A Song of Bitterness

Invitation to Lent

What is Lent about?

Introduction to Series

Psalms of Lament

Learning to be faithful to God through pain, suffering, and hardship

Repentance requires honesty first

Culture of dishonest joy and optimism

Covering up Despair

Historical Background of Ps 137

“Wept when we remembered Zion”

The source of Joy is now one of Despair

Death of a loved one

Realization that something is wrong or missing

“Sing a Song of Zion”

Culture of dishonest joy

Humiliation: pretend to be happy

Death, injury, trauma, etc. “Why are you still upset?” “Shouldn’t you be over it by now?”

Pressure to conform, pressure to forget, move on, put on a mask

Response, “We hung up our harps”

Israelites refuse to pretend

Israelites gave up on singing

Despair makes often makes us feel as if we’ll never be happy again.

“Time heals all wounds,” more often, time only makes wounds more bearable.

Sitting in the Dark with God

We must acknowledge what’s wrong. Being faithful to God means being truthful with him, not pretending things are happy when they are not.

Giving God our Hate

“Dash their heads against the rocks”

This is not just with despair, but even the darkest movements of the heart such as hate.

How do we square with “love thy enemies?”

Cruciform Confession

Christians cannot avoid the darkness. But we do always have someone to address in the midst of it.

Not only one to address, but one who is in the darkness with us.