So…I have been listening to a lot of Christian radio recently. It has rekindled a long-time thought I have had concerning the nature of Christian worship. It seems, based on my experience in worship ministry and the popular Christian songs I hear, that we are missing an important voice in our worship: the “Lament.”
One of the most powerful forms of poetry/song in the Old Testament is that which we define as the “lament.” There are many different forms of this kind of speech. David uses it to express his anguish over the death of Saul and Jonathan. The author of Lamentations uses it (of course) to grapple with the intensity of the destruction of Jerusalem. Unfortunately, the depth of emotion that this form of speech utlizes is rarely matched in contemporary Christian worship.
Numerous praise songs talk about the travails of life– the trials and tribulations. But it seems…
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