Oakwood Church
Biblical Lament - Psalm 13
Locations & Times
Oakwood Community Church
11209 Casey Rd, Tampa, FL 33618, USA
Sunday 8:00 AM
Biblical Lament:
A prayer in pain that leads to trust.
It is the honest cry of a hurting heart wrestling with the paradox of pain and the promise of God’s goodness.
A prayer in pain that leads to trust.
It is the honest cry of a hurting heart wrestling with the paradox of pain and the promise of God’s goodness.
It is a divinely-given invitation to pour out our fears, frustrations, and sorrows for the purpose of helping us renew our confidence in God.
“It is precisely out of trust that God is sovereign that the psalmist repeatedly brings laments and petitions to the Lord…If the psalmist had already decided the verdict–that God is indeed unfaithful–he would not continue to offer his complaint.”
~ Todd Billings, Rejoicing in Lament
~ Todd Billings, Rejoicing in Lament
Lament asks two questions:
1. “Where are you, God?”
2. “If you love me, why is this happening?”
1. “Where are you, God?”
2. “If you love me, why is this happening?”
Pattern of Biblical Lament:
1. Turn to God
2. Bring your complaint
3. Ask boldly for help
4. Choose to trust
1. Turn to God
2. Bring your complaint
3. Ask boldly for help
4. Choose to trust
Psalm 13 “How long, O Lord?”
Psalm 22:1 “My, God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
Psalm 55:1 “Give ear to my prayer, O God, and hide not yourself from my plea for mercy!”
Psalm 77:1 “I cry aloud to God, aloud to God, and he will hear me.”
Psalm 22:1 “My, God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
Psalm 55:1 “Give ear to my prayer, O God, and hide not yourself from my plea for mercy!”
Psalm 77:1 “I cry aloud to God, aloud to God, and he will hear me.”
Pattern of Biblical Lament:
1. Turn to God
a. Giving God the silent treatment is the ultimate manifestation of unbelief.
1. Turn to God
a. Giving God the silent treatment is the ultimate manifestation of unbelief.
Pattern of Biblical Lament:
1. Turn to God
b. Anyone can cry, but it takes faith to turn to God in lament.
1. Turn to God
b. Anyone can cry, but it takes faith to turn to God in lament.
“It is better to ask them than not to ask them, because asking them sharpens the issue and pushes us toward the right, positive response."
~ James Montgomery Boice
~ James Montgomery Boice
“Doubts are better put into plain speech than lying diffused and darkened, like poisonous mists in the heart. A thought, be it good or bad, can be dealt with when it is made articulate.”
~ Alexander Maclaren
~ Alexander Maclaren
Pattern of Biblical Lament:
2. Bring your complaint
2. Bring your complaint
“Writers of laments and complaints in the psalms often seek to make their ‘case’ against God, frequently citing God’s promises in order to complain that God seems to be forgetting His promises. They throw the promises of God back at him.”
~ Todd Billings
~ Todd Billings
Pattern of Biblical Lament:
2. Bring your complaint
a. We complain based on our belief in who God is and what He can do.
2. Bring your complaint
a. We complain based on our belief in who God is and what He can do.
“A lament honestly and specifically names a situation or circumstance that is painful, wrong, or unjust – in other words, a circumstance that does not align with God’s character and therefore does not make sense within God’s kingdom.”
~ Todd Billings
~ Todd Billings
Lament is a language of a people who believe in God’s sovereignty but live in a world with tragedy.
Pattern of Biblical Lament:
2. Bring your complaint
b. Bring your frustrations with honesty.
c. Bring your questions with humility.
2. Bring your complaint
b. Bring your frustrations with honesty.
c. Bring your questions with humility.
Psalm 55:2 & 17
“Attend to me, and answer me; I am restless in my complaint and I moan, because of the noise of the enemy, because of the oppression of the wicked.
Evening and morning and at noon I utter my complaint and moan, and he hears my voice.”
“Attend to me, and answer me; I am restless in my complaint and I moan, because of the noise of the enemy, because of the oppression of the wicked.
Evening and morning and at noon I utter my complaint and moan, and he hears my voice.”
Psalm 77:7-9
• “Will the Lord spurn forever?” (v.7)
• “Will he never again be favorable?” (v.7)
• “Has his steadfast love forever ceased?” (v.8)
• “Are his promises at an end for all time?” (v.8)
• “Has God forgotten to be gracious?” (v.9)
• “Has he in anger shut up his compassion?” (v.9)
• “Will the Lord spurn forever?” (v.7)
• “Will he never again be favorable?” (v.7)
• “Has his steadfast love forever ceased?” (v.8)
• “Are his promises at an end for all time?” (v.8)
• “Has God forgotten to be gracious?” (v.9)
• “Has he in anger shut up his compassion?” (v.9)
The psalmist turns his powerless position into a platform to call out to God.
