Throughout the Old Testament God’s people cry out to the Lord in sorrow and in joy. Despite their trials and misgivings, they never stop speaking to God. God’s Chosen People believe in the love and hope of God, despite their sorrows and despair.
Lamentation - The Psalms
The lament Psalms allow us to share our pain and suffering with God in vivid, bold language. Lament Psalms have a standard script that is followed as demonstrated in Psalm 3: (1) an address and complaint to God (3:1-2); (2) a confession of confidence in God (3:3); (3) a petition (3:7); and (4) a concluding thanksgiving (3:8). When the Psalms were prayed in ancient times they were sung. Consequently, many references to Psalms refer to them as songs. The word Psalms comes from a Greek translation of the Hebrew word “mizmor” (meaning “song”) to “Psalms." There are categories of Lament Songs that are helpful to reference.[54] Note that some Psalms/Songs may be in multiple categories:
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Individual Prayer Songs of the Sick:
38, 41, and 88. Psalm 88 is known as the “Gloomiest” Psalm, and the title in The Catholic Study Bible is “A Despairing Lament." Individual Prayer Songs of the Sick and Anguished:
6, 13, 22, 30, 31, 32, 35, 39, 51, 69, 71, 91, 102, 103, and 130. Psalm 22 is known as the “Psalm of the Righteous Sufferer.” The first line in the Psalm: Jesus cries out My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?” on the cross in Mark 15:34 and Matthew 27:46. For anyone who has ever held vigil at the bedside of someone who is suffering, the words come alive in Psalm 22. “Like water my life drains away”(22:15), and “So wasted are my hands and feet I can count all my bones”(22:17-18) testify to the suffering people have near the end of life or recovering from difficult illnesses. The Psalms “tell it like it is” and do not hold back from expressing the voices of anguish. Community Psalms of Lament:
44, 60, 74, 77, 79, 80, 83, 85, 90, 94, 123, 126, and 137. Psalm 90:4-5 talks about human frailty before God who is eternal: “A thousand years in your eyes are merely a yesterday, but humans you return to dust saying, ‘return you mortals!’” |
Prayer Songs of the Persecuted and Accused:
3, 4, 5, 7, 11, 17, 23, 26, 27, 57, and 63. These Psalms speak to the fear of people who can feel persecuted and hurt about their illness. Psalm 3 speaks to God’s presence during suffering in verse 6: “Whenever I lay down and slept, the Lord preserved me to rise again.” Prayer Songs of a Sinner:
6, 32, 38, 51, 102, 130, and 143. Psalms 51 and 130 are included in this category. Psalm 51 is known as the “Penitential Psalm.” The petitioner asks for removal of the personal sin and social disorders and asks for deliverance from sin and its emotional, physical and social consequences.[55] Verse 9 asks for forgiveness: “Cleanse me with hyssop that I may be pure: wash me make me whiter than snow.” “Let the bones you have crushed rejoice” (Psalm 51:10). Individual Psalms of Thanksgiving:
18, 30, 31, 32, 40A, 52, 66B, 92, 116, 118, and 120. These Psalms acknowledge that there is a turn of events in the situation, and the person has been rescued from their distress. It would be appropriate to pray with someone recovering from a successful surgery or a “good day” for someone with a chronic illness. The words from Psalm 30 in Verse 3-4 are especially powerful: “O Lord my God, I cried out to you and you healed me. Lord you brought me up from Sheol; and you kept me from going down to the pit.” |
Book of Lamentations
Kalman Kaplan and Matthew Schwartz write about an Old Testament Biblical approach to recovery from misfortune, weariness, loss and disability.[56] They reference the Book of Lamentations for how to manage misfortune. The context of the composition of this book was a desperate time for the Hebrew people. The land was devastated; the temple in Jerusalem demolished; and the people were in captivity in foreign lands. The five poems in Lamentations deal with the author’s effort to understand “where is God in this?”
- The deep despair of the people is noted in the first poem, Verse 2: “Bitterly she weeps at night, tears upon her cheeks with no one to console her of all her dear ones.”
- The second poem cries out to God in anguish about the feeling that God has abandoned the people: “The Lord has become an enemy, he has consumed Israel.(V5).
- The third poem brings in the personal anguish of the author and people in Verse 4 echoing Job’s laments: “He has left me to dwell in the dark like those long dead.” The third poem moves on to hope in the later verses: “It is good to hope in silence for the saving help of the Lord.(V26)”
- The fourth poem looks at the people’s suffering again, and looks at how their sins raised God’s anger. The author can then see hope again in the future: in Verse 22: “Our chastisement is completed, O Daughter Zion, he will not prolong your exile.”[57]
Book of Job
Gustavo Gutiérrez writes that God’s love operates in a world not of cause and effect but of freedom and gratuitousness. “Nothing however valuable merits grace, for if it did grace would cease to be grace.”[58] Gutiérrez believes that the Book of Job is one of the most beautiful and passionate books in the Bible, and we have much to learn from reading Job about faith and hope in God. He reads Job through the lens of liberation theology, and this theologian strongly believes the work of God is living and active in us all. He believes that the Book of Job helps us to understand how to talk about God from within the situation of the suffering innocent.
