The Aquila Report

Your independent source for news and commentary from and about conservative, orthodox evangelicals in the Reformed and Presbyterian family of churches

Cumberland Valley Bible Book Service
  • Biblical
    and Theological
  • Churches
    and Ministries
  • People
    in the News
  • World
    and Life News
  • Lifestyle
    and Reviews
    • Books
    • Movies
    • Music
  • Opinion
    and Commentary
  • General Assembly
    and Synod Reports
    • ARP General Synod
    • EPC General Assembly
    • OPC General Assembly
    • PCA General Assembly
    • PCUSA General Assembly
    • RPCNA Synod
    • URCNA Synod
  • Subscribe
    to Weekly Email
  • Biblical
    and Theological
  • Churches
    and Ministries
  • People
    in the News
  • World
    and Life News
  • Lifestyle
    and Reviews
    • Books
    • Movies
    • Music
  • Opinion
    and Commentary
  • General Assembly
    and Synod Reports
    • ARP General Synod
    • EPC General Assembly
    • OPC General Assembly
    • PCA General Assembly
    • PCUSA General Assembly
    • RPCNA Synod
    • URCNA Synod
  • Subscribe
    to Weekly Email
  • Search
Home/Biblical and Theological/Trusting God Enough to Lament

Trusting God Enough to Lament

God wants us to cry out first and foremost to him. He wants us to complain to him. He wants us to lament to him.

Written by David Gundersen | Friday, March 31, 2017

In this way, the Psalms show us a powerful reversal of the way we typically think about lament. We often assume that lament implies doubt. But in truth, lament is actually an act of faith. The person to whom you complain is the person you trust. Sometimes we complain to people because we know they’ll listen. Sometimes we complain to people because we know they’ll care. And sometimes we complain to people because we know they can help.

 

For a kaleidoscope of reasons, we often assume that lament implies doubt. We assume that crying out to God in our pain is somehow an inherent indictment against his character and our faith. We’re fearful or ashamed of expressing our frustrations, our complaints, and our sorrows to him — for a tapestry of reasons that only the divine heart-knower himself could know.

So instead of verbalizing our deepest and darkest and most jagged things to God, we stuff them deep down, or we complain to other people, or we drown them out through pleasures and comforts and careers and accomplishments and exercise and addictions. We glance at, but never gaze into, our sins and our sufferings, because we fear that if they’re as bad as we fear, we’ll be left without strength and hope. So we find another pseudo-refuge from the storm, or we close our eyes and cover our ears and pretend like the storm’s not as dark or as loud as it looks and sounds. The hurricane is just a rushing wind. The tornado is just a 10-foot dust-devil. The tsunami is just a strong current.

But our hearts are, all the while, telling us differently. They’re telling us it’s really bad out here, and the dangers are real, and the sorrows are deep, and the burdens are heavy, and the hardships are hard, and the sins are destructive.

In these moments (or seasons) of confusion and conviction and heartache, God doesn’t want us to minimize our pain but verbalize it. He wants us to cry out to him like an injured child instinctively cries out to his parents. God doesn’t want that crying out to be mainly self-directed as we inject the poison of self-pitying introspection into our own psyches, and he also doesn’t want it to be primarily others-directed as we grumble and gossip about people or lash out in an effort to punish or control.

God wants us to cry out first and foremost to him. He wants us to complain to him. He wants us to lament to him.

Think about the Psalms for a moment, but don’t think about what the psalmists are saying. Think about what the psalmists are doing. Regardless of what they’re saying, one thing is true across the 150-psalm Psalter: the sinful and suffering saints are venting their hearts to God.

Read More

Related Posts:

  • Six Things Lament is Not
  • Lament as an Evangelistic Tool
  • Lamentation
  • Stop Pretending–Cry Out to God
  • What We Miss When We Skip the Book of Lamentations

Archives

Subscribe, Follow, Listen

  • email-alt
  • facebook
  • twitter
  • apple-podcasts
  • anchor
Providence College
Belhaven University
  • About
  • Advertise Here
  • Contact Us
  • Donate
  • Email Alerts
  • Leadership
  • Letters to the Editor
  • Principles and Practices
  • Privacy Policy

Free Subscription

Aquila Report Email Alerts

Special

  • About
  • Advertise Here
  • Contact Us
  • Privacy Policy
  • Principles and Practices
  • RSS Feed
  • Subscribe to Weekly Email Alerts
Providence Christian College - visit

DISCLAIMER: The Aquila Report is a news and information resource. We welcome commentary from readers; for more information visit our Letters to the Editor link. All our content, including commentary and opinion, is intended to be information for our readers and does not necessarily indicate an endorsement by The Aquila Report or its governing board. In order to provide this website free of charge to our readers,  Aquila Report uses a combination of donations, advertisements and affiliate marketing links to  pay its operating costs.

Return to top of page

Website design by Five More Talents · Copyright © 2023 The Aquila Report · Log in