In these days, I find myself drawn more than usual to those passages of Scripture which help me to lament. I gravitate particularly to the Psalms which give language for lament and grief and even complaint. The Psalms are not…
In this post in this short series, I offer a typology of interpretive approaches to biblical lament. The typology is rough, not comprehensive; my examples come from the “left,” “right,” and “middle,” from theological conservatives and liberals. But they have…
The Rule of Faith and Biblical Lament Anger. Loss. Rage. The Psalmist expresses each of these in those mysterious Psalms – the Psalms of lament. An increasing number of Christians express frustration that the worship of their churches is too…
What is the fruit of biblical interpretation? For example, in interpreting anceint texts such as the Psalms, should our primary goal be to reconstruct the ancient Psalmist’s meaning? Or, for Christians, should it be to receive the Psalms as prayers,…
In previous posts, I have suggested that the question of suffering before God needs to remain an open question – a question that we, along with the Psalmists, bring before God in the midst of our grief, anger, and confusion.…
As I explored in the previous article in this series, my cancer diagnosis forced me to join the Psalmists in prayer more deeply than I had ever done before. I prayed the Psalms – especially Psalms of laments – with…
Who likes a complainer? Complainers are unsettling to be around. Holiday meals ruined by laborious and endless complaints about how life has shortchanged them – the car that broke down too early, the college that should have given admission, the…
