Lament is little understood or practised in most contemporary church communities. However, in today’s world of increasing trauma, this means of grace is much needed. In this article, after providing a biblical basis for lament, focus is given to practical applications of lament in various communities. The studies included refugees from the Democratic Republic of Congo and Burundi living in Cape Town, ‘discipleship groups’ in two townships of Cape Town and an AIDS-support group near Pietermaritzburg. The empirical studies use biblical literature (mainly psalms of lament) either to provide a voice for those who battle to express their pain or to provide a model for sufferers to compose their own laments. Results show that biblical lament can help the individual find healing (social, physiological and spiritual), promote a more socially aware community and help church members gain a better understanding of the nature of the Christian life and the character of God. Consequently, it is highly recommended that those who seek to help trauma-sufferers consider the importance of lament in their ministries. As they then put the theory into practice, those who for so long have felt isolated or misunderstood in the Church will find solace and find healing for their pain.
This study challenges current practices in the Church and provides practical applications of the notion of lament, which over the last 20 years has gained much traction in practical theology and biblical studies. Proven empirical studies show how lament can help individuals and the community to find healing.
Lament was an important part of Israel’s history, and the Hebrew Bible includes individual and communal laments as an integral part of the relationship with God (Westermann
In this article, attention is first given to lament in the Old Testament and then the New Testament, to give a biblical basis for this practice. Thereafter, some examples of application in today’s world will be reviewed as important means of bringing grace to those in pain.
In the Old Testament, God was seen as the one who could remove suffering, and thus it was normal to bring pain to God. Similarly, when the community experienced a crisis (e.g. the destruction of Jerusalem), they united their sorrow in communal laments (e.g. Ps 79), which were passed on from one generation to the next. Even those who had not been present at the time of the remembered disaster continued to use these laments when they experienced other disasters. There was an ongoing expression of pain to God as people tried to understand how their covenant God could allow certain things to happen.
The
In the New Testament, Jesus’ lament on the cross (when he quoted from Ps 22, a lament psalm) is a marvellous example of the need to lament, even with the knowledge of eventual victory. He accepted lament as the language of suffering, and granted it both validity and dignity. Moreover, Hughes (
Lament in the New Testament shows some variance with that in the Old Testament. The basic elements of lament continue, that is, it is a cry of pain from the sufferer to God, and it includes complaints, requests (some of which may have to do with justice being meted out to the enemy) and affirmations of faith. Although the New Testament teaching includes ‘forgiving the enemy’, this is not contrary to ‘asking God to mete out justice to the enemy’. The sufferer is able to be free of anger and negative emotion by handing over vengeance to God, and so is able to forgive and to ‘bless the enemy’.
Similarly, the New Testament notion of ‘enduring hardship’ does not preclude complaining to God about it. The lamenter brings the problem to God, along with all the associated emotions (which may also include anger against God), and then trusts God to work it out. Until God resolves the problem, he or she endures. This is what Jesus did on the cross. He voiced his pain at being abandoned, and then endured till the end. It is worth noting that despite being aware of his coming resurrection and return to glory, Jesus lamented (Mat 27:46; Mk 15:34).
In today’s world, lament has been negatively construed in many parts of the Western protestant Church, particularly in Pentecostal and Charismatic churches. Some leaders fear that encouraging prayers of lament will lead to a ‘culture of complaint’, but as Hamann (
Without leadership encouraging biblical lament, Christians often view despair and anxiety in their own lives as a lack of faith and so fail to express it (Cilliers
the well-being of the afflicted
the depth of relationship and care in the wider community
people’s perception of the character of God
expectations regarding the nature of the Christian life.
Those suffering are expected to endure without complaint, resulting in a lack of care and help being extended to many in need (Soelle
A second consequence of the lack of lament is a negative impact on the wider community. Soelle (
This toleration of exploitation, oppression, and injustice points to a condition lying like a pall over the whole of society; it is apathy, an unconcern that is incapable of suffering. (p. 36)
The sufferer is left to suffer alone. Society becomes progressively more self-centred, relegating all suffering to something ‘beyond our influence’. But our inaction serves to justify injustice and oppression. This situation cannot continue. Indeed, ‘As long as there is any form of suffering whatsoever, the church needs to beat with an aching heart against God’s heart’ (Cilliers
A third consequence of the lack of lament is that God is seen as one who is sadistic. Suffering is understood as a test from God (a refining or a punishment), to bring us back to a God who only becomes great when others are made small (Soelle
Given these problematic views that arise when lament is ignored, there has been a resurgence of interest in lament studies over recent years. Since the 1970s,
How then does lament correct the erroneous views mentioned above?