Pattern of Biblical Lament:
3. Ask boldly for help
3. Ask boldly for help
Psalm 13:3
“Consider and answer me, O Lord my God.”
Psalm 10:12
“Arise, O Lord; O God, lift up your hand; forget not the afflicted.”
“Consider and answer me, O Lord my God.”
Psalm 10:12
“Arise, O Lord; O God, lift up your hand; forget not the afflicted.”
Psalm 22:19
“But you, O Lord, do not be far off! O you my help, come quickly to my aid! Deliver my soul from the sword, my precious life from the power of the dog! Save me from the power of the lion!”
“But you, O Lord, do not be far off! O you my help, come quickly to my aid! Deliver my soul from the sword, my precious life from the power of the dog! Save me from the power of the lion!”
Pattern of Biblical Lament:
3. Ask boldly for help
a. Lament must move from the why question of complaint to the who question of request.
3. Ask boldly for help
a. Lament must move from the why question of complaint to the who question of request.
Just as one heavenly body moves into the shadow of another during an eclipse, so too the why questions and the who questions coexist, but not equally.
Pattern of Biblical Lament:
3. Ask boldly for help
b. The grace of lament is the way it invites us to pray boldly even when we’ve been bruised badly.
3. Ask boldly for help
b. The grace of lament is the way it invites us to pray boldly even when we’ve been bruised badly.
Hebrews 4:16
“Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”
“Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”
Hebrews 4:15
“For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are,
yet without sin.”
“For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are,
yet without sin.”
Pattern of Biblical Lament:
4. Choose to trust
4. Choose to trust
Psalm 13:5
“Bit I have trusted in your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.”
Psalm 55
“But I will trust in you.’
“Bit I have trusted in your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.”
Psalm 55
“But I will trust in you.’
“Words such as but and however are found in every lament because lamenting trust is not merely a mental assent to knowledge; it is a decision to trust despite what circumstances might lead one to believe otherwise. Words like but, however, and yet mark the intentional shift from the cause of the lament to trusting in the One God who stands above the lament.”
~ Michael Jenkins, Inhabiting the Psalms of Lament
~ Michael Jenkins, Inhabiting the Psalms of Lament
“The prayer of lament rejoices in God’s saving actions in the now and hopes urgently for God’s saving actions in the future, the ‘not yet’ of the eschatalogical timeline…Those who lament stand on the boundary between the old age and the new and hope for things unseen.”
~ Rebekah Eklund, Lord, Teach Us How to Grieve
~ Rebekah Eklund, Lord, Teach Us How to Grieve
Pattern of Biblical Lament:
4. Choose to trust
a. Recite God’s promises in His Word.
b. Recall God’s past goodness to you.
4. Choose to trust
a. Recite God’s promises in His Word.
b. Recall God’s past goodness to you.
Psalm 77:10
“Then I said, ‘I will appeal to this, to the years of the right hand of the Most High.’”
“Then I said, ‘I will appeal to this, to the years of the right hand of the Most High.’”
Psalm 77:11
“I will remember the deeds of the Lord; yes, I will remember your wonders of old. I will ponder all your work, and meditate on your mighty deeds. Your way, O God, is holy. What god is great like our God? You are the God who works wonders; you have made known your might among the peoples.”
“I will remember the deeds of the Lord; yes, I will remember your wonders of old. I will ponder all your work, and meditate on your mighty deeds. Your way, O God, is holy. What god is great like our God? You are the God who works wonders; you have made known your might among the peoples.”
Psalm 77:16
“When the waters saw you, O God, when the waters saw you, they were afraid; indeed, the deep trembled.”
“When the waters saw you, O God, when the waters saw you, they were afraid; indeed, the deep trembled.”
Psalm 77:19-20
“Your way was through the sea, your path through the great waters; yet your footprints were unseen. You led your people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron.”
“Your way was through the sea, your path through the great waters; yet your footprints were unseen. You led your people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron.”
Romans 8:36
“For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.”
“For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.”
Pattern of Biblical Lament:
4. Choose to trust
c. Resound God’s praises in the pain.
4. Choose to trust
c. Resound God’s praises in the pain.