Singing through the pain
Spiritual Topics & Discussion Friday, October 9th, 2009
Three weeks ago, I taught a class at the Mid Atlantic Evangelism Seminar in Raleigh on the topic of “Singing through the pain.” Seemingly, few Christians understand how the Psalms served as a quasi hymnal for the first century church. The Psalms is chock full of laments. More is being written about how Christians can pray and worship through the Psalms.
Someone will ask, “Is it appropriate to worship God through our doubts, pain and questionings?” I would answer that our worship is in fact, dysfunctional, when we fail to represent that ever-present side of our existence. Our collection of songs, which we regularly use, falls woefully short in representing a total balance of our emotions and experiences. That’s one reason why I have written another song based upon a Psalm of lament, which I plan to include in the next Praise & Harmony recording in March.
Why do you think we have overlooked the lament in our worship planning? Do you find it difficult to pray and worship through an expression of doubts, frustrations and questions?
Short URL: http://keithlancaster.com/?p=441
Sterilized worship, many times we have allowed no emotion when gathering together. Get in, punch our ticket, go home. This has left many feeling empty and disconnected from our worship. Emotions, including doubts, fears, frustration, and joy should be expressed in our worship to God. Recognizing a need for a lament in our assembly, would go a long way in including those who are struggling to approach the throne room of God as we meet together. Keith, you introduced me to a song by the Zoe Group, “When Deep Calls to Deep”, that really speaks to the “cry out” many feel they need to express from time to time. But in the end, we must praise our God for his awesomeness and the great physician he is to heal our pain.
There have been periods in Christian history when laments were used. For example, there is Martin Luther’s adaptation of the 130th Psalm, “Out of the Depths I Cry to Thee.” (http://www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/o/d/i/odicthee.htm)
They also seem to be used more in certain cultures. For instance, Ukrainian preacher Stephan Bilak has translated a Ukrainian folk hymn, “While on the Sea.”
However, we do sing many songs of longing and comfort that, while not exactly laments, come close to the same emotions. There are songs that talk about no more sorrows (“To Canaan’s Land I’m on My Way”), or about the comfort we have in Christ (“What a Friend We Have in Jesus,” “Trials Dark on Every Hand”). So I don’t think we’ve totally ignored this aspect of worship, we’ve just taken a slightly different approach in the last 150 years or so.
Here’s another old hymn that I think would qualify as a lament, William Cowper’s “Hear Us, Emmanuel”:
http://www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/h/e/healusem.htm
So it’s not so much that such hymns and songs don’t exist, but that they were never popular enough to be included in later hymnals.
Laments are very much a part of choral music. I think that’s some of the reason why I joined a community choir – partially to sing more challenging material, but also to sing about emotions OTHER than joy – or sing what I call “sermon songs”. All those have a needed place, to be sure, but not to the exclusion of all fear and pain. So many wonderful pieces based on the Psalms, Lamentations, etc. – why can’t these Scriptures be adapted for congregational worship?