Psalms of Lament

I am not sure I have ever heard anyone speak about being angry with God.  People have told me to journal, but I do not want the pages to be covered with focusing purely on me. I found the article Psalms: “My God, My God, Why?” Understanding the Lament Psalms to be helpful in creating a form to journal my problem and request to God. In every lament the author “expresses their trust” in God. He thinks back to who he knows God to be and what He has done for him in the past. It is a reflection of who God is and the mighty works He has done. By not focusing completely on me and my pain there is hope. God has sustained me in the past, will do so in the present, and I have a future hope of a perfect world to come with no sin, disease, or death. However, I can speak of my hurt, my agony to Him. He will listen and be patient.

Article Snippet: ISRAEL’S SONGBOOK

Reformed Worship Magazine article by Stacey Gleddiesmith
June 2010

The book of Psalms exists today because the people of Israel used these songs, including the songs of lament, in their worship, and they sang them often enough that the psalms were remembered and recorded for future generations.

 

This songbook of Israel contains more psalms of lament than any other type of psalm. There are so many psalms of lament that they can be broken into subcategories: individual lament, corporate lament, psalms of confession, illness, political complaint, and the like.

 

Today, however, the psalms of lament are used infrequently by the church. And when we do use them in worship, all too often we skip over the complaint, reading or singing only the expression of trust and praise with which so many of the lament psalms conclude.

 

It seems strange that the church today would find lament so difficult, when it was such an integral expression of worship for Israel, but perhaps we do not use lament because we do not understand it. We make lament synonymous with grieving, and therefore fail to understand its significance and its use.

Read More: Psalms: “My God, My God, Why?” Understanding the Lament Psalms