Our worship is almost always not biblical. By that I mean if you look at the psalms, a model of worship songs, the songs we pick often don’t line up. The reason for this is that the psalms are not an abstract regurgitation of God’s character and blessings. They are not only outwards towards God but inwards towards ourselves, and our worship is only truly biblical when it matches with this observation.

The psalms are the divinely given worship book of the church. They are, together, 150 pieces of poetry that ultimately reflect what worship should encompass both when they were written and today in the church. Each and everyone one is a response to how God has revealed himself either corporately to the nation of Israel or individually to people such as David. They are filled with he adoration and worship of God. Taking all this in, I think it is safe to say that our worship should be like the psalms in breadth of content and expression of worship.

The Psalms, however, often don’t sound like our normal week to week worship. Even though all the psalms are a response to the revelation of God, though they are worship, they often make us feel uncomfortable. Just take Psalm 22 for instance:

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from saving me,
so far from heeding my groans?
My God, by day I cry to you, but there is no answer;
in the night I cry with no respite.
You, the praise of Israel,
are enthroned in the sanctuary.
In you our fathers put their trust;
they trusted, and you rescued them. (REB)

This was the psalm that Jesus was reflecting on while suffering on the cross. It sounds angry and hurt; it is filled with sorrow and pain, and yet it is still worship. It only can be worship because it is our response to God, and not a mere statement of abstract truth or counting of blessings. Notice the psalmist asks why God is so far from him, even though God’s past self-revelation declares himself to be Israel’s God. The psalmist is expressing anger and betrayal because God doesn’t seem to be treating Israel, and the psalmist, the same way that he has in the past. God seems to be changing and seems to ignore his own words. In this light, this psalm is a response to God’s self-revelation.

This psalm is classified as a lament. A lament is a psalm that expresses feelings of anger, betrayal, or sorrow, and each is composed several parts though not all the parts are in every lament: (1) an address, (2) a complaint, (3) a petition, and (4) a praise. Here in Psalm 22 we find these parts:

1. My God, why have you forsaken me (22:1, REB)
2. But I am a worm, not a man (22:6, REB)
3. Do not remain far from me (22:11, REB)
4. They will make known […] The Lord has acted (22:31, REB).

What is most remarkable, however, is that not all the parts have to be included in every lament. For example, Psalm 88, unlike Psalm 22 does not end with a praise or a call to praise. Instead it ends without a single upward turn and says, “You have taken from me friend and neighbour—darkness is my closest friend (NIV).” The sorrow of the psalmist is so deep that he cannot begin to turn himself back to praise. Here we can clearly see that worship and praise are not the same thing.

Laments are the most common form of psalm comprising a third of all the psalms, and these psalms are often composed of true questioning of God’s actions and true sorrow over our sins. They show how praise of God’s character is intimately intwined with our brokenness and sorrow over how the world, the church, and each of us all seem to fail to show that character. These psalms are not meant as primarily individual responses to God (though both Ps. 22 and Ps. 88 are individual laments with a singular voice). They are for the people of God to sing in the worship of God together. We can see that Psalm 22 is addressed to the choirmaster and Psalm 88 to the music director, positions that only exist when we worship together. These subtitles themselves are part of scripture and some older numbering schemes include them as the first verse[1].

Participation in congregational lament is to accept and loudly proclaim that doubt is an integral part of faith. When we truly believe the word of God, say for example when he proclaims that he is a God who will not “leave the guilty unpunished (Ex. 34:7)” and then look up from the book to see a world where murderers go free, people oppressed by those in power, and corruption going unpunished, how can our response be anything but doubt or anger? And when we express this response, it isn’t to say we no longer believe in God because it is only since we believe in God that we respond this way. Doubt is just another side to faith and not the opposition to faith. Thus, doubt and disbelief is exactly the response of the saints in heaven in Revelation when they say, “How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?” (Rev. 6:10). In short they ask “God you have said you are a just God, but why do you let this injustice go free?” This is lament, it is a response to a gap between our perception of the reality of God and our perception of God. If we truly believe what we say when we sing God is good all the time then we can also ask just as frequently why the world seems so evil. Doubt and trust are integral parts of a healthy faith.

