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Weeping and the ABC's of God

Lamentations 3:33
“Though he brings grief, he will show compassion, so great is his unfailing love. For he does not willingly bring affliction or grief to the children of men.”

What do you lament?

In other words, for what do you weep? For what do you mourn aloud? What makes you sing along with country music star Terri Clark as she sings, “Poor, poor, pitiful me!”

Who do you tell? Your best friend? Your pastor? The sympathetic lady in the seat next to you on the airplane or bus? Anybody who will listen? Or do you lament in silence?

Do you bring your lament before God?

While it’s good to talk out your troubles and feelings with friends and counselors, it is also important to tell them to God.

The entire book of Lamentations is exactly that: the prophet pouring out his sorrow to God about the destruction of Jerusalem. In a no-holds-barred, pour-your-heart-out lament. The prophet tells it like he sees it – for verse after verse after verse. After a while, he sums it up, then admits that the situation has gotten the best of him emotionally:

Lamentations 3:19-20
“I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall. I well remember them, and my soul is downcast within me.”

It is perhaps because he has told God everything he feels, that he is now ready to hear and remember God’s comfort:

Lamentations 3:21-24
“Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope:

Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.”

Have you ever written out your laments to God in a letter or journal? If you haven’t, or haven’t done so for a while, you may want to try writing a lament on the order of some of the chapters of Lamentations. In the original Hebrew, they are acrostic poems. Each stanza starts with a different (the next) letter of the Hebrew alphabet, and each verse within starts with the same letter.

I’d encourage you to try writing your own personal lament, using a similar style. Let your feelings flow; let God’s Spirit move you as you write. You can continue as far into the alphabet as you are moved to do. Mine began like this:

Affliction I have seen
aplenty, but the Lord is
always with me.

Before I think to ask, God
Bears my grief and lifts the
Burden that would press me down.

Make your lament as personal as you want; you and God are the only ones who need to see it if you do not choose to share it with others. It is a good exercise in seeing for yourself the ABCs of God’s mercy to you.

“Triune God, you are a God of mercy, to be sure. Thank you for giving us the opportunity to lament – to pour out our sorrows and remember that Jesus, as a “man of sorrows” suffered the ultimate affliction to purchase our salvation. In Christ’s name we pray, Amen. ”