I was at a conference, and one by one, the delegates gave their reports. Some from their home turf where they pastored in their neighbourhoods, and some from national and international perspectives. The news was not good. All were lamenting the trouble and brokenness they saw. An atmosphere of serious concern settled on the room.

I was noting it all down and soon Lament was turning into Lyric. Now, I wasn’t sure that people would want to sing a hymn of Lament, but when it was eventually finished, it turned out to touch a chord in the hearts of many who were grieving over the state of neighborhood and nation. To be able to lament and pray with one voice in a song suddenly felt liberating and empowering.

Most of the lament psalms are personal, but some are clearly communal, and we need them, especially when a community or nation is reeling from a disaster. And this is so much more than therapy. Walter Brueggeman says that lament is disorientation addressed to God. And in that address, something happens to our disorientation.

We see this in Psalm 12, where despondency changes to confidence. The Psalmist writes ‘Help Lord, for no one is faithful anymore. Those who are loyal have vanished from the human race’ and then just seven verses later, it’s changed. He’s writing ‘You Lord, will keep the needy safe and will protect us forever from the wicked, who freely strut about, when what is vile is honoured by the human race’.