Study 3: Prayers of Lament
Read Psalm 42
Head
The biblical psalms feature several remarkable expressions of lament. In these laments, the worshiping community expresses grief and frustration at the brokenness of the world, even in situations in which the community is not directly culpable or blameworthy. These biblical laments witness to God’s desire for honesty in worship. No experience in life is too difficult to be brought before God. A lament is an implicit act of faith in which the community of faith turns to God as its only source of hope and comfort. Faith and hope are explicit in Psalm 42, for example, in which the lament “My tears have been my food day and night” leads to a statement of resolute trust: “Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my help and my God” (vv. 3, 5-6, NRSV).
– The Worship Sourcebook
The Psalmist longs to be with God, but what situation does he find himself in?
What imagery does he use? How does that imagery highlight the suffering of the Psalmist?
What are some of the ways the Psalmist uses water imagery? (Hint: look at verses 1 & 7)
What do you think the Psalmist is doing in verses 5 & 11?
Heart
In what situations have you found yourself doubting God or believing he is far from you?
The Psalmist describes tears as his only food. Have you ever been so distraught you lost all appetite? When? What was its effect on you?
The Psalmist longs for past days when he worshiped with God’s people at the temple, but now he can’t. Where do you find yourself longing for the past? Why?
How do you think verse 5 & 11 speak to that longing?
Hands
Lament is praying our pain. Write down a prayer that gives words and images to the pain you feel.
Martin Lloyd-Jones said that the answer to the Psalmist’s struggle was that he listened to himself instead of talking to himself of God’s goodness. What promises of God do you need to remind yourself of? Where are you letting pain or fear control you more than you are God’s promises?
Go Deeper
The main trouble in this whole matter of spiritual depression in a sense is this, that we allow ourself to talk to us instead of talking to ourself. Am I just trying to be deliberately paradoxical? Far from it. This is the very essence of wisdom in this matter. Have you realized that most of your unhappiness in life is due to the fact that you are listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself? Take those thoughts that come to you the moment you wake up in the morning. You have not originated them, but they start talking to you, they bring back the problem of yesterday, etc. Somebody is talking. Who is talking to you? Your self is talking to you. Now this man’s treatment [in Psalm 42] was this; instead of allowing this self to talk to him, he starts talking to himself, ‘Why art thou cast down, O my soul?’ he asks. His soul had been repressing him, crushing him. So he stands up and says: ‘Self, listen for a moment, I will speak to you’. Do you know what I mean? If you do not, you have but little experience. The main art in the matter of spiritual living is to know how to handle yourself. You have to take yourself in hand, you have to address yourself, preach to yourself, question yourself. You must say to your soul: ‘Why art thou cast down’–what business have you to be disquieted? You must turn on yourself, upbraid yourself, condemn yourself, exhort yourself, and say to yourself: ‘Hope thou in God’–instead of muttering in this depressed, unhappy way. And then you must go on to remind yourself of God, Who God is, and what God is and what God has done, and what God has pledged Himself to do. Then having done that, end on this great note: defy yourself, and defy other people, and defy the devil and the whole world, and say with this man: ‘I shall yet praise Him for the help of His countenance, who is also the health of my countenance and my God’.
– D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Spiritual Depression: Its Causes and Cures, pp. 20-21