Finding Lost Words: The Church's Right to Lament

by G. Geoffrey Harper (Editor), Kit Barker (Editor), David G. Firth (Foreword)

The brokenness of this world inevitably invades our lives. But how do you maintain faith when overwhelmed by grief? When prayer goes unanswered? When all you have are questions, not answers? What do you say to God when you know he is in control but the suffering continues unabated? Is there any alternative to remaining speechless in the midst of pain and heartbreak? This book is about finding words to use when life is hard. These words are not new. They are modes of expression that the church has drawn on in times of grief throughout most of its history. Yet, the church in the West has largely abandoned these words--the psalms of lament. The result is that believers often struggle to know what to do or say when faced with distress, anxiety, and loss. Whether you are in Christian leadership, training for ministry, or simply struggling to reconcile experience with biblical convictions, Finding Lost Words will help you consider how these ancient words can become your own.

"As the contributors to Finding Lost Words so insightfully point out, the Psalms offer us a robust invitation to express our honest feelings before God. I found this volume utterly compelling and encourage everyone to read this book and let the laments of the Psalms teach you how to pray." --Tremper Longman III, Westmont College

"This book is a work the church needs. Lament is a missing practice in the praying life of too many Christians in a broken world. It needs to be recovered. After all we find it in psalm after psalm. . . . Scripture not only gives us a language for our joys, it also gives us a language for our confusions, disappointments, and even anger towards God. In this work, a constellation of careful thinkers and practitioners serve us so very well. I commend it without reservation." --Graham A. Cole, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School

"There is a level of superficiality in the spiritual experience of today's church that needs to be challenged. . . . Finding Lost Words is an excellent set of readable essays dealing with the theology and practice of lament from an exegetical, historical, and pastoral perspective. I don't want to overstate things but, if we really hear the message of this book, it will change the way we do church." --Jamie A. Grant, Highland Theological College UHI

"Like a well-cut diamond, this collection of essays radiates light in many directions, helping readers to see the biblical concept of lament from different perspectives with greater clarity. . . . This timely volume offers a much needed rebalance to Christian theology that often appears to have lost sight of the pain and suffering caused by the reality of evil in our broken world." --T. Desmond Alexander, Union Theological College, Belfast

G. Geoffrey Harper is Lecturer in Old Testament at Sydney Missionary and Bible College. He has written several essays and articles on intertextuality in the Old Testament. Kit Barker is Lecturer in Old Testament at Sydney Missionary and Bible College. He is the author of Imprecation as Divine Discourse (2016).

Genres: Christian

287 pages, Paperback

Published March 31, 2017

Reviews

[Toby Neal · Rating 4 out of 5]

A helpful and book on a neglected subject.

Highlights were chapters by Rachel Ciano on a history of lament, David Burge on the place of lament in the New Testament, Rob Smith’s excellent chapter on singing lament, and Mal Gill’s two excellent chapters on praying lament and his example sermon. I also appreciated Kirk Patston’s example prayers of individual and corporate lament (p245, 247).

I found the book somewhat lacking in setting lament in its Biblical Theological context and feel there is still more work to be done in seeing how the coming of Jesus reshapes how we lament today (David Burge’s chapter was one exception, see especially p127). I felt the book stressed impact of the incarnation but not the atonement on or reading of lament. Yes God in Christ took up lament and therefore gives us permission to lament, but the atonement adds something else: it is proof that God hasn’t abandoned us - and gives us more reason to end our laments with expressions of trust and praise than the Old Testament believers. In the death and resurrection of Jesus we have an answer to Psalm 88’s questions (vv10-12) which reshapes how we read, pray and sing this psalm today. What the coming of Jesus adds to our singing lament is hope - real, solid hope.

Another issue is I felt Kit Barker’s critique of Bruce Walke’s view of the psalms as Christ’s words was lacking and needs further argument. In my opinion Waltke is correct to insist that the Psalms find their fullest expression in Christ. But at the same time I agree with Barker that the psalms are given to us today as our righteous response to our own suffering. More work is needed here.

All that be said it’s a great book and I appreciated a lot. Great work Geoff Harper and Kit Barker for assembling this.

Also check out Dieudonné Tamfu’s review on themelios. Tamfu shares my critique that “Jesus is more than a model” of lament and that the book needed more here, especially the sermons. See:
http://themelios.thegospelcoalition.o...

[David Cowpar · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have a lot of thoughts.

Positively. This book wasn’t as bad as the introduction and first chapter or two led me to believe it would be. This is why it took me so long to read. It was ridiculousness at the beginning but the fact that the various authors, especially those outside of SMBC, don’t seem to have communicated much with those inside of SMBC means that the crazy of the SMBC authors isn’t found in every chapter.

The book’s foreword includes this quote:

“It is heresy because it functionally denies the reality of the experience of so many, refusing to allow them to voice their pain as an act of worship.” (xviii)
This is not a position to take in your introduction. Especially when the book isn’t really positing this statement or making this argument. It’s unnecessarily confrontational and in a forward isn’t backed by argument. It really sets the tone for the book in a bad direction.

On page 2 we see this:

“Sexual preference means that fidelity to God will entail a celibate life and years of loneliness.” (2)
This is given as a reason that reality might fail to match our “assurance, power and confidence” rhetoric in the church. I, as a 32 year old single man, had a strong reaction to this.
I thought: I’ll never get through this book at this rate. Really? Years of loneliness is the best you can offer someone. Sure there can be sadness but people need to be pointed to victory and not left wallow in their misery. And also if singlenesss means years of loneliness and nothing else you’re failing as a church and it’s not because you’re singing about victory and assurance. You’re looking in the wrong direction to find the source of the problem.

As I read chapter one I noted, beyond the definition of lament Psalm not being clear:

As I read the sorts of descriptions of the church that are given in this chapter it seems to me that the churches described are not necessarily biblical faithful and thriving churches but more along the lines of name it and claim it, and emerging churches and that sort of thing.
To then come to those churches and say your problem is you lost lament comes across as suggesting the best thing to do with raw chicken isn’t to cook it, but put mustard on it and then feed it to the flock.

Overall my conclusion in reading this book, especially the chapters by authors from SMBC, goes something like:

If the book was aimed towards your standard, God-fearing, Bible reading church instead of a caricature the impact of the argument might be better felt. As it is, it honestly comes across like some weird sub-culture in Christianity that doesn’t want to deal with sin and grace and the actual issues of the church, but would just sit around and mope.

[Ronni Kurtz · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Australian College of Theology Monograph Series has put out a number of books now and this is their newest addition. I'm sad to say that I would not have come across this volume had I not been approached to review it for a journal. This work, like most anthologies, has chapters that are stronger and weaker than others. However, overall, the editors and authors were successful in accomplishing their thesis of recovering the depth and beauty of the Lament Psalms and showcasing them via theology, exegesis, history, and practice for why they still have tremendous value for the Church today.

[Jamin Bradley · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Book I Didn’t Know I Needed

We’re about two years into the pandemic and it seems everyone I’m pastoring is in deep pain right now. I wasn’t sure if this book would be too academic to make any emotional impact on me, but I was pleasantly surprised. I think all pastors would find themselves deeply impact by this book and I highly recommend it. There are a few essays that are a bit dry, but the majority of them are well worth the read and very necessary.

[Sheila · Rating 4 out of 5]

I forgot to mark this read last year. I bought the monograph because of a number of sections which gave me new insights into loss and grief. Also I liked the theological implications of praying public prayers of lament.