COMPOSED

Sadness dives deeply into waters so murky, so far from any illumination, that drowning seems certain. No shaft of hopeful light relieves this darkness. Lost in silent wails, were we to stay here, we could not bear it. 

A few years ago, on the anniversary of a difficult remembrance, I decided to ease my sadness with the Lament Psalms. I looked up which ones they were, wrote down all the references, and sat next to a window at home, reading. Something about seeing the words that fit my heart so perfectly, helped. It’s grounding to see descriptions of what’s been running in circles inside of us. Instead of an emotional freefall with nothing to catch us, these specific laments let us land upright and steady with clarity and validation to our grief. We regain our footing with this substantiation. It’s as if the confirmation itself is enough and we know we’ll be okay; others have walked here too, we are not alone; it’s alright to feel, instead of to numb. The illustrations within these Psalms are shafts of essential, hopeful light — we can follow them to see our way out of the dark. 

One form of lament is to bring to the surface the anguish of lost relationships, dwindling affinities with those once held dear, the poverty of spirit when confronted with death. Intense feelings don’t disappear, but we also aren’t trying to evade them, and it’s a relief to allow the intentional recognition of painful memories. Even when circumstances are still fresh and have not improved, we are quieted for a moment and become comfortable with our discomfort. 

Another form is to lament on behalf of others – people we know, as well as those we will never meet. Awareness of suffering within families, friends, or acquaintances, reminds us how vulnerable and exposed life is. News from near or distant places delivers excruciating details about horrific, incomprehensible events. Powerless to influence these scenarios, we are weighed down by their heaviness. Since these ancient authors gave voice to the Psalms of Lament, it gives credence to the practice in our lives, as well. It’s healthy to feel, grieve, face and share whatever impossible conditions have settled in around us. Indeed, not recognizing our pain will surely bring its own set of consequences. 

Perhaps the most important form of lament is the one we are least aware of in our hastening, self-reliant culture, where we find false sufficiency in intellect and reason. Gratified with accomplishment, logic and arrogance unite, and we are in no condition to need anything, spiritually speaking. Buoyed up from a sense of adequacy, we find no reason to notice, let alone lament, our own inherent condition of brokenness, and the truth of our rebellion toward the Lord of all creation. When we become our own gods, our hearts are no longer sensitive to the gentle Voice that seeks us. 

AMPLIFIED

However, thankfully, when feelings of despair overtake us – such as those described with raw transparency in the Lament Psalms – it ushers in the condition required to see ourselves quite clearly. It cuts through the deception of self satisfaction and makes us long to be clean, whole, healed. And it allows us to comprehend why we are not already clean, whole and healed. We see our complete helplessness, and the fallacy of depending on self and the temporary supports in the world.

When circumstances are unchanging, and separation, struggle, suffering or injustice remain, in our deepest need we cry out to Him for relief. And what we really are crying out over is less the initial subject of our mourning, and more the alarming, stark contrast between the Holy Lord and fallen humanity. We see afresh the selfish, demanding, ungratefulness that lives in our hearts. Whether it happens quickly or over time, once seen plainly in the light of His presence, we understand how sharply our nature conflicts with His.

We must first grasp our sinfulness — our separation from what we were created to be — in order to ask for pardon. After carelessly ignoring the real God, once this reality hits us head on, we’ll quickly confess to Him our need for the cleansing forgiveness that changes us from the inside. It’s tempting to stay on the distracting surface of our temporary situations, but if we remain overly focused on these external conditions, we lose the rich opportunity for God’s internal, eternal, healing. We won’t get to this barren, necessary place without the painful birthing process that hopes to deliver repentance.

Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death. See what this godly sorrow has produced in you: what earnestness, what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what alarm, what longing, what concern, what readiness to see justice done (1 Corinthians 7:10-11).

It is the goodness and holiness of God, as it relates to the corrupt content of our hearts, that we must fully understand. Infinite goodness and holiness cannot withstand our unclean substance, and calls for atonement to satisfy an ethereal requisite. As His creation, meant for relationship with, and worship of, Him, we are powerless to become acceptable – full of goodness and justified – apart from the advocacy of His good and holy crucified Son, on our behalf. 

