Embracing Lament: The matter to address before anything else

“How does God guide us?” Tim Keller wonders in The Songs of Jesus. And then he surprises us with his answer: “The better question is not how, but whom God guides.”

The solution to that issue is spelled out clearly in today’s psalm. Before the writer ever gets to lament, he presents a beautiful litany of the many ways he tries to grow close to God.

“O Lord, I give my life to you. I trust in you, my God!”
“All day long I put my hope in you.”

The psalmist remembers and rehearses the many ways God has shown his power in his life. In humility he confesses his sinfulness and asks for forgiveness. He affirms his faith in the surest way to face life: “Who are those who fear the Lord? He will show them the path they should choose.”

And then, only after affirming God is in control and he is not, he seeks God’s help. On the basis of his trust in God and God’s faithfulness to him, he lays out his complaints and pleads for God to intervene.

The psalmist’s approach is a worthy model. He seeks strength and guidance, not because he thinks he somehow deserves them, but because he knows God is the only source for relief.

This is a picture of the balance we’re seeking. We don’t try to ignore or minimize our grief and frustration and exhaustion. But we look first to God. In our weariness we proclaim he is the ultimate source for strength; he is in control even when our lives feel out of control.

We watch for him to act. (Keller explains that hope translates a term meaning “to wait eagerly” for God.) Our belief that God has not left us empowers our will to take one more step, to do the next right thing.

The starting place for our prayers is our gaze upon God’s eternal goodness and unending provision. We yield ourselves to him, whatever the outcome. And only then do we we tell him the solutions we’re seeking.

Read: Psalm 25
Listen: “Psalm 25 (Show Me Your Ways)” by The Psalms Project 
Pray: “My problems go from bad to worse. Oh, save me from them all! Feel my pain and see my trouble. Forgive all my sins” (vv. 17, 18).

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Getting better, slowly better, at knowing when things should end