Learning the Language of Lament (Part Four)

Mike Leake 2 Comments

In his book, Battling Unbelief, Barnabas Piper explains the difference between believing doubt and unbelieving doubt. Of unbelieving doubt he says:

When unbelieving doubt poses a question, it is not interested in the answer for any reason other than to disprove it. Unbelieving doubt is on the attack. It is much more interested in the devastating effect of the question itself to erode the asker’s belief and hope in what is being questioned. The asker is not asking to learn; she is asking in order to devastate. She does not want to progress to an answer. She wants to show that there is no answer. Unbelieving doubt is not working toward anything but merely against belief.

Believing doubt, on the other hand, is a doubt which seeks the truth. There is a similar difference between the language of lament and the language of grumbling and complaining. The grumbler consistently questions God’s character. The Israelite grumblers in the Sinai desert repeatedly questioned whether or not God was actually for them. Even after all of the displays of God’s power, protection, and care for them they still harbored a belief that God was brought them out of Egypt to slay them in the wilderness.

For the grumbler the character of God is still something that might be up for debate. They were as the ones Spurgeon had in mind when he said, “To be for ever holding the truth of God, as though it might yet turn out to be a lie, were to lose all the comfort of it.”

Contrast this with Habakkuk. He bemoans the prevalence of evil in his nation. He cries out for God to come in justice. But he is shocked by God’s response. The LORD is going to raise up the wicked Chaldeans to bring judgment upon the people of God. This unsettles Habakkuk. What bothers him so much is that this does not seem consistent with God’s character.

You who are of purer eyes than to see evil
and cannot look at wrong,
why do you idly look at traitors
and remain silent when the wicked swallows up
the man more righteous than he? (Habakkuk 1:13)

He isn’t wondering whether or not God is good. That isn’t on the table. He is wondering instead how the goodness of God fits with the present situation. His response, then, is to air his complaint and his questions (his lament) and then to wait for God’s answer. He knows that God will do what is right, even though nothing makes sense at present.

Habakkuk has doubts but doubts which are married to a rock solid faith in the character of God. But you see grumbling doesn’t do that. For the grumbler God’s character is a matter still up for debate. Is God really good? That’s not a question we get to ask. We can ask God how his character is connected with a present circumstance. We can say, “God you are good. You always do what is good. This doesn’t make sense. Yet I trust in you”. That’s much different than, “God are you really good? I’m not sure anymore. This situation makes me wonder.”

If God was really good…(everything after this point is going to be grumbling or complaining).

God is good so how…(everything after this point is more likely a lament).

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Learning the Language of Lament (Part Three)

Mike Leake 2 Comments

God’s Word is very clear in that we are to do all things without grumbling and complaining. We are not released from this imperative simply because we are having a bad day or because actual gut-wrenching suffering has slapped us in the face. It is never permissible to grumble and complain.

Yet we also read in the Scriptures that we are to cast all of our cares upon the Lord. We are given examples of this in the Psalms. There is an earthiness to the Psalms that at times almost seems inappropriate to pray. Or consider the words of Habakkuk as he wrestles with how God’s character fits with the present circumstances. These words are not only not met by rebuke, but at least in the case of the Psalms we are called to sing them ourselves.

Considering these things led me on a quest to compare the laments of the Bible with the sections in which God responds in anger to people accused of grumbling and complaining. What is the difference between biblical lament and grumbling and complaining?

The first thing I noticed was quite a surprise to me. What I found was that in many of the instances of grumbling the grumbler was engaging in a type of fortune telling. Numbers 14:1-4 is a fitting example. Here the Israelites are right outside the Promised Land. But things look scary and unpredictable. The people just know how it’s going to turn out. “Our wives and children are going to die out here!” End of story.

But the kids don’t die. In fact they are the ones who get to see the Promised Land while the grumblers die wandering in the wilderness. Behind grumbling is a heart of false prophecy. It is an unbelieving heart which takes for itself the position of God. Only God is omniscient and knows the future. Well, God and the grumbler. The grumbler too knows exactly how the future is going to turn out. He has seen this all before and so he is able to place himself above the situation.

This is not present in a lament. A lament deals with what is, not with what could be or what might be. Even in a dark psalm like Psalm 88, though the emotions are heightened and hyperbole runs rampant, there is no fortune telling. There might be wisdom which says, “I’ve seen this before and remember how it played out”. But there is not the absolute declarations of the grumbler.

The Psalmist will ask, “How long, O Lord?” and the grumbler will respond, “I’ll tell you how long…forever.”

So as we go through seasons of suffering and we begin pulling for language to use to form our prayers, let us be careful not to engage in fortune telling. I do not know the future. And as soon as I pretend that I do my “prayers” aren’t humble prayers, they are prideful complaints. They take up the posture of a discontented and out of control god. One who knows the future but is impotent to stop it.

I’ve found that much depression and anxiety comes from this practice of pretending that we know the future. The enemy is happy to have us living in either the past or the future, because the only change which can take place is in the present. This was to be the lesson of manna in the desert—that God is a daily God. Humanity, and our unbelieving hearts, do not like a daily God. We prefer to take up the position of deity ourselves. But this only ends in despair. When those who are not God, make themselves to be as God (knowing the future), the only possible outcome is a despair which gives birth to grumbling and complaining words.

Perhaps this is why the call of 1 Peter 5:7 (to cast all our cares anxieties upon him) is so intimately connected with 1 Peter 5:6 which calls us to humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God. It is only He who knows the future. As we pray in seasons which call for lament, let us remember that we do not know what tomorrow holds. We only know that His mercies will be new every morning. We know we’ll have manna. We don’t know much else.

Therefore, let us pray with vigor and honesty about things as they actually are. Let’s not shed tears or waste our breath on potential outcomes. The language of lament is a language for todays and not for tomorrows.

Read This! 11.30.17

Mike Leake

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The Hidden Hands of Caitlyn Jenner

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These guys knock O Holy Night out of the park:

Learning the Language of Lament (Part Two)

Mike Leake 1 Comment

At the local music store you notice an interesting book entitled Praises. As you open the book you realize it’s over a hundred songs of praise to God. So, what type of songs would you expect in a book with the title Praises? What do you expect of the music? The lyrics? What does it feel like?

When I hear the word “praise” I tend to think of upbeat, celebratory, and exulting type of music. I expect lyrics about how wonderful things are in our life with Jesus, meditations on everything he has accomplished for us, with upbeat music accompanying the mostly positive lyrics.

This is why I’m a bit shocked to discover that the book of Psalms (a translation of the Hebrew word for praises) is filled with over sixty songs of lament. At least 40% of the songs are about bad situations and praying that God will deliver you from them. Some of them (like Psalm 88) do not strike on positive chord.

That is only the Psalms. The book of Job, Habakkuk, and several others are filled with examples of lament. Some of the most quoted Psalms in the New Testament are those of lament. And an entire book of the Bible is called Lamentations. The songbook, the language, that God has given us to speak is one filled with lament.

What is a biblical lament?

I define it as an expression which serves as a Godward plea for help in a distressful situation.

A lament can be expressed through weeping, wailing, putting on sackcloth, or writing a psalm, among many other expressions. The common denominator with a biblical lament, though, is that the expression is directed towards God. And that expression serves as a plea for a favored response from God based on His character. Reasons for lament are varied. In the Scriptures laments come from the death of loved ones, being treated unjustly, personal sin, dealing with the consequence of personal sin, and natural disasters to name a few. 

Perhaps a biblical lament can be best understood by comparing it to it’s worldly counterpart; namely, grumbling and complaining. There are three major differences between the two and we will explore these in the next few days.

To be continued…

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