I believe there is a larger place in our public worship for lament than we typically give it. Lament can sound like a very negative thing, but it is very often the doorway into praise, into prayer, and into hope.

This song came about when some friends who were deeply involved in questions of the value and sanctity of human life approached me and encouraged me to write something. The song didn’t yet exist, of course, none of us knew what it would become. I remember sitting down with them, taking notes, thinking, praying, and eventually arriving at a starting point: the heart of God.

As Christ has revealed, God is our Father. He has a father’s heart, and that heart grieves over his children. So the song began by trying to come alongside God’s aching, broken heart over the way his children are so often treated, to join him there, and to go forward from that place.

And then, in the end, it turns towards hope. There is a Man of Sorrows who for sinners shed his blood. We see Jesus carrying our sorrows, bearing our sins, and leading us into hope, and into treating one another, treating every human being, with the value and dignity they deserve.

Who can sound the depths of sorrow in the Father heart of God? This is not simply human indignation. It is lining up with the Father’s heart, seeing the world as he sees it, loving as he loves, and valuing life as he does.