Gutiérrez writes about the importance of Job talking to God, and how he has a conversation with God throughout the narrative.[59] This early picture of Job before his misfortunes gives a vision of a man with a close and comfortable relationship with God who keeps a running conversation going with him. The book of Job is a challenge to retribution theory that is especially prevalent in the Old Testament where a person’s faithfulness to God is rewarded by a bountiful life, and faithlessness by devastation.
Gutiérrez defines the need for two forms of discourse on suffering: the prophetic and the contemplative.[60] Prophetic discourse is about communicating with God and speaking out against injustice for all who are suffering in the world. Gutierrez notes that for people of faith, prophetic discourse is not enough that we also need contemplative discourse, and a language of interpersonal love that goes deeper than words.[61] Robin Ryan writes in his book God and the Mystery of Human Suffering that for most people of faith, there is a back and forth between these two forms of discourse. What is consistent, is the faith that God is part of our lives and will be present with us always.[62]
Gutiérrez writes about the importance of Job talking to God, and how he has a conversation with God throughout the narrative.[59] This early picture of Job before his misfortunes gives a vision of a man with a close and comfortable relationship with God who keeps a running conversation going with him. The book of Job is a challenge to retribution theory that is especially prevalent in the Old Testament where a person’s faithfulness to God is rewarded by a bountiful life, and faithlessness by devastation.
Gutiérrez defines the need for two forms of discourse on suffering: the prophetic and the contemplative.[60] Prophetic discourse is about communicating with God and speaking out against injustice for all who are suffering in the world. Gutierrez notes that for people of faith, prophetic discourse is not enough that we also need contemplative discourse, and a language of interpersonal love that goes deeper than words.[61] Robin Ryan writes in his book God and the Mystery of Human Suffering that for most people of faith, there is a back and forth between these two forms of discourse. What is consistent, is the faith that God is part of our lives and will be present with us always.[62]
WHY?
Moses' Lament |
Jeremiah’s Lament |
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Moses encountered many trials leading the Israelites out of Egypt. His frustration with the people and God surfaced in his honest communication with God. When the people had escaped Egypt and were wandering in the Middle Eastern deserts for many years, they would grow tired, hungry, and weary. Moses grew weary along with them, and in Numbers 11:11-15 he voices his frustrations to God:
“Why do you treat your servant so badly?” |
The Prophets in the Old Testament often grew frustrated with the people not listening to them or as in Jeremiah’s time the difficult circumstances with living under occupation and the people in captivity in different countries. “Jeremiah’s Interior Crisis” in the Book of Jeremiah 20:17-18 asks God:
“Why did I come forth from the womb to see sorrow and pain, to end my days in shame?” |
Topics
Disability and Self Doubt
Hong Kong public art - Up the creek without a paddle
Kaplan and Schwartz write that one of the most prized skills among the ancient Greeks and Romans was oratorical ability. Cicero, Aristotle, and Socrates were all known for their well-crafted speeches.[63] Kaplan and Schwartz marvel that despite Moses’ speech defect, he conversed directly with God, confronted the mighty Pharaoh, and taught the Torah to the entire Hebrew nation.[64] Moses was anxious and felt he was not worthy to accept the mission on which God was sending him.
In the Book of Exodus Moses protested five different times: Ex. 3:10-12, 3:13, 4:1, 4:12, and 4:13. In 4:12 Moses protests that he is “slow of speech and tongue.” God answers Moses and reminds him that all things are from God, including our speech, and God commissions Aaron to help Moses. |
AgingKaplan and Schwartz write about the Bible recognizing the challenges of aging and reference the Book of Ecclesiastes. Chapter 12 is a reminder of how to age gracefully with God: Ecc.12:1-2 “Remember your creator in the days of your youth.” The Poem on Youth and Old Age in 11:7-10 reminds people that youth is “fleeting,” and what is important is to stay faithful to God.
In Paul’s letter to Timothy he instructs Timothy and the community in Ephesus on their duties to each other including the elderly. Paul exhorts the people in 1 Tm 5:1-2:”Do not rebuke an older man, but appeal to him as a father. Treat older women as mothers.” 
Miss Celestine Dawson Ruth Mississippi
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Hope
Handmaids of the Blessed Trinity Orphanage for Girls in Vasai India
The Old Testament is filled with vivid expressions of God’s love for us and hope for all humans. At the end of the story of Noah and the Ark a dove arrives to bring a sign of the end of the great flood and and along with it brings hope to Noah and the survivors (GN 8:5-12).
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