Well, welcome back to another podcast of Struggling Well, and we're glad you've joined us and I am going to start by turning it over to my wife.
One of the things that has really been helpful for us during the various seasons of struggle we've been in has been the practice of lament and I have studied this not to not fully but I have sat with this I've sat with the psalms of lament I've read about the lament psalms of lament and one of my one of the I think the Best author I've ever read is a man named I David Taylor. Now, there's an O in there. I don't know if it's O. David Taylor or David O. Taylor. I don't know. David.
Is it O? I think so.
Well, regardless, if you listen to this ever, David, I have contacted you before. I love your book and I follow you on Instagram because you have some great stuff that you offer. But one of the things that he spoke about when dealing with the Psalms was the Psalms of Lament. And I have learned so much from him. So, you will definitely hear his voice as I speak on Lament and I want to give him full credit for this.
Well, not his actual voice. They're going to hear your voice.
You're going to hear my voice, but you will see that I have been heavily influenced by David Taylor. one of the things about lament is that we don't do it often, but it's this practice of expressing deep sorrow, regret, and mourning over things in our life. of God. And the psalmist when you look at the psalms of lament and there are 42 psalms of lament in the psalms 30 of them are individual psalms of lament and 12 are corporate psalms and every we see all throughout scripture though that every character in scripture came to God with their raw honest struggle that Abraham did, Moses, Job, the prophets Isaiah, Elijah, Jeremiah, they all experienced that sense of exhaustion and disappointment and fear and hunger and Habach, David, Asaf and Daniel and Mary and even Jesus poured out their lament to the father and it's something that we're we don't usually practice well and it may feel awkward. Have How about for you babe? Have what's it been like for you to lament?
Well, yeah, I don't know that I would have used that word even in some of the things that I have cried out to God in the past, but I think I'm getting freer. This is going to sound crazy because he knows everything that goes on inside my heart, but I'm getting freer to express it out loud that there's this void. And I think this is what in my mind, lament helps to bridge the void between the realities of this broken, fallen world that we live in and the realities of who God is in his character. And it's a cry to the one who I long for what was what could be and I'm crying out to the one person who controls.
And that's a great point because lament is not just releasing all the pent up stuff you have inside of you. It really is a form of worship. when we come to God and Israel did this continually, they came to God. They took their complaints to God and basically they said, "God, I don't like this. What are you going to do about it? Or are you going to do something?" But in order for us to lament, we've also got to understand the pattern of biblical lament. And I'm so thankful that it's in scripture. I'm so thankful that I can look at how David wrote and Asaf and all the others that wrote in the Psalms and the other biblical characters that lamented. They poured out their raw deep feelings, but it's not with their emotions going wild. but it's going like you said, Jimmy, to the one the only one who can hear everything about us and who can actually do something about where we're at.
Yeah. And the thing I noticed just an example Psalm 77 there several places in the psalm he cries out about what he doesn't like followed by the word sila or sa I never know how to pronounce it and I don't even know that we fully understand what it means other than it's a pause
right
and so like he says will the Lord spurn forever and never again be favorable has his steadfast love forever ceased? Are his promises at an end for all time? Has God forgotten to be gracious? He is he in his anger he shut up his compassion? Then pause.
And it's like, all right, he unburdens his heart as to what he sees and what's not good. But then he it's like you need to pause for a minute. And then he goes on later in the psalm to talk about the graciousness and the goodness of God. So it's that place where we find ourselves. at odds with what we see and who we know God to be. And that's to me a legitimate cry. It's a legitimate prayer. and if you were just reading that one section of Psalm 77, you go, "Oh my goodness, how could you say those things to God?"
Well, that's exactly who he wants to say to.
Yes.
Because he's the only one who can do something about it.
And that's the important point is they bring their doubts and questions to God in faith because they believe that he hears them and is present.
Yeah.
It's not just screaming at God about what you think he's done wrong or where he hasn't been present when you wanted him to be present. It's really an act of worship of I believe that you're there, God, that you're present and that you will hear my cry. And the Psalms of lament are that all the way through.
Yeah.
Yeah. And I think the other part, Suzi, that I would say is you know, obviously as an individual, I've got to be willing to do those things as I cry out to the Lord. The corporate psalms of lament are one of the places where I rarely see that carried out. not just cuz he's sitting next to me, but our good friend Tim Briggs in the church that he pastors regularly corporately calls for psalms or laments, prayers of lament in the corporate worship service, which is so contrary to what we typically do in worship, which is let's get loud, let's get joyous, let's get happy, let's you know, and there's nothing wrong with any of that,
right?
But We don't, again, what I would say, most churches that I've experienced do not handle corporate lament the way I believe we should handle corporate lament.
And we also struggle with lamenting with one another
because we feel guilty that we're angry or upset and we feel guilty about our losses, our sadness, our disappointments because typically what happens is not typically sometimes if will happen that you'll share your lament with someone and they will say but you have so much to be grateful for and yes that's exactly right we do have so much to be grateful for but God also invites us to pour out our hearts and that's what lament does not again not that wild crazy you know accusing God but pouring out what's in our hearts knowing that he hears and that he's present and then with one another and again we've talked about this many times through the weeks of our podcast. Be careful where you pour out your heart. I mean, you want to have relationship with somebody who loves you the way you are and you pour out your lament. And forgive me the times when I say to somebody, "Well, but you have so much to be grateful for." Yes, they do. But this might be a silly illustration and I don't even remember where I got it from, but it's not mine. Is you look at a glass that is filled halfway. Well, It's both half full and half empty. So we can be thankful that it's half full, but it is also half empty. So we have to give each other the gift of I may feel like my glass is half full, but you might be coming at it from a different place. It's still water in a glass.
I think when we lament in front of others, when we lament in front of friends or many times it leaves them uncomfortable because like you said They want it to be fixed right away. They want you to see all the things and that you have to be grateful for and thankful for which I don't doubt. I don't disagree with that. But at the same time, it can you sit in the uncomfortableness of me pouring out my heart to God knowing that I do find my hope in him, but I also know what's going on inside me and so I want to carry that forward as well.
Lamett is unsettling struggle is unsettling and it leaves us feeling disoriented and we have to reorient ourselves to God.
We can hear all sorts of things from other people and there's a lot of great amazing stuff out there, but we also sometimes get really pulled away and get super independent from God because we're listening either to our own soul as David is lamenting. He's sick of listening to himself or we hear from people like during Job's lament, his friends were trying to point out something in him. But lamenting to God will result in a release of the pent up thing, pent up things that we have in our soul, but also when we come in faith believing that he's there and he's present, I think it makes a big difference.
Yeah. So our encouragement to you this week would be don't be afraid to lament. There's no right way or wrong way other I'm pouring out what's going on that I don't like. Whether it's in my life personally or in something that's going on around me, I'm pouring it out to the one who I believe I have hope in and I trust in and who can fix it. And so I cry out to him with what's going on in my heart. Have a good week.