Praying When The Chips Are Down

August 2008

Repertoire is a word I like. When I was a music student at the University of Calgary, my piano teachers made sure I learned to play pieces from across the spectrum of music. I learned Beethoven and Bartok, Handel and Hindemith, Mozart and Mendelssohn, Bach and Brahms. The variety of styles, tone, mood, melody, depths of emotions, and the story each piece tells in the tickle of the ivories was truly awe inspiring. Tearful playing was not all that unusual.

The Psalms trumpet even more of the breadth and depth of the human soul. They awaken us to a repertoire of feelings, states of mind, dark and bright moods, and life experiences that resonate with every string of our lives. They awaken in us a repertoire long forgotten. These pra-yers were in tune with the living God. At times, their prayers are honest and gut wrenching in their realism. The writers of the Psalms were masters in the repertoire of the soul.

Sample these beauties: The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Morning, noon and night, I will lament. My soul, find rest in God alone! Seven times a day do I praise you. Open my eyes that I may see glimpses of truth. Though the fig tree shall not blossom… As you can see, the range is breathtaking. Crying, rejoicing, resting, lamenting, yearning, exulting, exalting, and abandonment, that’s quite a repertoire! 

In the repertoire of the church today, one striking genre of prayer is missing. The prayers when our faith is disoriented by life’s circumstances, prayers of lament. I sadly report that happy is the modus operandi of church services in North America, except when 911 strikes. It’s like the needle on the old 45 is stuck in the happy, all is groovy groove.  But the soul doesn’t do happy songs all the time. Nor should the church! To be sure, our living faith on this terrestrial ball is at times satisfying. At times however, we do all we can to just stay above water. Shouldn’t we learn or relearn the other languages of the soul? Shouldn’t we expand our repertoire to express life and faith when the chips are down? Can we be accused of living in denial?

Just in the last few weeks I have experienced these things.

She prayed to God to restore her teetering marriage. Instead, it collapsed. Now at 61 with no children to comfort her, she is confined to a hospice to wait for the visit of the grim reaper. She lives with some level of regret. She feels truly disappointed with God. She wonders about what awaits her on the other side. And as if to mock her faith, she can now count on two hands the days before her life is snuffed out. My friend whose ears her cries tumbled upon echoed her lament. Wise and blessed man! Has the church nothing more to offer her than happy songs Sunday after Sunday? Can the church relearn to prayerfully sing the lament of its people when the chips are down?

Or will the church only keep on singing her happy songs of faith?

A mother asked God to keep her 16 year old from running away with a man twice her age. She did anyway. Three children later, a few bruises, a couple of missing teeth, penniless and no wedding band on her finger, the prodigal returns. The diagnosis? Suffering from life exhaustion. The mother lamented plenty.

And the church in denial of this reality of brokenness kept on singing the happy songs of faith.

His son went to war to fight for justice and to help people with more pain than he knew was possible. His motives were of the noblest kind. A few short months later he returned… in a body bag. All the tears in the world won’t bring his son back. Dear God, he’s my only son. Where were you? The church prayed for all the men who battle evil, win or lose, and we thanked God for our freedom and the happiness our country provides.

And the church kept on singing her happy songs of faith.

The doctors made a mistake that triggered his diabetes when they “practiced” the wrong medicine trying to cure another minor ailment. Why did this happen? He is going blind, and has few less toes than he was born with. Sympathy was offered of course.

And the church kept on singing her happy songs of faith.

She didn’t ask to get pregnant when she was raped by the three men who slipped her drugs in her diet coke at last year’s thanksgiving party. It happened anyway. A mixed blessing at best on good days! A nagging pain in the soul weeps its way out of her eyes on bad ones!

And she attends her church who only knows to keep singing her happy songs of faith.

The car swerved but the drunk driver was too disoriented to see the little boy playing on his safe street. He lays on the pavement a motionless, crushed corpse. His parents no longer let the other children play outside. At the funeral they heard that God took their brother to heaven because God loved him.  They wonder why God has to hurt so much when he loves. A few cooked meals were offered and taken. But nothing could take away the dazed, drunken-like stupor that shades their family life.

Will the church raise its laments to God on their behalf or will she only keep on singing her happy songs of faith? My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?

And what shall we say about ethnic cleansings, earthquakes, tsunamis, floods, town- annihilating tornadoes, 911s, millions of aborted children, corruptions in government officials, and lives without number wasting on the heap of the pursuit of happiness? What to do with these nightmares? On television we are told millions of children will go to bed hungry tonight. We feel remorse but wake up in the morning to another 3 square meals day. Shall we not lament? Shall we only sing and pray the happy songs of faith?

Lament too is a wonderful gift of God. Better than a third of the Psalms are laments, sung by individuals and the community in the throes of disorientation. When our faith gets disoriented by the darker moods, emotions, and circumstances of life, our souls must lament their way back to God. Lament has the God-given power to refocus the questions of life on God where they belong to deliver us from the shallowness of the happy pursuit.  Without lament the silenced soul has no outlet to speak its pain to God. And the church has an obligation to be true to the soul of its people.

Our faith is able to surge when life is satisfying and showers of blessings flow.  But that is only a chapter in our walk with the Master, only a piece in the repertoire of the prayers of the faithful. Other chapters are being written in a darker language which the soul knows to speak naturally. Fortunately, God has provided the community of faith the means by which to care for those who feel the pains of abandonment: The psalms of lament. Let us rejoice with those who rejoice but let us also weep with those who weep when the chips are down. After the tears come the actions. Let us then walk with the Master into the darkness and brokenness of life and feed, clothe, heal, care for, and love them into the bosom of the Master.

Here is the list of what are considered to be the Psalms of Lament that you can use as an example for your prayers:
Community - 12, 44, 58, 60, 74, 79, 80, 83, 85, 89, 90, 94, 123, 126, 129
Individual - 3, 4, 5, 7, 9-10, 13, 14, 17, 22, 25, 26, 27, 28, 31, 36, 39, 40:12-17, 41, 42-43, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 59, 61, 64, 70, 71, 77, 86, 89, 120, 139, 141, 142
Penitential - 6, 38, 51, 102, 130, 143

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