A Time for Lament

5/25/22 Glenda Simpkins Hoffman

The blog I had initially written for today didn’t seem appropriate given what is happening in the world. There has been yet another mass school shooting, this time at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, where 19 children and two adults were killed. The war rages on in Ukraine where so many are suffering and dying. In addition, the Southern Baptist Convention revealed how there has been systematic cover-up of sexual abuse for decades. There’s more, but that’s enough to know that this is a time for lament.  

Psalm 13, A Prayer for Deliverance from Enemies, is a psalm I go to when tragedy hits and darkness seems to prevail. It gives words in the face of circumstances that leave us shocked, speechless, angry, and grief stricken.  

How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever?
    How long will you hide your face from me?
How long must I bear pain in my soul
    and have sorrow in my heart all day long?
How long shall my enemy be exalted over me? 

Consider and answer me, O Lord my God!
    Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep the sleep of death,
and my enemy will say, “I have prevailed”;
    my foes will rejoice because I am shaken. 

But I trusted in your steadfast love;
    my heart shall rejoice in your salvation. I will sing to the Lord
    because he has dealt bountifully with me. 

I weep for those families in Texas and Ukraine and the survivors of abuse who like the psalmist may feel God has “forgotten” and “hidden” from himself from them causing “pain in my soul” and “sorrow in my heart.” “How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?” How long will the enemy have the upper hand?  

Unless God acts on his behalf, the psalmist feels that he will die. He utters a desperate and bold plea in the midst of a time of tremendous disorientation. We can only assume that there is a pause, a long waiting for a response.  

We don’t know how long the wait is, but then there is a remarkable shift toward reorientation marked by three statements of trust: “I have trusted” and “my heart shall rejoice,” “I will sing.” The psalmist has waited on the Lord who has intervened as he was expected to do, and the psalmist is in a new place of orientation.  

There are three references to God: “your steadfast love,” “your salvation ”and“ the LORD… has dealt bountifully.” There is a sense of grateful trust and communion with God because God has dealt faithfully with the faithful.   

For one of my Doctor of Ministry assignments, I submitted a prayer of lament, which I have adapted today for all that has happened in the world this week, in the larger church, our country, and the world. 

A Prayer of Lament 

O God, we come to you in prayer because what else can we do? To whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We come, O God, but we come with heavy hearts. We have seen the reality of sin, and darkness in our world. We are angry for the evil that was done against the innocent destroying lives. We lament the pain and suffering that has been experienced by those who grieve the loss of loved ones and those survivors and their families ignored for so long.  

Children and adults have been killed. People who are precious to you have been used, abused, and then ignored. We are brokenhearted. How long, O Lord, How long will the innocent suffer and evil and injustice prevail. How long, how long, O Lord? 

We come to you, O God, because we trust in you, and we need to pour out our hearts to you, for you are our God, our hope comes from you. You alone are our rock and salvation, our fortress. “One thing you have spoken, two things we have heard: that you, O God, are strong, and that you, O Lord, are loving.” And so we trust you, O God, and the power of your love to redeem the sin and suffering and the strength of your Spirit to heal, restore, reconcile, and forgive as only you can do. We cling to the truth that greater are you, the one who is in us, than the one who is in the world. 

Most merciful God, we plead and intercede for all victims and survivors in the news this week. We pray for healing in body, mind, and spirit.  We pray for help in providing the resources to process the deep loss, trauma, and grief. We pray for people to come alongside the hurting in ways that are truly helpful receiving their anger, their betrayal, their wounds and by your certain grace and mercy. We pray for hope, a sense of your light and your never-failing presence to be with them, bringing healing in the way you alone know is needed now. In Jesus powerful name we pray. AMEN