Firstly, with regard to the needs of the afflicted, the pain-bearer is given the opportunity to tell his or her story. The first step in trauma healing is for the victim (who was treated as an ‘object’) to be a ‘subject’ and recover agency, that is, able to make choices (Herman
Secondly, with regard to the need for a healthy community, the practice of lament enables Christian witness today to be authentic. For as Wenig (
Thirdly, lament enables us to face realities in an honest way, correcting wrong ideas of the Christian life. Lament helps a person understand that problems in the Christian life are not to be perceived as signs of failure but as normal and to be expected. As Moltmann (
In the early church, when life was hard, many Christian songs had the character of laments. We need to utilise this powerful form today to face the hardships that we all experience, personally and communally. As Ackermann (cited in Paterson
The scriptures have given us a language that can deal with suffering. In the ancient language of lament, we have a way of naming the unnameable and crying out to God and naming situations that are unbearable. (p. 14)
Cilliers (
Fourthly, with regard to correcting the wrong views of God, lament resists a false view of God that presents a comfortable theology but one that ignores pain. As Moltmann (
The practice of lament can help avoid a shallow, one-dimensional understanding of the character of God. For example, lament reveals that God is not complacent about suffering, God is not restricted to a dualistic system of retributive justice, God does not view complaint as a lack of faith or hope and God allows Godself to be criticised. The complainant discovers that God engages with him or her as he or she complains but does not rebuke or crush him or her. Instead, ‘pain voiced and processed’ becomes the basis of a new relationship with God, one that is more mature and able to process difficulty.
Given, then, that lament has a vital role to play in the life of the Church, how can such a practice be implemented, and become a part of normal biblical worship? As Hamann (
Apart from the social benefits of the practice of lament, there are also physiological benefits for the lamenter. The experience of trauma causes an overstimulation of hormones in the hippocampus (in the right side of the brain). As a result, the trauma memory is not processed (converted into an episode in one’s autobiography and stored in long-term memory). Instead, it is left as ‘raw memory’. This leads to the collapse of the ‘implicit self’ (the sense of knowing ‘who I am’), resulting in a loss of feeling safe and being able to trust (Schore
Lament can help deal with the processing of the trauma memory and restore a sense of trust in the sufferer. Various neuro-researchers (e.g. Cozolino
Another benefit of using psalms to promote healing following trauma is that poetry uses powerful picture-language (metaphors), which can replace and counteract the toxic trauma memory. For example, images of God as a ‘rock of refuge’ or ‘the true royal lion’ (an image suggested by a Zulu poet, in contrast to ‘the enemy’ making the noise of a common lion) can be helpful to someone overcome by fear.
This study seeks to apply the principles of lament in the pastoral context. Many scholars have highlighted the need for the practice of lament (as indicated in the material above) but little has been done empirically in the way of using the biblical text to help people express their pain and find healing.
Ethical clearance to conduct this study was obtained from the Research Department of the University of KwaZulu-Natal (Ethical Clearance number: HSS/1602/015D).
In designing the empirical study, the following principles were noted:
Firstly, the psychotherapist Herman (
With regard to the first use of psalms, it is recognised that it is very difficult for a person who has experienced trauma to find the language to express his or her pain. Calvin observed this and thus encouraged sufferers to listen to biblical laments and to mimic their words (Poser
Secondly, psalms can be particularly helpful in providing words for sufferers as the pain is usually described generally, allowing the reader to fill in the particular details. Thus, the psalms allow for a ‘companionship of feelings’ (Hamann
Thirdly, poetry (as provided by psalms) is particularly helpful at times of disorientation as it does not require coherence and closure. Many of the lament psalms also include thanksgiving or words of hope. Such sparks of light in the darkness can help sufferers move forward in their lives (the third aspect of healing
With these notions in mind, it was noted that the psalms can be used in two ways, to facilitate healing for trauma-sufferers. The section below discusses the first of these approaches, using text to provide a voice for those who battle to express their pain.
