From Lament to Hope: Wellbeing and Happiness in the Psalmsಮಾದರಿ

Psalm 102: Wellbeing Through Truth-Telling

Reading the psalms is not for the faint-hearted. Entering the depth of pain of the psalms of lament, and hearing their clarion call for a different world, lays bare the agony of depression, with no embellishment and no hiding. The deep depression of Psalm 102, lived out in the very bones of the writer, depicts the struggles of one who simply cannot face the world any longer.

The psalms offer no escapism and no denial: the path towards God does not go around the pain, or over it, but takes it into the heart of God. There is something almost paradoxical about this prayer—yet something many can recognise. The psalmist is speaking to God, while at the same time deploring God’s absence and blaming God for their predicament. God is both the solution and the problem. If God had not promised presence and loving kindness, then the experience of God’s absence (or at least hiddenness) would not be so acute. But it is precisely the belief that God does care, and has promised to care, that makes the writer’s experience so difficult. Can God be trusted? Is God really the God the psalmist thought God was?

Deep pain can easily mask God, or shatter our faith in pieces. The psalms do not shy away from this—but they take a step further, and proclaim that the pieces can be put back together, albeit differently. There is no condemnation of the psalmist’s words or struggles; they are safe with God. Most of the psalms of lament juxtapose, side-by-side, the reality of their pain and the hiddenness of God with an affirmation of God’s ongoing care. One does not trump the other. They’re paradoxical truths, only reconciled in God’s time.

The affirmations of God’s presence never begin a lament psalm: affirmation comes through truth-telling, not through denial or positive thinking. It is holding together the truth of the world and the truth of God’s love that creates the possibility of hope. Pain and suffering are a part of the journey of life—but they are not normal or right. Lament protests against the reality of pain and unhappiness, and puts forth a radically different vision for human flourishing. To lament is to tell the truth about our world, and to hold on to God’s vision of the kingdom, all at once.