While much mystery remains, and faith is in that which we cannot see, the grief that lays our hearts bare allows the open posture necessary to welcome the healing comfort of His Presence, as a parched plant welcomes the rain. And just as the plant only lives if the rain falls, assuredly, we only truly live under the reign of His Presence, as His life soaks into our desert-hearts.

To genuinely lament our true condition in His sight, lays the groundwork for this fundamental shift from self-reliance to dependence on the living God of the heavens. It brings about repentance. It is from this silent, dark and mournful place that God’s Holy Spirit finds a well-lit entrance.

Let him who walks in the dark, who has no light, trust in the name of the Lord and rely on his God. (Isaiah 50:10)

POSTLUDE

“Repentance does not bring a sense of sin, but a sense of unutterable unworthiness. When I repent, I realize that I am utterly helpless; I know all through me that I am not worthy even to bear His shoes. Have I repented like that? Or is there a lingering suggestion of standing up for myself?” O. Chambers, My Utmost For His Highest, August 22

“Every element of self-reliance must be slain by the power of God. Complete weakness and dependence will always be the occlusion for the Spirit of God to manifest His power.” O. Chambers, My Utmost For His Highest, May 5

“...the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the lust of other things entering in, will choke all that God puts in. We are never free from the recurring tides of this encroachment. If it does not come on the line of clothes and food, it will come on the line of money or lack of money; of friends or lack of friends; or on the line of difficult circumstances. It is one steady encroachment all the time, and unless we allow the Spirit of God to raise up the standard against it, these things will come in like a flood.” O. Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest, January 27

“It is a travesty to say that Jesus Christ travailed in Redemption to make me a saint. Jesus Christ travailed in Redemption to redeem the whole world, and place it unimpaired and rehabilitated before the throne of God. The fact that Redemption can be experienced by us is an illustration of the power of the reality of Redemption, but that is not the end of Redemption. If God were human, how sick to the heart and weary He would be of the constant requests we make for our salvation, for our sanctification. We tax His energies from morning till night for things for ourselves -- something for me to be delivered from! When we touch the bedrock of the reality of the Gospel of God, we shall never bother God any further with little personal plaints. The one passion of Paul’s life was to proclaim the Gospel of God. He welcomed heart-breaks, disillusionments, tribulation, for one reason only, because these things kept him in unmoved devotion to the Gospel of God.” O. Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest, February 1

“We deify independence and willfulness and call them by the wrong name. What God looks on as obstinate weakness, we call strength. There are whole tracts of our lives which have not yet been brought into subjection, and it can only be done by this continuous conversion. Slowly but surely we can claim the whole territory for the Spirit of God.” O. Chambers, My Utmost For His Highest, December 28

“God wants you in a closer relationship to Himself than receiving His gifts, He wants you to get to know Him…There is nothing easier than getting into a right relationship with God except when it is not God Whom you want but only what He gives…If you have only come the length of asking God for things, you have never come to the first strand of abandonment, you have become a Christian from a standpoint of your own…When you draw near to God, you cease from asking for things…He is not concerned about making you blessed and happy just now; He is working out His ultimate perfection all the time – ‘that they may be one even as We are.’” O. Chambers, My Utmost For His Highest, April 27

“Some of us always want to be illuminated saints with golden haloes and the flush of inspiration, and to have the saints of God dealing with us all the time. A gilt-edged saint is no good, he is abnormal, unfit for daily life, and altogether unlike God. We are here as men and women, not as half-fledged angels, to do the work of the world, and to do it with an infinitely greater power to stand the turmoil because we have been born from above.” O. Chambers, My Utmost For His Highest, May 1

“Beware of refusing to go to the funeral of your own independence.” O. Chambers, My Utmost For His Highest, December 9

“The idea of prayer is not in order to get answers from God; prayer is perfect and complete oneness with God. If we pray because we want answers, we will get huffed with God. The answers come every time, but not always in the way we expect, and our spiritual huff shows a refusal to identify ourselves with Our Lord in prayer. We are not here to prove God answers prayer; we are here to be living monuments of God’s grace.” O. Chambers, My Utmost For His Highest, August 6