Various scholars have used biblical texts of lament to find hope or healing for contemporary trauma. For example, Brueggemann (
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Other texts that have been useful to give sufferers a voice are Psalm 55 (Bail
The presence in most of the laments of both a radical recognition of pain and suffering, and a willingness to hope that things can be otherwise, contributes to the potential value of laments. (p. 26)
In this study, I used Psalm 55 with two different groups in Capricorn, a poor township of Cape Town.
When I conducted the study with the four young women in the support group, they all included requests among the verses with which they identified. The woman whose background and the current situation are possibly the most ‘broken’ resonated not only with eight of the nine complaints but also with four of the five statements of trust. One identified with two verses of complaint and another with only one. All of the women had resonance with at least one verse affirming trust (either v.16 or 18).
None of the women really identified with the ‘city’ described in the psalm, not seeing their township as similar (although I even used the name of the township in one of my readings of the psalm). For them, the pain is clearly a personal kind of pain, being betrayed by a friend, rather than the situation of the crime and the danger of living in that community. The results with the Bible study group were similar: of the 16 respondents, 15 resonated with complaint statements, 14 with justice issues, 11 with requests and 12 with affirmations of trust. In both groups, those who resonated most with complaint statements also identified most with affirmations of trust. This supports the notion that lament (bringing complaint to God) is not showing a lack of faith but rather the opposite: Trust in God’s goodness encourages them to bring difficult situations to God.
Also, it would seem that the greater the trauma in one’s life, the more one identified with the ‘lament’ in the psalm. This is in line with the assertion of Ellington (
Many people value the opportunity to be creative and write their own prayer, specific to their circumstances. In terms of lament-prayers, it is helpful to study several biblical laments to learn the kind of language that God accepts, and the general content of such laments. As Brueggemann (
To help sufferers compose their own laments, I have conducted ‘lament workshops’ in which we first study Psalm 3 and Psalm 13, two short but helpful lament psalms. Participants note that the psalmist is bold in bringing complaints to God. No kind of language seems to be out of bounds, as long as it is sincere. Raw honest emotion seems to be acceptable. They note, too, that there are requests for God to do various things (to resolve the problem) and also there is often a request for God to deal with the person who caused the pain. Participants note, too, that most lament psalms also include affirmations of faith or some glimpses of hope.
Participants then considered the following questions
Is there something that is upsetting me that I would like to complain to God about (a problem with others, God or myself)?
What would I like to ask God to do in my situation?
Do I feel a need for justice? Do I need to ask God to ‘sort out’ the person who caused me trouble?
What things do I know about God, or have experienced from God in the past, which give me hope at this time?
With their responses to these questions in mind, participants then composed their lament-prayers. They were encouraged to break out of the confines of ‘biblical language’ or ‘prayer language’ and to express their real emotions, hopes, fears and pain.
One group with which I worked consisted of eight young, unemployed women from an AIDS-support group. They meet weekly in a community hall in Howick (near Pietermaritzburg) and occasionally the University of KwaZulu-Natal provided some positive intervention (in line with a memorandum of understanding agreed between the parties). One woman from this group wrote the following lament:
The composer of this prayer complains and takes control of her situation (the words in normal font), thereby asserting her agency. She insists on her right to justice (indicated by italics), and affirms words of faith (shown in bold), which helps her to move forward positively.
Her use of metaphors (God as her rock, her cover, her shield and the one who fights or stands for her) give powerful images that will displace any negative ideas she has of her enemies overwhelming her. The use of repeated statements affirming God’s stability (thereby providing her with stability) interspersed with complaints or requests for justice contributes to the ‘moderate stress’, which promotes the development of healing neurons (as referred to previously).
The reference to ‘laugh’ in line 2 reminds the composer of the trauma she had experienced. Juxtaposed with this toxic memory is the new image of God being big, thereby displacing the negative emotion associated with the trauma, and bringing a sense of comfort (through God’s bigness protecting her). Thus, the lament incorporates many features that promote healing. And being a prayer, it engages divine help!
The Lord’s Prayer is the model that Jesus gave his disciples for all prayers. Although it is not a formal lament, it does offer a pattern for lamenting between ‘the now’ and ‘not yet’ when God’s Kingdom will come in its fullness (Eklund
The Lord’s Prayer also includes the typical elements of lament: An address to God; opportunity to express complaints, request and affirmations of faith; and elements dealing with justice issues. Thus, I invited two groups in Capricorn to use the Lord’s Prayer as a template for their own personal lament-prayer. These were the same two groups as previously, namely, the four women in a support group, and the 16 members of the Bible study group. Each participant was given an outline of the prayer (see
Some of the responses of the workshop participants are included in the prayer below.
