Psalm 22:1-2, Psalm 88:1, Lamentations 3:19-23
The Missing Language
If you were to judge by the average Sunday morning church service, Christianity is primarily an experience of joy, celebration, and upbeat worship. Difficulty might be mentioned in a prayer request, but the songs are triumphant, the atmosphere is positive, and anything that sounds like complaint toward God is quietly discouraged.
The Bible presents a very different picture. Approximately one third of the Psalms are laments. The book of Lamentations is entirely a sustained cry of grief over Jerusalem's destruction. Job's protests fill thirty-five chapters. Jeremiah is called the weeping prophet.
Lament is not the absence of faith — it is a major language of faith.
What Lament Is
Lament is honest, grieving prayer directed to God. It is the practice of bringing darkness, pain, confusion, and anger into God's presence — not performing spiritual well-being that doesn't exist, not retreating from God in bitterness, but turning toward God in the pain and laying it before Him.
Psalm 88 — the darkest Psalm — ends in unrelieved darkness: "darkness is my closest friend." There is no tidy resolution, no turn to praise. And yet it is addressed entirely to God: "O Lord, God of my salvation, I cry out day and night before you." (Psalm 88:1). The very act of crying out to God, even in the dark, is itself an act of faith.
The Pattern of Biblical Lament
Most lament psalms follow a basic pattern:
- **Address** — turning to God directly, establishing the relationship ("My God, my God")
- **Complaint** — honest description of the suffering, without softening ("Why have you forsaken me?")
- **Petition** — specific request for God to act ("Deliver me... rescue me")
- **Expression of trust** — even in the darkness, a reach toward God's faithfulness ("But you, O Lord, do not be far off")
- **Praise** — often a vow to praise God when deliverance comes, made even before it arrives
Not every lament psalm completes this pattern, and the movement is not always linear. But the overall direction — bringing darkness into the presence of the faithful God — is consistent.
Why the Church Needs Lament
A church that has no space for lament has no adequate pastoral response to:
- Devastating illness or loss
- Unanswered prayer over decades
- Abuse and trauma
- Systemic injustice
- The dark nights of the soul that most serious Christians experience
Recovering the practice of lament gives suffering people permission to be honest with God, models what faith in darkness looks like, and ensures that the church is a safe place to bring the full weight of human experience.