“It is possible to know all about doctrine and yet not know Jesus. The soul is in danger when knowledge of doctrine outsteps intimate touch with Jesus. …Any Pharisee could have made a fool of Mary doctrinally, but one thing they could not ridicule out of her was the fact that Jesus had cast seven demons out of her; yet His blessings were nothing in comparison to Himself.” O. Chambers, My Utmost For His Highest, August 16

“In a parable, He warned that those farmers who concentrate on pulling up weeds (His image for ‘sons of the evil one’) may destroy the wheat along with the weeds. Leave matters of judgment to the one true Judge, Jesus advised…Both (Jesus and Paul) concentrated not on the pagan kingdom around them but on the alternative kingdom of god. For this reason, I wonder about the enormous energy being devoted these days to restoring morality to the U.S. Are we concentrating more on the kingdom of this world than on the kingdom that is not of this world?” P. Yancey, What’s So Amazing About Grace?, p. 235-6

“Somehow God had to come to terms with these creatures He desperately wanted to love…On earth, living among us, He learned what it was like, He put himself on our side. The book of Hebrews makes explicit this mystery of incarnation: ‘We do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are – yet was without sin.’ Second Corinthians goes even further: ‘God made him who had no sin to be sin for us.’...Jesus can present our case to the Father. He has been here. He understands.” P. Yancey, What’s So Amazing About Grace?, p. 106-7

What’s So Amazing About Grace?, Copyright 1997 by Philip Yancey, used by permission.

ENCOURAGING WORD

Lamentations 3:22-26  Because of the Lord’s great love, we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness. I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for Him.’ The Lord is good to those whose hope is in Him; to the one who seeks Him; it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.

Psalm 25:16-18  Turn to me and be gracious to me, for I am lonely and afflicted. Relieve the troubles of my heart and free me from my anguish. Look on my affliction and my distress and take away all my sins.

Psalm 62:5-6;8  Find rest, O my soul, in God alone; my hope comes from him. He alone is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will not be shaken…Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge.

Psalm 55:1-2,12-14  Listen to my prayer, O God, do not ignore my plea; hear me and answer me. My thoughts trouble me and I am distraught…If an enemy were insulting me, I could endure it; if a foe were raising himself against me, I could hide from him. But it is you, a man like myself, my companion, my close friend, with whom I once enjoyed sweet fellowship…

Psalm 69:1-3,5-6,16  Save me, O God, for the waters have come up to my neck. I sink in the miry depths, where there is no foothold. I have come into the deep waters; the floods engulf me. I am worn out calling for help…You know my folly, O God; my guilt is not hidden from you. May those who hope in you not be disgraced because of me, O Lord, the Lord Almighty; may those who seek you not be put to shame because of me, O God of Israel…Answer me, O Lord, out of the goodness of your love; in your great mercy turn to me.

Psalm 63:1  O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water.

Psalm 57:1-3  Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me, for in you my soul takes refuge. I will take refuge in the shadow of your wings until the disaster has passed. I cry out to God Most High, to God, who fulfills his purpose for me. He sends from heaven and saves me…

Psalm 69:20  Scorn has broken my heart and has left me helpless; I looked for sympathy, but there was none, for comforters, but I found none.

Titus 3:3-7  At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life. 

Hebrews 3:12-14  See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness. We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly till the end the confidence we had at first.

Psalm 94:18-19  When I said, ‘My foot is slipping,’ your love, O Lord, supported me. When anxiety was great within me, your consolation brought joy to my soul.

Psalm 119:28-32  My soul is weary with sorrow; strengthen me according to your word. Keep me from deceitful ways; be gracious to me through your law. I have chosen the way of truth; I have set my heart on your laws. I hold fast to your statutes, O Lord; do not let me be put to shame. I run in the path of your commands, for you have set my heart free.

Psalm 55:16-18  As for me, I call to God, and the Lord saves me. Evening, morning and noon I cry out in distress, and He hears my voice. He rescues me unharmed from the battle waged against me, even though many oppose me. 