Complaints have been underlined, to give focus to these elements, typical of lament.
Father,
hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come.
Give us each day our daily bread,
and forgive us our sins,
for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us.
And lead us not into temptation.
From the communal lament (above), it is clear that the two sections, ‘hallowed be your name’ and ‘your kingdom come’, are where many complaints were voiced. These are not personal complaints but communal complaints, typical of a communal lament. The first section ‘Father’ calls up (for these participants) many affirmations of what the fatherhood of God means to them. However, for those from other communities (e.g. young people who have grown up with no father present), the notion of God as Father may be more problematic and may include a complaint. The last four sections of the Prayer include mainly requests, but some participants included complaints (either direct or indirect). For example, in the section, ‘as we forgive others’, several people mentioned their anger with particular others who had caused them trouble. This can be seen as a positive element of lament, providing space for people to be freed of their emotions of anger and frustration so that they can then forgive those who have done them wrong.
In terms of dealing with enemies, a part of the Old Testament lament, one notes that the Lord’s Prayer provides space for both seeking forgiveness and giving forgiveness. However, the need for vengeance (an aspect of the Old Testament lament) is included in the Lord’s Prayer, either in ‘give us what we need today’ (e.g. peace, a sense of justice) or ‘lead us not into temptation’ (help us not to take vengeance into our own hands but to entrust it to you). And, as mentioned, the voicing of negative emotions, resulting from wrong done to one, can lead to the positive possibility of forgiveness being exercised towards the wrongdoers.
The empirical prayer also shows implied complaints or ‘mentioning of practical difficulties of every-day life’ in the section, ‘Give us each day our daily bread’. However, the study of lament has shown us that it is acceptable andpossible to protest pain and yet also endure in the New Testament spirit of long-suffering. And so the participants were encouraged to bring to God their complaints, their lacks and needs, in a spirit of humility (not demanding, but long-suffering until God acts and changes their situations). These complaints and lacks included very tangible physical needs (e.g. food, money for rent, electricity supply, clean roads and potholes fixed) as well as social needs (good conversation) and ‘spiritual food’.
Scholars through the years have all noted that the requests in the Lord’s Prayer aim not only at personal needs but also at the fulfilment of what God has already begun to display. Thus, this prayer, expressing the pain and personal needs of people living in Capricorn, can also be part of the coming of God’s kingdom into that community.
Beyond the need for individual lament, Worden (
If we keep in mind the corporate mentality with which these psalms were written, and our obligation to look beyond our individual selves to the whole body of Christ, we will have little difficulty in making these lamentations a genuine expression of our prayer. (p. 51)
He asserts, too, that lament is necessary in modern society, not only for the sake of the suffering and the health of the community but also for the glory of God’s name. In his words (Worden
As God’s church, surrounded by dangers, suffering loss and humiliation, we have the solemn obligation to beg that for the glory of God’s name our enemies may soon be destroyed. (p. 196)
One reason why lament is needed in corporate worship is that unhealthy power relations must be revised. Williamson (
To address this need, for ‘insiders’ (South Africans) to become more sensitive to the needs of ‘outsiders’ (refugees), I conducted a workshop over several weeks with a group of eight young men from Burundi and DRC. They learnt about lament, and composed a communal lament, which they then prayed as part of the worship one Sunday morning. Little introduction was given to the prayer, except that I quoted a few Scriptures that refer to us being one Body, and that in Christ, ‘there is no citizen nor refugee … but all are one in Christ’. Members of the congregation were invited to come around the refugees as they prayed, to symbolically ‘protect’ them and pray for them in blessing. Many of the congregation found it a very moving and eye-opening experience. Indeed, all but one
In contrast with those whose lives are ‘in balance’, those who accept that their lives are ‘out of balance’ are more ready to lament. Their acknowledgement of pain enables them to come to God in honesty, based on the security of their covenant relationship with God. However, many of those who are materially well off do not want to disrupt the
The same kind of ‘communal lament’ could be made by many other groups in the church who suffer a particular situation, for example, widows, the unemployed, single parents, childless couples and those who suffer depression. The very fact that others in the Body recognise their pain and stand together with them in unity before God in intercession can be very healing, and this can build stronger bonds between fellow-believers.
