Psalm 3 calls us to pause for a moment to be aware of God’s attention to our troubles knowing that He protects us and answers our prayers. Psalms like this one are direct speech about a realistic faith that traffics in the extremities of human life and human experience. Life is not always one of symmetry and equilibrium. Life is also marked by disequilibrium and unrelieved asymmetry. Yet our voices are ones of wishful optimism, denial, cover-up which is an odd inclination of serious Bible users, given the fact that most of the Psalms are songs of lament, protest, and complaint about the incoherence that is experienced in the world.

I think that serious religious use of the lament Psalms has been minimal because we have believed that faith does not and should not embrace much less acknowledge negativity. We tend to think that negativity is somehow an act of unfaith, as though to speak in such a way is to concede that God has somehow lost control.

The point I am making is that the psalms of lament may be judged by some as acts of unfaith and failure, but for the church, they are bold acts of faith. Because it is in this way that we insist that the world must be experienced as it really is and not in some pretend way. To withhold this part of life is to withhold part of life from the sovereignty of God. Everything must be given a voice if we are to find our voice in the Psalms.

But it really is no wonder that we intuitively avoid these Psalms. They lead us into dangerous acknowledgement of how life really is. They lead us into the presence of God where everything is not polite or civil. They cause us to think unthinkable thoughts and utter unutterable words.

Paul encouraged the early Christians to encourage one another with “psalms and hymns and spiritual songs” (Eph. 5:19; Col. 3:16) so to conclude our gathering last night I asked each one to write their own Psalm of Lament. The only requirement was to stay honest and open. Below is an example.

Lord, My God. I struggle to control the direction of my life instead of looking to you to show me the path I should follow.

Lord, you want to guide each footfall. You want this because you want me to be more like you.

Why don’t I trust you?

Why after I have struggled to fix and carry the burden of my decisions, I lead myself to a place where I am pressed into a corner, in danger on all sides.

But you are just and true and provide a path to safety.

You ask me to trust and I know I should when I see beauty poor from you every time.

Now, use the comments to write your own Psalm of Lament.