Lament
(based on Psalm 51)
Bible scholars tend to identify the psalms by
type or category, but they debate the exact classifications, with some naming
more categories than others. Generally, there is agreement on a system that
includes at least these five types: psalms of lament, royal psalms,
thanksgiving psalms, wisdom psalms, and then a mix of smaller genres such as
historical and prophetic psalms.
Lament is a major theme in the Bible and
particularly in the book of Psalms. To lament is to express deep sorrow, grief,
or regret. The psalms of lament are beautiful poems or hymns expressing human
struggles. The psalms of lament comprise the largest category of psalms, making
up about one third of the entire book of Psalms. These psalms are prayers that
lay out a troubling situation to the Lord and make a request for His help.
There are two types of lament psalms:
community and individual. Community psalms of lament deal with situations of
national crisis—they describe problems faced by all the people of God. Psalm 12
is an example of a community lament, expressing sadness over widespread sin:
“Help, Lord, for no one is faithful anymore; / those who are loyal have
vanished from the human race. / Everyone lies to their neighbor; / they flatter
with their lips / but harbor deception in their hearts” (Psalm 12:1–2).
Individual laments address various isolated
troubles—problems faced by one member of the people of God. An example of an
individual psalm of lament is today’s Psalm 51, as David lays out his need
before God: “Have mercy on me, O God, according to Your steadfast love;
according to Your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and
cleanse me from my sin.” We’ll come back
to the rest of this Psalm in a minute.
There are forty-two individual psalms of lament
and sixteen community or national psalms of lament.
The psalms of lament are poetic hymns meant to
be sung to God. They deal with issues that were and still are central to the
life of faith for individual believers and the whole community of faith. The
lament psalms express intense emotions, real human struggles, and the anguish
of heart experienced by the people of Israel as they lived out their faith
individually and corporately.
The men and women of the Old Testament were as
real as we are today. They danced and sang, rejoiced and laughed, argued and
confessed, lamented and mourned. They expressed emotions to God in prayer just
as we do today. When we encounter difficult struggles and need God’s rescue,
salvation, and help, the psalms of lament are a good place to turn.
This is one of the few psalms where we are
given the historical background from which it arose. The inscription reads, "A Psalm of David
when Nathan the prophet came to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba." That identifies clearly for us the incident
out of which this psalm arose.
It was the time when David became involved in
the double sin of adultery and murder while he was king. He had walked with God for many years. He was widely known as the Sweet Singer of
Israel, a man after God’s own heart; as King, he had gained a reputation as a
prophet, a man who understood the deep things of God; and he had established
himself not just as king, but also as the spiritual leader of his people. Then suddenly, toward the end of his reign, he
was plunged into this terrible double sin.
I’m sure you remember the account, but in case
you don’t, this is what happened. He was
on his palace roof one day when the army had gone out to battle and he saw a
beautiful woman by the name of Bathsheba, bathing herself. His passion was aroused within him and he sent
over messengers and ordered her to be brought to him. He entered into an adulterous relationship
with her for she was a married woman, but then again so was David, a married
man. But, back in those days, only a
woman could be adulterous; men were pretty much allowed to do anything. Accept, of course, do what David did, in the
end.
Bathsheba’s husband, a soldier in David's army,
was away fighting for his king. Later,
when David learned that she was expecting a child, he panicked and tried to
cover it all up. He ordered the husband
home from battle and sent him down to his home, hoping that he would sleep with
his wife and the child would then be accepted as his own. But Uriah was a soldier, committed to battle,
and though he came home at the king's orders, he would not go down to his own
house but slept with the soldiers at the palace and returned to the battle the
next day.
David knew that ultimately his sin would be
found out so he took another, next, step. And this is always what sin does -- it leads
us on --deeper and deeper, farther than we had ever intended to go. Before the king knew it, he found himself
forced into a desperate attempt to cover up his evil. He ordered Uriah, the husband, to be put in
the forefront of the battle where he would most certainly be killed. When news of Uriah's death reached the king,
he felt he had safely covered his sin. For
a year he tried to live with a bad conscience. But, as the story records, God sent a prophet
to David. God loved this king, loved him
too well to let him go on covering up and thus damaging himself and his entire
kingdom by this hidden sin. So God sent
the prophet Nathan to David.
Because David was king, Nathan knew he would
have to approach him subtly, for his own life could have been in danger if he had
blatantly accused the king. So, Nathan
told him a story. He said that while he
was abroad in the kingdom a certain incident occurred which he felt should be
brought to the king for judgment. There
was a certain rich man who owned a flock of sheep and a traveler came by to
whom he wanted to show hospitality. But
instead of taking one of his own sheep and offering it for food, he went to his
poor neighbor who only owned one little ewe lamb and took that lamb and
prepared it for the man who had come to him. When David heard this, he was indignant and
cried out, "Such a man ought to be made to restore four-fold what he has
taken and then be killed himself," (2 Samuel 12:5-6).
In a most dramatic moment, the prophet Nathan
pointed a long bony finger at the king and said, "You are the man!"
(2 Samuel 12:7). David knew then that he had been found out and that he could might
have been able to cover his sin from others, but he could never do that with
God. He fell on his face before God and
out of that experience of confession comes this beautiful fifty-first Psalm,
which traces for us the proper way to handle a bad conscience when you have
sinned before God.
This hymn or song or psalm of lament, a song of
great suffering and loss, opens with a prayer for forgiveness.
Have
mercy on me, O God,
according to thy steadfast love;
according to thy abundant mercy
blot out
my transgressions.
Wash me
thoroughly from my iniquity,
and cleanse me from my sin! (Psalms 51:1-2a)
In writing and singing this very personal psalm
of lament, David greatly grieves the loss of his innocence and the consequences
yet to come of the results of his sin.
He understands that sin is like a crime. If a criminal is going to be delivered from the
effects of his crime, he or she needs mercy from God. Sin is an illegal act, a violation of justice,
an act of lawlessness, of rebellion and therefore requires consequences. Those consequences, because a violation of
the law always results in consequences, are yet unknown to David. But David also asks God to be merciful.
Second, he says, "Blot out my
transgressions," and thereby he reveals that he understands sin is like a
debt. It is something owed, an account
that has accumulated and needs to be erased.
When quills or fountain pens were popular, people would have a sheet of
paper on their desk called a blotter.
This sheet of paper was the first sheet the fountain pen would touch
before any writing occurred on the official document so as to release the pen
of its first rush of ink. Over time, the
blotter would be filled with heavy blobs of ink and you would not have been
able to see anything that had been previously written underneath.
Third, he cries, "Wash me thoroughly, and
cleanse me." David understands that
sin is like an ugly stain. Here, it is a
stain upon David’s own soul. Even though
the act fades into the past, the stain remains a stigma upon David’s own heart.
So, he cries out and asks God to wash it
away, make him clean again.
A psalm of lament begins in sorrow. An acknowledgment of loss and suffering. In this psalm, it includes an act of
confession and a request for forgiveness.
But a psalm of lament usually ends in joy, knowing what God will do. In Psalm 51:10, David returns to his initial request.
“Create in me a clean heart, O God. Put a new and right spirit within me.”
My prayer for us today is that as we, individually
and corporately, acknowledge our own sin before God, may God be merciful, slow
to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
May God cleanse our hearts and put a new and right spirit within us.
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