COVENANT HOPE

 AUGUST 24, 2022

Psalm 10

1 Why, Lord, do you stand far off?
Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?

2 In his arrogance the wicked man hunts down the weak,
who are caught in the schemes he devises.
3 He boasts about the cravings of his heart;
he blesses the greedy and reviles the Lord.
4 In his pride the wicked man does not seek him;
in all his thoughts there is no room for God.
5 His ways are always prosperous;
your laws are rejected by him;
he sneers at all his enemies.
6 He says to himself, “Nothing will ever shake me.”
He swears, “No one will ever do me harm.”

7 His mouth is full of lies and threats;
trouble and evil are under his tongue.
8 He lies in wait near the villages;
from ambush he murders the innocent.
His eyes watch in secret for his victims;
9 like a lion in cover he lies in wait.
He lies in wait to catch the helpless;
he catches the helpless and drags them off in his net.
10 His victims are crushed, they collapse;
they fall under his strength.
11 He says to himself, “God will never notice;
he covers his face and never sees.”

12 Arise, Lord! Lift up your hand, O God.
Do not forget the helpless.
13 Why does the wicked man revile God?
Why does he say to himself,
“He won’t call me to account”?
14 But you, God, see the trouble of the afflicted;
you consider their grief and take it in hand.
The victims commit themselves to you;
you are the helper of the fatherless.
15 Break the arm of the wicked man;
call the evildoer to account for his wickedness
that would not otherwise be found out.

16 The Lord is King for ever and ever;
the nations will perish from his land.
17 You, Lord, hear the desire of the afflicted;
you encourage them, and you listen to their cry,
18 defending the fatherless and the oppressed,
so that mere earthly mortals
will never again strike terror.

 

The women and men of the Old Testament were as real as we are today. They danced and sang, rejoiced and laughed, argued and confessed, lamented and mourned. They expressed emotions to God in prayer just as we do today. When we encounter difficult struggles and need God’s rescue, salvation, and help, the psalms of lament are a great resource and place to turn.

The Protestant Reformer Martin Luther treasured the psalms of lament. Of them, he said, “What is the greatest thing in the Psalter but this earnest speaking amid the storm winds of every kind? . . . Where do you find deeper, more sorrowful, more pitiful words of sadness than in the psalms of lamentation? And that they speak these words to God and with God, this I repeat, is the best thing of all. This gives the words double earnestness and life” (Word and Sacrament, Luther’s Works, vol. 1, ed. E. T. Bachmann. Philadelphia: Fortress, 1960, pp. 255 –56).



These words we have been reflecting on and about this week are spoken out of the life of Faith. These prayers and songs of Lament are evidence of a relationship with God. Israel brought their lament to God in the psalms on the basis of His covenant with them. These prayers and songs were not  attempts to convince a distant God to notice them. They were not like the priests of Baal dancing and cutting themselves to conjure a response. These were a people whom God, the creator and covenant making God, had called His “firstborn”. They were asking their Father to act according to the covenant promises they had know.

Through lament, we affirm that God rules, even in the midst of circumstances that might suggest otherwise. By crying out in our pain to a powerful, merciful, and good God, by asking him to intervene, we affirm our trust in his ability to transform our experiences and indeed this world.

At its very heart, a lament is an expression of trust in the character, power, and previous action of God, an expression of trust that looks beyond our current circumstances to what will be because of who God by his own promises says he will do. Biblical lament, then, is an honest cry to a God who is powerful, good, and just, a cry that this situation we are in, is not in alignment with God’s person or purposes. It’s a cry that expects an answer from God, and therefore results in hope, trust, and joy rather than despair.

There is a tragic, heart breaking scene described by Russell Moore in his book, Adopted for Life. Moore describes going to an orphanage in Russia as they were in the process of pursuing adoption. The silence from the nursery was eerie. The babies in the cribs never cried. Not because they never needed anything, but because they had learned that no one cared enough to answer. Children who are confident of the love of a caregiver cry. For us as Jesus followers, our lament, when taken to our Father in heaven, is proof of our relationship with God, and our connection to a great Caregiver.

Amen? AMEN!!