Dark Clouds, Deep Mercy: Discovering the Grace of Lament

by Mark Vroegop

Lament is the honest cry of a hurting heart wrestling with the paradox of pain and the promise of God’s goodness.

“It is precisely out of trust that God is sovereign that the psalmist repeatedly brings laments and petitions to the Lord.

Therefore, lament is rooted in what we believe. It is a prayer loaded with theology. Christians affirm that the world is broken, God is powerful, and he will be faithful. Therefore, lament stands in the gap between pain and promise.

You might think lament is the opposite of praise. It isn’t. Instead, lament is a path to praise as we are led through our brokenness and disappointment.6 The space between brokenness and God’s mercy is where this song is sung. Think of lament as the transition between pain and promise. It is the path from heartbreak to hope.

The psalms of lament open us to the greatness of a God who not only can hear, but also can handle our pain, our self-pity, our blame, and our fear, who can respond to our anger, our disillusionment in the midst of oppression and persecution, under the boot of tyranny and our sense of God-forsakenness in the face of life’s most profound alienations and exiles.

Biblical complaint doesn’t work if you aren’t honest with God about your pain, your fears, or your frustrations. Talk to him as a loving Father. Remember that you have a Savior who understands your struggles (Heb. 4:15).

You are not meant to linger in complaint. If you never move beyond complaint, lament loses its purpose and its power.

Pain can become a platform for worship. Suffering can lead to trust. Lament is the language for this transition. Songs of sorrow are meant to move us from complaint to confidence in God.

This is one reason why I’m passionate about lament. It has the possibility of providing a pathway and a language that allow people not only to deal with the reality of their pain but also to be refocused on the trustworthiness of God. As we wait for future deliverance, our spiritual posture need not be passive. While there may be painful circumstances beyond our control, our waiting can be spiritually productive as we intentionally follow the pathway to trust. That is why trust is active patience. We keep trusting by lamenting.

Embracing our hurt leads to healing

Trust is believing what you know to be true even though the facts of suffering might call that belief into question. Lament keeps us turning toward trust by giving us language to step into the wilderness between our painful reality and our hopeful longings.

Lament can retune our hearts to what’s really important. It can invite us to consider what lies underneath our lives—what really matters.

Lamentations awakens us to a broken world and a holy God.

Life is full of vexing questions related to God’s purposes. Pain often highlights perplexing paradoxes. Lament is expressed even though the tension remains. It turns to God in prayer, vocalizes the complaint, asks boldly, and chooses to trust while uncertainty hangs in the air. Lament doesn’t wait for resolution. It gives voice to the tough questions before the final chapter is written. Lament is a journey through the shock and awe of pain.

Jeremiah doesn’t merely lament his pain and disappointment. He uses his song of sorrow to point his heart toward what he knows to be true despite what he sees.

Lamentations shows us that hope does not come from a change of circumstances. Rather, it comes from what you know to be true despite the situation in front of you. In other words, you live through suffering by what you believe, not by what you see or feel. While the circumstances of life have a narrative to them, there’s a biblical narrative underneath.

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In our laments we express the sorrow we feel. But we also rehearse the truths we believe. We interpret pain through the lens of God’s character and his ultimate mercy. By “calling to mind” important truths, we are able to stop listening to the circumstances around us and even the noise inside our heads. Lament helps us to dare to hope again, and again, and again.

Boom

Why is waiting so difficult? Because it feels as if we’re not doing anything. And that’s the point. You’re not doing anything, but God is. However, waiting is one of the greatest applications of the Christian faith. You are putting your trust in God, placing your hope in him, and expressing confidence that he is in control. Waiting puts us in an uncomfortable place where we’re out of control of our lives. Remember in chapter 4, when I called this “active patience”? That season is when God will shape and define us the most.

Lament reminds us about the danger of putting too much hope in human leaders. The book of Lamentations warns us that our deliverer does not occupy a seat on the Supreme Court, reside at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, sit in the boardroom of a company, or stand behind a pulpit in our church. Seasons of uncertainty and loss reveal the vanity of putting our ultimate hope in anyone but God.

