It has now been over two weeks since the devastating attack by Hamas on Israel, resulting in continuing death and destruction in Gaza. There seems to be no end in sight, with over 200 Israeli and other nationalities held as hostages by Hamas, and Israel preparing for a ground invasion into Gaza while continuing bombing and rocket attacks on both sides. With so much suffering, it is so hard to know how to pray. I find myself crying to the Lord for mercy, again and again, and praying the prayer of lament.

I wrote the short article below for a publication of our mission organization, back in the season of the global pandemic. As I re-read it this week, it seems to express the importance of Biblical lament that leads not to despair but to hope. It is so very difficult right now to see the Middle East with eyes of hope. But those are exactly the kinds of seasons that others long before us have found a comfort in prayers of lament.

‘The losses mount around us: people sickened, lives lost, jobs or careers never to return. Inequalities and injustices in societies only seem to increase in this age of Covid-19. So much to cry out in prayer and intercession. So many things we groan about in authentic pain from the depths of our hearts. 

All of the above, and so much more, was also part of the prayer lives of the Psalmists: David, Asaph, Ethan, Henan and others. In fact Eugene Peterson, beloved pastor-teacher who passed away last year, wrote that perhaps up to 70% of the Psalms has some degree of lament included. To lament is to pray with honesty the pain and suffering around us: sometimes within, sometimes external to us in our world. It is to bring into the presence of God in worship our deepest cries, believing that we are heard. 

How long, O Lord? Where are you, Lord? We cry to you for help, O Lord! Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayers! Come speedily and help us, O God! Heal this land, and heal our hearts! Forgive us our sins, and the sins of our land! These are just some of the cries and prayers of lament that can fill our hearts, as they filled the Psalmists. 

But we do not lament as without hope.  Lament is a bridge that brings us to the reality of God’s character quality of Hesed, the Old Testament Hebrew word for loving-kindness. Some have said that loving-kindness, or loyal covenantal love, is the defining characteristic of God. When we lament, as Jeremiah did in the book of Lamentations, we are brought to a place of abandonment to the steadfast love (loving-kindness) of God, whose mercies are new every morning, great is His faithfulness. (Lamentations 3:21-23). 

In fact, every Psalm of Lament or Complaint except one comes to a place eventually of trust or hope in God. Only Psalm 88 does not, and one wonders if it is left in scripture to provide us the unvarnished truth that sometimes there are no happy endings, at least in this life.  But still we press on to Psalm 89 and beyond. Life goes on. Hope goes on. Eternal love goes on. 

In a recent survey of 150 Christian worship songs in a particular country, it was found that only 5 had lament as a primary theme. Even in YWAM, we are far better at praise and celebration than the honest crying out of lament with hope in our worship. As we pray this month, we have much to lament before God about. That may involve personal or corporate repentance. It may involve crying out for healing in the nations, or in our own lives and relationships. 

As we pray with lament in intercession, lean even more deeply into God’s Hesed. For yourself, and for your world.’

As we pray with lament for the Middle East right now, let us indeed lean more deeply into God’s steadfast love, His mercies that never come to an end.