Communal Lament

 

Yesterday, we studied and sang individual songs of lament.  These are personal poems of pain that also confess an openness to God who is still at work in this world and gives thanks to the Holy who hovers in our lives.  Brokenness is not only individual, but it can also be structural and systematic.  Note that the psalmist knew both existed thousands of years ago, but often the church focuses either on the brokenness or sinfulness of the individual or the brokenness of systems ~ rather than trying to hold both.  In communal lament psalms, there is the familiar form of crying out to God, petitioning God to be God, and a commitment to stay connected to our Creator.  Some of the examples of communal experiences of lament can be found in psalms 44, 74, 79, 83, 85, and 89 ~ these are psalms of public loss including drought, famine, epidemic, national devastation, and war.  The point is not to read these psalms at arm’s length.  It isn’t just intellectual curiosity for the past, but how these psalms give us language for the present.  I’d encourage you to slowly read psalm 44 or 58 or 74 or 79.  As you open your sacred imagination to these words and your heart, how does this awaken your voice to what we experience and encounter in these days?

I encourage you to translate one of the psalms using the headlines you read this morning.  What do you lament that is happening in the world, in our country, and in our community/your neighborhood?  For our siblings in Hawaii and for creation crying out this summer along with humans.  Lament shines a light on the truth that our shared human life is not spotless and shiny (the psalms remind us that it never has been either).  We continue to be honest about this.  Where are you trusting in God’s faithfulness to guide and ground you in the face of the pain?  Remember, leaning on God keeps us from sinking into cynicism that things will never get better.  Where are you appealing for God to be God, to show you how to be in the world?  How can your praise help show a different way as you move about your day? 

Pray these questions and may God bless the living out of these questions – not necessarily with answers – but with a strength to face what is before us as August winds down and wraps up.