A number of weeks ago, we heard about Psalm 86. A Psalm where King David found himself in a difficult situation. He called out in a prayer of lament. A lament is simply an honest cry from the heart.
As a church, we were challenged to write our own laments following this talk. There was a great response and we wanted to share some of the laments written by the Windsor family.
Don’t worry if you missed the talk, you can catch up on the deep dive here.
Lament from a healthcare worker
O LORD, these times are dreadful
No one has seen their like before.
New every morning come the sombre figures.
Thousands have died; infected, thousands more.
If you snatch away, O God, who can stop you?
The government has broken another promise.
My heart is heavy, yet
In you I put my trust.
To whom else shall we go?
You alone have words of eternal life.
We praise you for your grace and favour
To our fathers in distress.
We praise you still the same for ever:
Slow to chide, and swift to bless.
Yet, Lord, men cannot kiss their loved ones dying.
They can’t embrace the family weeping, sighing.
How many must endure the broken heart?
They go through funeral rites together, yet apart.
O LORD, make haste to save us!
Deliver us from this evil.
Protect your people as they care for sick and dying and
Grant that trial vaccines will be successful.
Thank you for those who have recovered.
Use this time to make men stop and think.
Who is there like you?
You alone are God, the Sovereign LORD.
In you alone our hope is found.
Feeling so tired right now… tired from work, tired from the continuum of the ‘lockdown’ and not knowing when it will end.
Tired from wondering if I have had coronavirus, and if not when I will get it, and when I do get it will I give it to others, and if I do then will they get really sick?
Why does it have to be this way?
So much loss of life Lord, when will it end?
So little opportunity for families to mourn together with friends – how can this be right?
Have mercy on us we pray….
Forgive us for our ‘hurry sickness’ and neglect of you.
In this time of waiting, this liminal space help me not to waste it in anxiety and fretting, but out of this time of misery and loss may we look for something good.
May you take us on a journey with you, deeper in godly faith and love and deeper compassion and care for those around us.
May we allow you to change us.
For you are a good God.
A faithful God, gracious and forgiving, abounding in love.
Our comforter and helper in time of need.
A God of compassion.
Lord we need your compassion and mercy.
Lord if ever, we need you now.
Amen.
Hear our cry O Lord Listen to our prayer
You are our Father ‘Abba’ daddy
Covid’19 the silent killer is sweeping through our world.
Protect our, doctors, nurses, carers, care homes,
key workers, businesses, teachers, workplaces, factories.
Oh Lord hear our prayer.
Comfort us Abba many are grieving and cannot lay their loved ones to rest
You are a God of compassion and mercy, slow to get angry and filled with an
unfailing love and faithfulness – comfort those who mourn.
Answer us Lord, show us what we should do? Our world is changing our society
Is going to look different! Give us grace to accept the changes whatever they may look like.
You have said to ‘Look at the birds of the air, they do not sow or reap or store away in barns
Yet our Heavenly Father feeds them’ – are we not more precious than they?
We choose O Lord to trust in you.
Teach us O Lord, Forgive us, Cleanse us so that we can praise you in Spirit and in Truth.
We are fickle and swayed so easily away from you. Be our rock and firm foundation that we may sing of your love forever.
Give us your peace that passes all understanding – a peace that the world cannot give.
Christ behind me
Christ before me
I am fully held.
We turn to you our God, in our need. We come into your presence, to tell you how we feel; to try to put our thoughts into words, living, as we are in this period of uncertainty because of the current crisis.
As a community of your people, we are suffering. Some are grieving the loss of loved ones. Some are facing financial loss. Some are experiencing emotional stress. Some, who, because they are feeling overwhelmed, are losing sight of you, our fortress in time of trouble. Some are prisoners in a place of isolation for personal safety. Others are prisoners in a place of danger as they put the safety of others before their own. All of us are prisoners of hope, as we turn to you, our great God, to whom we can bring our great needs, and in whom we place our trust.
We ask you, our God to protect us from the enemy,
who wants to use these circumstances to cause anxiety, discouragement and despair. Protect us so that in our present circumstances, we do not dishonour you,
but bring glory to you.
We believe that you can shine light in our present darkness, you can give hope in despair, bring blessing out of the chaos, and
you can give us peace that passes understanding in return for our concerns.
We believe that whether we live or die, we live, in Christ, who caused death to work backwards, and reversed the consequences of the Fall.
We praise you for the privilege of knowing you, sovereign Lord of the universe, whose nature is to love, to show mercy, to forgive. We thank you that you sent your Son to die to make this privilege possible,
and for sending the Holy Spirit to enable us to appreciate the privilege.
To you who are able to do immeasurably more than we ask or imagine, according to your great power that is at work with in, to you be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, now and forevermore.
Amen.
Lament in Blue
There is nowhere else to go and
On a clear starry night I lift my eyes
To You. You are there
Dazzling in the silent sky
Emptied of aircraft and
Aching with breathless beauty.
You are there in the silent steps
Of my isolation, where I walk alone
Along near paths I never knew.
You are there in the unfolding of spring
And the longing for loved ones,
The loss, the sorrow of the world
That has numbed my brain
Stunned me to sudden tantrums
Between moments of free simple joy;
The pain of a paralysed world
Where the poor feel poorer
And not even the rich can escape
We are leveled before the prowling evil,
But equally welcome into Your arms.
Oh Christ, arms open in heaven’s glory.
You will come again. I pray,
In one breath, ‘Let it be soon,’
While in the next I ask for time,
And a rolling out of salvation.
‘Cover the earth with your glory Lord,
As the waters cover the sea’.
You will come and ‘will You find faith?’
We have praised but not praised You,
We have filled our time but not with You.
We have not yet repented, yet
You have not rejected; You wait.
In the fragments of present history
You are scattering your word out
To all the earth, to every corner.
Day by day, freely, truth blooms
For any who have ears to hear.
Turn us again, Lord, back to You.
Open our ears where we can’t hear
And our eyes where we can’t see.
You are the compassionate God
The Almighty Holy One, yet merciful.
That I am still here is by Your mercy,
for You gift us time before eternity,
Hours, days, weeks, months, years
In which to know You.
Let my heart be filled with essential joy
From knowing and yielding to You.
Let Your song flow new, fast and free
Enfolding and releasing us one by one.
For Your breath alone is what makes us sing.
