Psalm 88 and True Lament

A spiritual practice for those grieving today

A Fearful World by Louis Le Brocqay, 1948, Trinity College, Dublin (My photograph)

I know that many of us are devastated by the news out of Texas. So many lives taken too soon, and many of them were precious children. We feel that pain so deeply within us. The overwhelming sense of grief can make us feel helpless. We want to help, and we should. There are many organizations that we can donate to that are on the ground, in the mud, caring for the people in need. But what do we do with our feelings? How do we process such unimaginable loss and devastation?

We can lament. In scripture, lament is an active spiritual practice for a response to deep suffering and injustice. Lament allows us to present our desperation and even our anger to God. In his revolutionary book, Prophetic Lament, Soong-Chan Rah gives a beautiful treatise on lament as a needed spiritual practice. He recognizes that the American church often avoids lament in favor of a theology of celebration. (22) We are missing out on the healing benefits of communal lament.

This morning, my psalm of the day was Psalm 88, and I realized how significant this psalm is for where many of us are right now. Of the many lament psalms, Psalm 88 stands alone because it does not end in praise. This psalm lets the raw humanity remain for a while. This psalm teaches us that sometimes we can sit in our grief, still calling out to God, and truly lament.

After the death of my son, I went through a time when I could not pray or read scripture at all. I was so angry at God for not answering our prayers for his healing. As I began to read the Bible again, the lament psalms were all I could manage. I could relate to the deep groaning and bleeding honesty of the psalmists. I could find myself in their questioning of God, and I learned that the questioning is holy. I had many believers telling me that “my time of grieving was over,” and that “God wants you to walk in joy now,” and even, “I didn’t know you were still dealing with this,” from a family member.

Psalm 88 shows it is sometimes needed to lean into lament.

O LORD, God of my salvation,

I cry out day and night before you.

Let my prayer come before you;

incline your ear to my cry!

For my soul is full of troubles,

and my life draws near to Sheol.

I am counted among those who go down to the pit;

I am a man who has no strength,

like one set loose among the dead,

like the slain that lie in the grave,

like those whom you remember no more,

for they are cut off from your hand.

You have put me in the depths of the pit,

in the regions dark and deep.

Your wrath lies heavy upon me,

and you overwhelm me with all your waves. Selah

You have caused my companions to shun me;

you have made me a horror to them.

I am shut in so that I cannot escape;

My eye grows dim through sorrow.

Every day I call upon you, O LORD;

I spread out my hands to you.

Do you work wonders for the dead?

Do the departed rise up to praise you? Selah

Is your steadfast love declared in the grave,

or your faithfulness in Abaddon?

Are your wonders known in the darkness,

or your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?

But I, O LORD, cry to you;

in the morning my prayer comes before you.

O LORD, why do you cast my soul away?

Why do you hide your face from me?

Afflicted and close to death from my youth up,

I suffer your terrors; I am helpless.

Your wrath has swept over me;

your dreadful assaults destroy me.

They surround me like a flood all day long;

they close in on me together.

You have caused my beloved and my friend to shun me;

my companions have become darkness. (ESV)

While the author is full of spirit-crushing grief throughout the psalm, he persists in prayer. The beautiful imagery of crying out to the Lord day and night, of spreading out hands in longing, of praying first thing in the morning even though the night was full of groaning, instructs us in the ways of perseverant supplication. Romans 8:26 assures us that the Spirit is with us in weakness, interceding with us with “groanings too deep for words” when we don’t have the verbiage due to the intensity of our grief.

Although Psalm 88 allows us to lean into necessary lament, Psalm 89 shows that the fruits of lament are always praise and a recognition of God’s ultimate goodness and sovereignty. We cannot stay there forever because of who God is and his eternal attributes of compassion, mercy, and faithfulness. Psalm 89 is brimming with covenant language and hope.

But today we lament.