Comments BY: NORMAN WETTERAU, M.D. - FMHF PRESIDENT
Service By: Dr. Wayne McCown
Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash
After the presentations and discussions on Lament, Wayne McCown lead a brief service of lament. It was based on Psalm 13. For those who attended, spend some time going over this in a prayerful way. That time with God may be more useful than all the things we can write. If you were not able to attend, read and pray through this. It can be a retreat of Lament with God and lead by the Holy Spirit.
Psalm 13 (NIV), a Psalm of Lament
For the director of music. A psalm of David.
Turning to the LORD with Your Complaint
1 . How long, LORD? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? 2. How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and day after day have sorrow in my heart? How long will my enemy triumph over me?
Bolding Asking the LORD for an Answer:
3. Look on me and answer, LORD my God. Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death, 4 and my enemy will say, “I have overcome him,” and my foes will rejoice when I fall.
Placing Full Trust in the LORD
5. BUT I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation. 6 I will sing the LORD's praise, for he has been good to me.
After you have read and prayed through this psalm, read Wayne McCown’s comments below and repeat your prayers and readings.
Introductory comments on Psalm 13
Psalms of Lament (over 50)
Most have a similar pattern, as represented here
1st step = Turning to God, often/typically voicing hard questions such as Why? and/or How long?
Here, no less than 4x he says, “How long?”
Simply voicing it does not evoke an answer.
Addressing it to God does: “How long, LORD?”
Lament = turning to the LORD with the hard questions of theology and life.
Beyond the pandemic, where else in your life are you pleading with the LORD: “How long?” What are some of your “unanswered” prayers?
2nd step = Bolding presenting to God your specific personal struggle
What “enemy” or “foe” are you facing today?
Physical, mental, psychological or spiritual condition; anxiety, fear, depression?
Address it to the LORD and ask for his help.
3rd step = Turn away from yourself (and your limited resources) and turn back to the LORD
Put your trust – fully – in him.
Typical of Lament: conclude with a reaffirmation of faith, introduced by “but” or “yet”
In your time of reading this and prayer, Walk through the sequence of steps together.
Comments by Dr. Wetterau: The evangelical church likes to be positive and triumphant.
People have not often shared unanswered prayers or failures. Covid has changed this. We in the health care professions see sickness and apparent failures. Many of us have said Psalm 13, and other psalms of lament but I often do not spend time to really pray through the psalm and through the issues that bother me. In this time of covid and national depression, call on your Christian friends and small groups to share their concerns and lament. The medical profession is very concerned with all the covid depression, the increase in drug overdoses and suicides (deaths of despair). Our churches need to be equally if not more concerned. People are looking for answers. Psalm 13 and others have some answers if we can spend the time to pray and allow God to show himself. The answers will not be found in one sermon or in our back pockets.