Lament

What image comes to your mind when you think of the word “lament?”

I spent two extended stays confined at home in bed; one when I was five and one when I was seven. During the confinements, I listened to the radio almost every waking moment. The first stay was in Terre Haute in 1960 with an AM station whose call letters were WBOW. A record that reached number 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 that year was a song about complain.

Complaints

“You Talk Too Much” is a 1960 single by American Rhythm and Blues singer Joe Jones. The song and its journey tell an interesting story. Reginald Hall, the brother-in-law of Fats Domino, wrote the song for him. Domino, known for “Blueberry Hill” and “Ain’t That a Shame,” recorded over 350 songs and passed on this song because he did not have the time to record it.

The song was produced by Sylvia Vanterpool Robinson who was half of the R&B duo Mickey & Sylvia. This duet is best known for their number one R&B single, “Love is Strange.” Jones recorded the hit for Ric Records, the label’s only commercial success. The record caused legal issues with the New York City based Roulette Records because Jones and previously recorded a version of the tune with them. Eventually the labels reached an amicable settlement where Roulette bought the master recording from Ric.

The lyrics of “You Talk Too Much” describe a person who excessively talks and complains about things and people. The first verse laments, “You talk too much, You worry me to death, You talk too much, You even worry my pet.”

Do you know someone who complains like that?

Today, we continue our discussions to try to understand what it means to have sincere and meaningful repentance in our lives. In the last devotion, we considered the importance to have our hearts leaning toward God. We want to understand the sin in our lives, to take responsibility for it, and to agree with God that sin destroys relationships. The next step asks us to lament. Let’s talk about what that means.

Our Lament

A lament is “a passionate expression of grief or sorrow” particularly concerning a state of circumstances. The Old Testament dedicates an entire book to “Lamentations.” There are roughly 65 psalms which are considered psalms of lament – most pointedly Psalm 77. These are biblical poems of  raw grief and honest struggle.

Everyone experiences lament. Like the champions of the faith from the pages of Scripture, we cry out to God. The author of the book of Lamentations writes in the first verse of the last chapter of the book:

Can you relate? Think about the list of things that you have lamented over during the past year.

• The loss of a loved one
• The disintegration of a relationship
• Financial insecurity and debt
• Physical health and disease
• Depression
• Anxiety
• Social and political unrest
• Injustice
• Crime, violence and war

Practical Living

I could make the list go on, but even this vague list gets to the heart of why we lament. We are troubled by our circumstances and we want them to be better. Many of these same fears have found their way into the words of Lamentations 5. People struggle with whether God is still in control and they wonder, “Does God still care?”

We cry out! Disgraced, disgruntled, and dismayed: things are not the way they ought to be. We are left in the ashes and the rubble of life.

Many people wallow in the rubble and never cease their wailing.

For others – for people of faith – a lament can be a beautiful thing. The believer understands that God knows us, hears our cries, and cares about the quality of our circumstances. Our hope is based on the faithfulness of God, not the flimsy nature of our circumstances.

The lament will turn us back to God.

When we remember who God is, and we recall what God has consistently done in the past, we can be assured that God will see us through out current circumstances. We are convinced that He cares for us and that He gave His Son for us. God mourns – laments – right along side us. Listen to what the psalmist writes toward the end of Psalm 77:

God has never failed to see His people through the storm. And so we repent – we lean towards God and we lament what sin has done to our relationship with Him.