The Hidden Hope of Lament

This past Sunday during our worship service we celebrated Thanksgiving. Even in the midst of the pandemic and all of the struggles that it brings—whether the loss of regular Sunday fellowship and singing in church, or the loneliness of being separated from friends and family—expressing our gratitude to God opens our eyes to see his ever-present grace, goodness, and generosity despite our present circumstances. But there is another response to the ongoing pandemic that may not come as easily, and that’s the cry of lament. 

What is lament? Stated simply, lament is a form of Christian prayer and worship in which we come to God honestly with our pain, grief, and even our outrage over the evil, suffering, and injustice in this world, and in a declaration of hope, we protest and plead with God for him to act and make things right. 

But we often struggle to honestly articulate our grief and sadness, which is why there is an entire book of the Bible that teaches us the cry of lament. Along with the Psalms, of which about one-third are Psalms of lament, the book of Lamentations invites us and teaches us how to cry out to God: “See, LORD, how distressed I am! I am in torment within, and in my heart I am disturbed…my groans are many and my heart is faint” (Lam 1:20-22).

The more you read the Bible, the more you realize that the cry of lament actually runs throughout the whole story. The Bible is a story of tears—of God’s people dealing with their own experiences of futility and failure, oppression and abandonment, and ultimately of death.

But we know that God sees our tears and doesn’t forget them. In fact, in Psalm 56 we’re told that God actually bottles up our tears and he stores them in his book. We also know that God weeps with us. It’s hinted at throughout the Bible, but seen most clearly in Jesus who was a man of sorrows and acquitted with grief. But God doesn’t just witness our tears and weep with us in them, he ultimately promises to wipe those tears away. When we come to the end of the story in Revelation 21, God looks at his people and at the tears in their eyes. And what does he do? He wipes them away and says, “There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away… I am making everything new!” (Rev. 21:4-5).  

With these words, God is inviting us to come to him and to be honest with him about how hard this life can be. But in doing so, he’s inviting us not into a posture of despair, but actually down a path in which he will be with us, reminding us that the God to whom we cry is the one who witnesses our tears, weeps with us in them, and will one day wipe them away. 

God invites us and teaches us in Scripture not only to give thanks to him, but also to cry out to him in our dark moments. Lament is about expressing our pain and sadness, and asking God how long we must wait until all things are made right, holding firmly to the hope that one day they will be.