January 6: Lament continued

Pastor Vroegop writes: "Prayers of lament are designed to remind us God is worthy to be trusted even in this." (p. 79)

Perhaps in one way. I think they might also be designed (can a lament be designed? that is a deep question, and relevant to the inspiration of Scripture and of the psalms) to show the human experience.

So many of the laments are about uncertainty. There is uncertainty in darkness, when one has no clue what to do or even believe, and uncertainty in the light, when one knows what to do and believe, or what one should, and yet lacks the moral imagination or the motivation to do so. There is trusting in darkness, trusting in blindness. And there is trusting in the light, or seeming light, when the way is clear but undesirable for some reason.

David wrote many of the laments and he could have just chucked it all rather than be faithful to God and the promise that he would get through it, be the king, and his descendant would be the Messiah. Did he really understand all that? Fully? Uncertainty, to be sure. He could have said, forget this, I'll take up with some foreign king (he did), destroy the army of my people, and take over the kingship that way.

But he didn't. The trust is not just a mental and emotional thing. There is always action in trust, some how.

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