Jesus too can be found in lament. In Matthew 27:46 we find that Jesus quotes Psalm 22 on the cross and cries out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” For in that moment on the cross, Christ took upon himself the very sins of the world and felt as if though the father turned his face away and that communion was broken. And yet, we know that cannot be the case. The Father cannot disown the Son as much as the Son can renounce the Father for we believe in one God and God cannot divide himself. His reality and his feelings didn’t match and so Jesus cries out in a true lament, of how reality seems to be different from the experience of unity Jesus has had with the Father. But he was still united to the Father, even on the cross, and that perfect fellowship Jesus has with the Father raised him from the dead. But in the middle when he was on the cross and in the grave, in that period where Christ took on our sins, he could feel nothing else except the depth of our sins. Thus, he cried out in pain and sorrow before commending his spirit to God in trust. Therefore, we know that in the cross and in his lament we find his identification with the afflicted Christians who fail to experience God as God himself has promised.

Lament is an integral part of corporate worship. It allows us to express our doubt in a biblical way and face that doubt together as a church, and it allows us to lift up the injustice of this world to God as a response to God’s revelation of his own character. It lets those who are in need, sorrow, sickness, or any other adversity of life—those who cannot lift up their hearts—truly sing to God from the depths of their heart. Above all, it lets those of us who can worship God with praise identify with the downtrodden and broken hearted. In bringing ourselves down we show true humility just as our communal praise brings up the weary and lifts up the hearts of those who are weak. Lament brings together the community in recognition that we are still an imperfect community in an imperfect world, and it brings us together as a community that truly longs for the consummation of the kingdom as the answers to our heartfelt cries.

I can think of very few hymns and songs which are truly laments, but a while ago I wrote about one. The other I covered less in that post is titled “Lament” and it’s one of my favourite songs. It shows how in lament we truly bare ourselves before God. It has all the parts of a lament, and if you take a listen I encourage you to reflect on how you feel towards God when you see and hear the wrongs of the world, of murders and strife, of christians who die under oppression, and of your own life when you’ve lost loved ones or friends or struggled with health or friends. Laments let us stand in solidarity and they help bring us back to trust in God when trusting in God is difficult.

“Lament” by Tim Be Told

You say You are jealous
You say You are kind
But the ‘jealous part’ seems to win all the time
If You’re so mighty, why do you break
The weak and the weary, and see what they make

You say You’re forgiving
That You’ll not forsake
But You punched me out when I made a mistake
I try to find beauty in the mess that You made
But You just stayed angry and never forgave

Yes, I know You are great
But is a bad God better than none?
How much more will it take to undo the damage that You have done?
‘Cause the wicked and wayward continue to thrive
And the martyrs continue giving their lives
Oh, the faithful never never survive
Oh, the faithful never never survive

You’re the almighty, so I am afraid
You crushed me to pieces, then stole what I made
If hopeless delusion is a righteous man’s fate
I don’t know how much more I can take

Yes, I know You are great
But is a bad God better than none?
How much more will it take to undo the damage that You have done?
‘Cause the wicked and wayward continue to thrive
And the martyrs continue giving their lives
Oh, the faithful never never survive
Oh, the faithful never never survive

God are You listening?
Please hear my cry
I don’t really believe You’re more cruel than You’re kind
But I’m getting tired of repeating this line
That the faithful never survive

Yes, I know You are great
That You’re a good God, and You are love
How much more can I take to undo the damage that I have done?
Please conquer these demons and the darkness inside
Shine Your light on this poor heart of mine

Maybe my faith will survive
Maybe my faith will survive
Maybe my faith will survive

[1] For example Psalm 21:1 in the Douay-Rheims version is “ Unto the end, for the morning protection, a psalm for David.” and then verse 2 starts “O God my God, look upon me: why hast thou forsaken me?”