LAMENTING A TRAGEDY
I am driven to reconsider the book of Lamentations in the Bible this Lent. At the tragic news of a young person in our community being killed, I don't know where else to go. So for the moment I will remain in Lamentations.
Psalm 39 directed me there, "Lord remind me how brief my time on earth will be, remind me that my days are numbered that my life is fleeing away." Reflection on my own life and that my days are numbered would be enough, but to consider the loss of life of someone my kids' age, all I can do is offer up a lament.
A lament is not articulate, it is from the gut. It is a redemptive act in the midst of grief because it is directed to God.
The words of Jeremiah's lament have become mine, "Lord, see my anguish! My heart is broken and my soul despairs..."
The book of Lamentations is a funeral dirge over the desolation of Jerusalem. Jeremiah wrote the Lamentations as he wept bitterly over the city he had desperately tried to save (Chuck Smith commentary).
My lament is informed by Jesus; that he tasted death for everyone in all the world. He tasted death. He is intimately aware of the death that I am lamenting. Like a mouthful of ashes, like bitter gall, he tasted death on the cross where he set us free from the power of death. And so I lament, but not as one without hope. The psalmist gives me the words, "Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love..." (Ps. 143)
