Is There Rigid Structure To The Laments of Psalms? "Awake! Why are you sleeping, O Lord? Rouse yourself! Do not reject us forever! Why do you hide your face? Why do you forget our affliction and oppression?" (Psalms 44:23-24 ESV). If many of us have been taught by our parents to put on a happy face, to let a smile be our umbrella, or to keep our complaints to ourselves, then the Old Testament offers a corrective to these teachings in the Psalms of lament. Matthew Schlimm believes that we sometimes forget that the Lord already knows our innermost thoughts. So we can remove that fake smile and express the sadness directly to God, no matter how intense the emotions may be.3
Some modern resources on worship, general describe the readings from Psalms as responses to the Old Testament lesson, which suggests for some part that the Book of Psalms is something other than scripture itself. However this view changed when Martin Luther calls the Book of Psalms “A Little Bible,” because it was a great resource to see God’s will for the world and His children. With such a great claim placed upon the Book of Psalms one needs to understand the most numerous and common genre of writing present in the book of Psalms is Laments.2 The genre of Laments are a common theme found in the Old Testament, and the individual psalm of lament are the largest category of the Book of Psalms. The Psalms of lament make up almost a third of all the Psalms. It’s worth noting that the book of Psalms contains more lament psalms than any other genre, suggesting lament 's dominance in the Israelites temple and family life. Laments, as a genre of psalm, is not the same as lamentation over the dead. In a lament psalm, a petitioner addresses God directly on the occasion of some calamity. It is the intent of this paper to examine the structure of the laments of Psalms and determine if the Laments of Individual Psalms and the National Laments have a rigid structure, which has been proposed by Claus Westermann. Structure of Laments: The lament, or complaint, is a description of the crisis, or an occasion to which the author is responding, and dyer stimulus is prompting the psalmist to cry out to God because of sickness, slander, oppression, enmity, and consequences of sin. As a response to crisis, the lament psalm is best understood in comparison to the other major genres of psalms, namely, praise and thanksgiving psalms. Psalms of praise, with their celebratory language, portray a just and life-sustaining created order. They reflect the relaxed embrace of a status quo whose circumstances favor the speaker. Thanksgiving psalms express to the gathered community of their deliverance from a crisis by God. They reflect the resolution of the crisis and the speaker 's progress toward moving on after trauma. Between these two forms sit the lament psalms, which reacts to a crisis that disrupts the life of an individual or community. The lament psalm looks back at the past times when God had blessed the author (psalmist) or nation and offers …show more content…
These psalms of lament, which are generally simple appeals or prayers to God that consists of an address or initial petition, the lament or grievance, a turning toward God or confession of trust, and a promise of praise (see table 1.2). The internal evolution within the psalm of lament that begins with an address followed by lament, petition, vow, and finally praise, which Claus Westermann argues that the structure of the psalm of lament is theologically significant.2 For Westermann, the structure of the psalm sheds light on the faith of the psalmist or author of the psalm, because it clearly shows that God only hears or responds to the needs of his people when they cry out to Him in …show more content…
Nevertheless, in each one of these psalms we can discern a fixed sequence of elements which marks it as a psalm of lament. The structure of the psalm of lament is an address, a lamentation, a turning to God, a petition, and a vow of praise ...There is not a single psalm of lament that stops in lamentation. Lamentation has no meaning in and of itself. That it functions as an appeal is evident in the structure because what the lament is concerned with is n o t a description of one’s own sufferings or with self-pity, but with the removal of the suffering
Some modern resources on worship, general describe the readings from Psalms as responses to the Old Testament lesson, which suggests for some part that the Book of Psalms is something other than scripture itself. However this view changed when Martin Luther calls the Book of Psalms “A Little Bible,” because it was a great resource to see God’s will for the world and His children. With such a great claim placed upon the Book of Psalms one needs to understand the most numerous and common genre of writing present in the book of Psalms is Laments.2 The genre of Laments are a common theme found in the Old Testament, and the individual psalm of lament are the largest category of the Book of Psalms. The Psalms of lament make up almost a third of all the Psalms. It’s worth noting that the book of Psalms contains more lament psalms than any other genre, suggesting lament 's dominance in the Israelites temple and family life. Laments, as a genre of psalm, is not the same as lamentation over the dead. In a lament psalm, a petitioner addresses God directly on the occasion of some calamity. It is the intent of this paper to examine the structure of the laments of Psalms and determine if the Laments of Individual Psalms and the National Laments have a rigid structure, which has been proposed by Claus Westermann. Structure of Laments: The lament, or complaint, is a description of the crisis, or an occasion to which the author is responding, and dyer stimulus is prompting the psalmist to cry out to God because of sickness, slander, oppression, enmity, and consequences of sin. As a response to crisis, the lament psalm is best understood in comparison to the other major genres of psalms, namely, praise and thanksgiving psalms. Psalms of praise, with their celebratory language, portray a just and life-sustaining created order. They reflect the relaxed embrace of a status quo whose circumstances favor the speaker. Thanksgiving psalms express to the gathered community of their deliverance from a crisis by God. They reflect the resolution of the crisis and the speaker 's progress toward moving on after trauma. Between these two forms sit the lament psalms, which reacts to a crisis that disrupts the life of an individual or community. The lament psalm looks back at the past times when God had blessed the author (psalmist) or nation and offers …show more content…
These psalms of lament, which are generally simple appeals or prayers to God that consists of an address or initial petition, the lament or grievance, a turning toward God or confession of trust, and a promise of praise (see table 1.2). The internal evolution within the psalm of lament that begins with an address followed by lament, petition, vow, and finally praise, which Claus Westermann argues that the structure of the psalm of lament is theologically significant.2 For Westermann, the structure of the psalm sheds light on the faith of the psalmist or author of the psalm, because it clearly shows that God only hears or responds to the needs of his people when they cry out to Him in …show more content…
Nevertheless, in each one of these psalms we can discern a fixed sequence of elements which marks it as a psalm of lament. The structure of the psalm of lament is an address, a lamentation, a turning to God, a petition, and a vow of praise ...There is not a single psalm of lament that stops in lamentation. Lamentation has no meaning in and of itself. That it functions as an appeal is evident in the structure because what the lament is concerned with is n o t a description of one’s own sufferings or with self-pity, but with the removal of the suffering