The culture of the United States is enamored with optimism. The “American Spirit” is the deeply rooted belief that life will get better, recessions will end, opportunities will abound, and “the sun will come up tomorrow.” While I appreciate this optimism at one level, I wonder how many American Christians make cultural optimism an idol. Or how many directly connect this optimism to the belief that we are “blessed by God.” Perhaps this is partly why some Christians react negatively to the effects of our exile status. It seems that we are unfamiliar with spiritual survival in a culture where a recession doesn’t end and where the social structures continue to work against a bright future. I fear that too many of us, including myself, are so emotionally and spiritually tied to this optimism that we don’t know how to live in a culture reaping what it has sown. Throughout the centuries, Christians have found a way forward while their culture was hostile or falling apart.

Seems so fitting as we find ourselves in a pandemic at this time.

Lament can be a road map to God’s grace.

Sounds a lot like Jay Stinger in Unwanted But rather I see lament as the way that we enter into our hurt and how our hurt becomes a roadmap.

When brokenness becomes your life, lament helps you turn to God. It lifts your head and turns your tear-filled eyes toward the only hope you have: God’s grace.

Lament affirms God’s sovereignty when dark clouds linger.

The book of Lamentations shows us how a song of sorrow can remind us about the brokenness of the world, invite us to rehearse hope-filled truth, and confront our idols. Lament can also become a pathway to God’s grace. Laments are memorials, vital records of lessons to be learned. Christians can enter the rubble of life and even lead in lament because we know the rest of the story. We can open our hearts, our voices, and our homes to people who desperately want restoration but have no idea where to find it. Dark clouds can yield deep mercy as lament leads to Christ.

Why Lament? We’ve covered a lot of ground through our journey. As we explore some practical applications, let me remind you why lament should be your prayer when grief—of any kind—becomes a part of your life: 1. It is a language for loss. Lament is the historic prayer language for hurting Christians. It provides a biblical vocabulary and a model for talking to God about our pain or helping those who are walking through suffering. 2. It is the solution for silence. Too many Christians either are afraid or refuse to talk to God about their struggles. Whether because of shame, a fear of rejection, anxiety, or a concern of being irreverent, pain can give rise to a deadly prayerlessness. Lament cracks the door open to talk to God again—even if it’s messy. 3. It is a category for complaints. Lament helps us see that complaining to God is not necessarily sinful. For hurting people, knowing that this expression of grief is a biblical and a God-given category can be a watershed moment. Vocalizing our pain or helping a friend express her heart is one of the life-giving aspects of lament. 4. It is a framework for feelings. This biblical song of sorrow is more than the sinful spewing of every emotion in your soul. Lament validates the expression of pain while providing a framework—a God-centered structure—so we avoid falling into the trap of self-centeredness, which can take root in times of deep sadness. Lament endorses expression, but only the kind with the right objective. 5. It is...

Good overview

Racial tension is just one of many examples where the body of Christ could be helped by entering into corporate lament. In fact, I now believe lamenting together is the church’s calling—a unique voice in the darkness. And a failure to realize this not only neglects ministry opportunities but also sends the wrong message.

A funeral, of all places, could be—should be—a place to lament together.

“Community” in the church should mean lamenting together.

Lament has the potential to provide a first step toward uniting people when hurt and misunderstanding are in the air.

This is where I think corporate lament can be uniquely helpful. For those of us who have not experienced pain or unfair treatment because of our ethnicity, lament can be the language we use to weep with those who weep (Rom. 12:15). It allows our first voice—our first step—to be one of compassion. We can turn to God in prayer and join our minority brothers and sisters in their pain. We can identify the brokenness in our world, mourn the racial tensions that still exist, and offer our “complaint” to God about the history of injustice, misunderstanding, and racism. Together we can ask God for healing and for kindness in our hearts. Rather than allowing racial tension to drive a wedge between us or to frighten us into silence, lament can invite all of us on a journey toward seeking God’s grace together.

Boom

Lament provides the tracks along which the pain of racial issues can move forward.

The beauty of this biblical language of sorrow is its ability to provide a bridge robust enough to handle outrage and empathy, frustration and faith, fear and hope. Lament can be our first step toward one another when racial tension could drive a wedge.

Lament is the song we sing in the space between pain and promise. It becomes the path between the poles of a hard life and trusting God’s goodness. Lament helps us embrace two truths at the same time: hard is hard; hard is not bad.