l The fact that Yahweh has acted in a certain way in the past is the
reason why we’re calling for Yahweh to act in the same way.
l If God is to act, then God is going to act against the enemies.
l When there is a temple, it involves worship. All ritual actions
associated with death here.
l Context not clear: Probably
triggered by a military disaster.
l Not just a mourning song, but also a
prayer. “Funeral blues” is a sad mourning song, but not a lament. Prayer
involves a horizon beyond the grief.
l What communal lament does: It’s not
so much the laments do, but what we do with these words when we use them in
lament. 1) What lament does is to address God as the “people of God”.
Individualistic West: sometimes we’re not used to communal. Jesus’ prayer which
he taught the disciples: it’s for communal use. 2) It ties very tightly
together the fate of God’s people, God’s purposes and God’s reputation. The way
God will bring all things to its designated conclusion. Gives powerful poetic
expression to that reality. Owns disastrous circumstances, but this ends not as
the focus of the prayer. Not just us and our plight, but about God and the
world. What God is about in the world, and where God is standing. God is the
sovereign Lord of history. It’s holding the mirror to God to show Him the
disasters when God doesn’t act on behalf of God’s people.
l If we use these words, we become
involved in what they’re doing, and these words become our words. When we use
these words, we find ourselves lamenting. The phenomenon of addressing God as
“our God” in prayer expresses a fundamental element of trust. A belief in God’s
own commitment to His own justice: For God to act on behalf of the poor. God
can be questioned and called to account. Disparity between the realities. These
poems may seem the most arrogant thing we can do/claiming of rights over God,
but these poems are in the canon of Scripture. So this is an invite from God to
question. It fosters alignment between our interests and commitments and God’s
interests and commitments. Do our concerns line up with God? If we are
lamenting, are we lamenting for the right things? Praying for righteousness in
the community aligns us up with God’s purposes.
l When we are injured, one response is
anger, usually through vengeance to one that’s wronged us. What these psalms require
us to entrust this to God, and for us to know (in head and heart) that it is
God who will avenge. Prayers like this allow us to not turn our back on a call
for righteousness to the world. It is God’s business to enact justice in the
end.
l If we pray these prayers rightly, we
might become uncomfortable to find us on the wrong side of these, that we are
amongst the oppressors rather than the oppressed. Advantage us on the
disadvantage of others. What starts out as lament might end as penitence.
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