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Psalm 5:1-2  Listen to my words, LORD, consider my lament.  Hear my cry for help, my King and my God, for to you I pray.

In this Psalm, and those around it, King David is crying out his lament to his God, in whom he trusts, because of the overwhelming difficulties that constantly engulf him.

We also experience similar difficulties as God’s Covenant People, seeking to declare the glory of his name and the truth of his Word in the midst of a culture that does not want to have anything to do with these things.  So it is important that we take note of the nature of David’s lament.

The word ‘lament’ is appropriate to describe just how this exemplary, godly King sees and feels about his situation:

David’s surrounding culture has lost its way in spiritual things, and David, their Anointed King, is acutely aware of the dire danger they are in by rejecting the wise counsel of their loving, all-powerful Creator and Saviour!  ‘Lament’ is his natural, deep-felt response to all this.

Like our own culture, their error was not in thinking that God doesn’t exist, but that in believing he doesn’t matter!  Our own culture doesn’t want to be reminded in any way that God matters – it wants to be free to make its own decisions about life: what is right and wrong; what he demands of us in terms of worship and obedience; and what he reveals in his Word in statements like, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.  For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.  Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.  This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.  Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed” (John 3:16-20).

Yes, we do need to lament  But David is showing us how to lament well.  We do nor lament as those who despair.  His lament leads him primarily to prayer to his God who is king, a God who listens.  Our Creator/Saviour is sovereign over all things, and he is always carrying out his purposes for his glory and our benefit.  And David laments without diminishing the joy he feels and can sing about as he takes refuge in God’s protection (verse 11).  As we lament in our present culture with all its contradictions and evils, our most effective weapon is not moaning, criticising or complaining, but demonstrating by our attitude, words and actions that we truly trust our Sovereign God in every (adverse) circumstance.  This will be such a stark contrast with the anxiety and despair non-believers are experiencing with the mess atheistic humanism is making of our world that they will want to know what makes the difference.  What an opportunity this presents to share the everlasting gospel of hope in the Lord Jesus Christ! 

– Bruce Christian