seems right. Maybe that time is right now. Know that in the midst of our lamentable circumstances there is One standing with us who gave His own Son to unjust death. Remember that Jesus Himself engaged in the prayer of lament.

But even as we pray the prayer of lament, we can be turning toward trust and hope in One who has said: "Listen to me, I am with you always!" He's the One about whom the weeping prophet, who wrote Lamentations, declared: "The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases .... Great is thy faithfulness."

1From Kathleen D. Billman and Daniel L. Migliore, Rachel's Cry, United Church Press, Cleveland, 1999, p. 8ff.