Psalm 77:1-4  I cried out to God for help; I cried out to God to hear me. When I was in distress, I sought the Lord; at night I stretched out untiring hands and my soul refused to be comforted. I remembered you, O God, and I groaned; I mused, and my spirit grew faint. You kept my eyes from closing; I was too troubled to speak. 

Psalm 88:1-3,18  O Lord, the God who saves me, day and night I cry out before you. May my prayer come before you; turn your ear to my cry. For my soul is full of trouble…You have taken my companions and loved ones from me; the darkness is my closest friend.

Psalm 109:22  For I am poor and needy, and my heart is wounded within me.

Psalm 116:3-7  I was overcome by trouble and sorrow. Then I called on the name of the Lord: ‘O Lord, save me!’ The Lord is gracious and righteous; our God is full of compassion. The Lord protects the simple-hearted; when I was in great need, he saved me. Be at rest once more, O my soul, for the Lord has been good to you.

Psalm 62:8  Trust in Him at all times, you people; pour out your hearts to Him, for God is our refuge. 

Psalm 119:76-77  May your unfailing love be my comfort, according to your promise to your servant. Let your compassion come to me that I may live, for your law is my delight.

Psalm 130:1-6  Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord; O Lord, hear my voice, Let your ears be attentive to my cry for mercy. If you, O Lord, kept a record of sins, O Lord, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness…I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I put my hope. My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning…

Psalm 142:1-3  I cry aloud to the Lord; I lift up my voice to the Lord for mercy. I pour out my complaint  before him; before him I tell my trouble. When my spirit grows faint within me, it is you who know my way.

Psalm 143:4-7  So my spirit grows faint within me; my heart within me is dismayed. I remember the days of long ago; I meditate on all your works and consider what your hands have done. I spread out my hands to you; my soul thirsts for you like a parched land. Answer me quickly, O Lord; my spirit fails…

Psalm 4:1;8  Answer me when I call to you, O my righteous God. Give me relief from my distress; be merciful to me and hear my prayer…I will lie down and sleep in peace, for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety.

Psalm 5:1-3,11-12  Give ear to my words, O Lord, consider my sighing. Listen to my cry for help, my King and my God, for to you I pray. In the morning, O Lord, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait in expectation…But let all who take refuge in you be glad; let them ever sing for joy. Spread your protection over them, that those who love your name may rejoice in you. For surely, O Lord, you bless the righteous; you surround them with your favor as with a shield.

Psalm 6:3-4,8-9  My soul is in anguish. How long, O Lord, how long? Turn, O Lord , and deliver me; save me because of your unfailing love…for the Lord has heard my weeping. The Lord has heard my cry for mercy; the Lord accepts my prayer.

Psalm 13:1-2,5-6  How long, O Lord: Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and every day have sorrow in my heart? How long will my enemy triumph over me? …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.

Psalm 9:9-10  The Lord is a refuge for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble. Those who know your name will trust in you, for you, Lord, have never forsaken those who seek you. 

Psalm 10:17-18  You hear, O Lord, the desire of the afflicted; you encourage them, and you listen to their cry, defending the fatherless and the oppressed, in order that man, who is of the earth, may terrify no more.

Psalm 18:16,19  He reached down from on high and took hold of me; he drew me out of deep waters…He brought me out into a spacious place; he rescued me because he delighted in me. 

Psalm 27:1  The Lord is my light and my salvation – whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life – of whom shall I be afraid?

Psalm 27:13-14  I am still confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.

Psalm 28:6-7  Praise be to the Lord, for he has heard my cry for mercy. The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and I am helped. My heart leaps for joy and I will give thanks to him in song.

Psalm 30:5  …weeping may remain for a night, but rejoicing comes in the morning.

Psalm 37:7  Be still before the Lord, and wait patiently for Him…

Psalm 102:1-2  Hear my prayer, O Lord; let my cry for help come to you. Do not hide your face from me when I am in distress. Turn your ear to me; when I call, answer me quickly.

Psalm 31:24  Be strong and take heart, all you who hope in the Lord.

Psalm 34:14  Turn from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it.