O’Connor (
Although personal lament is important, there is also a need for communal lament, using rituals to allow for the articulation of pain, and public spaces to deprivatise the pain (Brueggemann
The decision is critical, and we need to carefully consider this means of grace and take hold of it, for the good of our communities. Lament can no longer be misunderstood and avoided. Neither is it sufficient to simply discuss its importance. For the past 40 years (since Brueggemann and Westermann in the 1980s), scholars have urged the need for lament. But now it needs to be
The author thanks Ujamaa (associated with the University of KwaZulu-Natal), the women of the Siyaphila support-group near Howick, and the fellowship group in Capricorn township (Cape Town).
The author declares that she has no financial or personal relationship(s) that may have inappropriately influenced her in writing this article.
This article is solely written by J.F.D.
This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.
Data are available upon request from the author.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the author.
1 Listen, God, to my prayer! Don’t reject my request. | request |
2 Please listen and help me. | request |
My thoughts are troubled, and I keep groaning | complaint |
3 because my loud enemies shout and attack. | complaint |
They treat me terribly and hold angry grudges. | complaint |
4 My heart is racing fast, and I am afraid of dying. | complaint |
5 I am trembling with fear, completely terrified. | complaint |
6 I wish I had wings like a dove,. | wish/complaint |
so I could fly far away and be at peace. | wish/complaint |
7 I would go and live in some distant desert. | wish |
8 I would quickly find shelter from howling winds and raging storms. | wish |
9 Confuse my enemies, Lord! Upset their plans. | justice |
Cruelty and violence are all I see in the city, | complaint |
10 and they are like guards on patrol day and night. | complaint |
The city is full of trouble, evil. | complaint |
11 and corruption, | complaint |
Troublemakers and liars freely roam the streets. | complaint |
12 My enemies are not the ones who sneer and make fun. | complaint |
I could put up with that or even hide from them. | complaint |
13 But it was my closest friend, the one I trusted most. | complaint |
14 We enjoyed being together, and we went with others | complaint |
to your house, our God. | complaint |
15 All who hate me are controlled by the power of evil. | complaint |
Sentence them to death and | justice |
send them down alive to the world of the dead. | justice |
16 I ask for your help, Lord God, and you will keep me safe. | trust |
17 Morning, noon, and night you hear my concerns and my complaints. | trust |
18 I am attacked from all sides, but you will rescue me, | trust |
unharmed by the battle. | trust |
19 You have always ruled, and you will hear me. | trust |
You will defeat my enemies because they won’t turn and worship you. | trust |
20 My friend turned against me and broke his promise. | complaint |
21 His words were smoother than butter, and softer than olive oil. | complaint |
But hatred filled his heart, and he was ready to attack with a sword. | complaint |
22 Our Lord, we belong to you. | trust |
We tell you what worries us, and you won’t let us fall. | trust |
23 But what about those people who are cruel and brutal? | complaint |
You will throw them down into the deepest pit long before their time. | justice |
I trust you, Lord! | trust |
address to God, affirmation of faith | |
Can you call God your Father? Do you have some problems thinking of God as your heavenly father? Or is it a relationship that means a lot to you? | |
affirmation of faith, complaint | |
(relationship of world with God) | |
What aspects of our society and life as a community show a great lack of God being served as king? | |
request, complaint | |
What do I and my family/community lack in terms of resources for daily living? | |
request | |
What have I done wrong, that is in my heart now? | |
justice issue, request | |
(relationship with enemies) | |
Which people have wronged me that I feel angry about? | |
request | |
(relationship of pray-er with God) | |
What is getting in the way of my relationship with God? (Am I angry about something? Or worried? Or confused?) |
Westermann first raised the topic of lament in 1976, in his article, ‘Roep uit die diepte’. His first book on the topic was published in 1981.
Interpersonal abuse destroys the person’s confidence to be creative. But the capacity is still there to be encouraged. See Hug (
Frechette and Boase (
The first step is to provide a sense of security, the second to allow the sufferer to tell his/her story and the third to connect with life going forward (Herman
Ethical approval for the empirical research has a protocol reference number HSS/1985/016PD from UKZN.
These observations line up with the ‘elements of a lament psalm’, which Brueggemann lists (mentioned above).
The mood swings in the psalms of lament have been studied with great insight by Villanueva (
Capps (
Goldingay (
The explanation given by the poet was this: Let them lose the wrong idea that I am a loser.
The exception did not realise that the English translation of the prayer (prayed in French) was on the screen.