Lament

When I hear the word lament, I think of being sad. In Beholding & Becoming, Graham Cooke defines lament as worshiping God when our circumstances are bad. Here is an excerpt:

God does not ask us to deny the existence of our suffering. He does want us to collect it, stand in those things, and make Him an offering. The Holy Spirit, our comforter, helps us to do this: He aligns Himself with our will and says, "I will help you to will to worship God." The glory of the majesty of God is that He helps us will and do.

Too often, we either back away from our grief when we come to worship, or we quit worshiping at all in the face of the pain. We feel like we have to come to Him at our best, highest point. But God's heart is to accept us as we are. He wants us to step into that pain and worship him with it.

. . . .This worship isn't done in order to have God remove the pain. It simply recognizes that God stands in the moment with us. Lamentation elevates God in the presence of our enemies. It brings out a side of God that other forms of worship simply cannot touch.

He calls this "though/yet" worship. "Though" (and you fill in the blank), "yet" (and then you worship God). He comments that if life is going good for you, then rejoice and skip this section, so initially I did. But I find that it is a powerful tool. Last Monday, I was just feeling BLAH, and so I began to lament. Though I feel emotionally flat, yet I will sing a song to you, Lord. I find this powerful because it does two things: it brings your heart to God in complete honesty, and it moves you to worship (which we often talk of but don't always DO).