I just read the following blogpost this morning and it reflects my own feelings about including lament as part of our Christian worship tradition. The post was written by Dr. Eric Ortland, a professor at the Briercrest Seminary...a super scholar and downright wonderful person. Read on and enjoy:
Lament as an Act of Worship
Imagine if you went to church one day and the worship band was up on
stage, and you saw on screen above the worship band all the normal
information: Copyright Vineyard Music, 1998; in the key of B flat,
written by Brian Doerkson. (I know it's not normally shown what key the
song is in, but just hang with me here). And let's say the worship band
starts up, but you notice something strange, because the song says a lot
of things to God that sound rude: Lord, how could you let that happen?
Why did you abandon me? I'm one of your own. Why didn't you protect
me? If you had been there, this never would have happened (John 11.21)!
And this hurts your cause too, Lord. People are scoffing at you in your
absence. Come and visibly intervene for me! But no matter what, I will
trust you forever. No matter what, you are my God forever.
Because that's the situation we get in the book of psalms: a miktam, of David, to the tune of "Doe of the Dawn" - those titles head the hymns we are comfortable with and also laments which appear rude to us. But both equally count as worship in the Bible, even though asking the lament-type questions sounds like the opposite of worship for us.
Could I suggest, knowing that this to be a generalization, that we in North American need to "biblicize" and complicate our worship by making lament as regular a feature of it as it is in the Bible's worship book? I want to emphasize that to be a real biblical lament, it has to include a confession of trust and unconditional loyalty from the lamenter; without that, it's just complaining. But I also want to emphasize that, unless we lament, we're being unbiblical and unhelpful.
Lament witnesses to and (as it were) proclaims the Lord Jesus in his fullness. You have probably noticed how some Christians know only the meek and mild Jesus and never seem to talk about the returning King, come to tread the winepress of his wrath - and other Christians only seem to know the wrathful judge, even though the biblical Jesus is both. I think it is the same with hymns and laments. Laments are liberally plastered over not just Jesus' trial, sufferings, and death, but much earlier in his life, too. We won't fully know the one "intimate with grief" (Isa 53) without these texts. They witness forward to the suffering of the Messiah as God won the greatest victory possible for his cause in the form of the greatest defeat imaginable. And we as Christians participate in this suffering and death (Matt 16.24, Rom 6.1-4, 2 Cor 4.10; and note the original context of Paul's quotation of Ps 44 at the end of Romans 8). We won't fully understand and "see" our Savior who died in shame and defeat and was raised in victory without laments. It will be easy to worship a shallow version of Jesus without these psalms.
Second, I think our contemporary worship scene, having, as it does, only hymns, unintentionally excludes people. There are people in every church service whom God is baptizing into the way of the cross, the way of following Jesus. But it can be hard when you come to church bleeding and beaten, and you want to worship, and you know you should be worshipping, and everyone around you seems so happy. Biblically, asking the questions of a lament, together with a confession of trust, is an act of worshipping and honoring God, not dishonoring him. It is a ministry to Christians who are hurting, who are struggling with the distance and inactivity of the God they are trying to trust, to shape and interpret their experience through the genre of lament. You will help those Christians draw nearer to God than they ever have before.
Third, it will help with our music. So much modern worship music sounds U2, and I like U2, and there is something worshipful and devout about their sound. But our songs all sound like the same song, over and over. Aesthetics maybe aren't the Bible's top priority, but they are not trivial.
I'm sure there are Christian musicians reading this, so: listen up. I want you to write more worshipful, trustful, God-honoring laments. Hold forth Jesus Christ, who reigns in victory on high but still bears the scars in his body, to us Christ-followers who are learning what it means to take up our crosses.
Because that's the situation we get in the book of psalms: a miktam, of David, to the tune of "Doe of the Dawn" - those titles head the hymns we are comfortable with and also laments which appear rude to us. But both equally count as worship in the Bible, even though asking the lament-type questions sounds like the opposite of worship for us.
Could I suggest, knowing that this to be a generalization, that we in North American need to "biblicize" and complicate our worship by making lament as regular a feature of it as it is in the Bible's worship book? I want to emphasize that to be a real biblical lament, it has to include a confession of trust and unconditional loyalty from the lamenter; without that, it's just complaining. But I also want to emphasize that, unless we lament, we're being unbiblical and unhelpful.
Lament witnesses to and (as it were) proclaims the Lord Jesus in his fullness. You have probably noticed how some Christians know only the meek and mild Jesus and never seem to talk about the returning King, come to tread the winepress of his wrath - and other Christians only seem to know the wrathful judge, even though the biblical Jesus is both. I think it is the same with hymns and laments. Laments are liberally plastered over not just Jesus' trial, sufferings, and death, but much earlier in his life, too. We won't fully know the one "intimate with grief" (Isa 53) without these texts. They witness forward to the suffering of the Messiah as God won the greatest victory possible for his cause in the form of the greatest defeat imaginable. And we as Christians participate in this suffering and death (Matt 16.24, Rom 6.1-4, 2 Cor 4.10; and note the original context of Paul's quotation of Ps 44 at the end of Romans 8). We won't fully understand and "see" our Savior who died in shame and defeat and was raised in victory without laments. It will be easy to worship a shallow version of Jesus without these psalms.
Second, I think our contemporary worship scene, having, as it does, only hymns, unintentionally excludes people. There are people in every church service whom God is baptizing into the way of the cross, the way of following Jesus. But it can be hard when you come to church bleeding and beaten, and you want to worship, and you know you should be worshipping, and everyone around you seems so happy. Biblically, asking the questions of a lament, together with a confession of trust, is an act of worshipping and honoring God, not dishonoring him. It is a ministry to Christians who are hurting, who are struggling with the distance and inactivity of the God they are trying to trust, to shape and interpret their experience through the genre of lament. You will help those Christians draw nearer to God than they ever have before.
Third, it will help with our music. So much modern worship music sounds U2, and I like U2, and there is something worshipful and devout about their sound. But our songs all sound like the same song, over and over. Aesthetics maybe aren't the Bible's top priority, but they are not trivial.
I'm sure there are Christian musicians reading this, so: listen up. I want you to write more worshipful, trustful, God-honoring laments. Hold forth Jesus Christ, who reigns in victory on high but still bears the scars in his body, to us Christ-followers who are learning what it means to take up our crosses.
Posted by Dr. Eric Ortland, September 22, on his blog: scatterings1976.blogspot.ca
2 comments:
this is very timely. I know that the hymn "it Is well" may not come under his definition of a lament - but it is not a happy happy joy joy sappy choruses, and there are time that my tears just flow because the message of the hymn connects to a part of me that is struggling and gives permission to ache and express the deep emotions that other songs don't - I like that the writer is encouraging the balance of both, because without it we are not ministering to the needs of people who might come once or twice and then don't return because they don't feel safe or accepted or that there is any acknowledgement of struggles
Well said Penny! And Dr. Eric!
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