By Pastor Kyle Smith
Ellendale
Working through emotions is sometimes seen as something just for little kids, and as a dad of little kids, I can see why. Children often have a hard time regulating their emotions, which hopefully improves as they get older. But just because the need to work through emotions is more obvious in children, doesn’t mean adults don’t need to do the same thing. However, when I talk about us as adults “working through our emotions,” I’m not talking about learning how to stay calm when we don’t get our way; I’m talking about us as Christians being comfortable with having different emotions.
For some reason, many Christians today are uncomfortable with different emotions, they have this idea that as Christians we are to always be happy and only have positive emotions. This is especially true, some say, during a church service. But the question we always have to ask is, does this line up with Scripture? The answer is a resounding, “No!”
Lately, in my Bible reading plan, I have been going through the book of Psalms. Have you ever wondered what “Psalms” means? It means “songs.” In other words, the book of Psalms was the hymn book of the Jews. If you haven’t taken the time to read through the book of Psalms lately, I highly encourage you to do so.
As we read through the book of Psalms, the songbook, we see a wide variety of genres within the Psalms. Some of my favorite Psalms are classified as “Hymns of Praise.” These psalms are recognized by their praise of the Lord, for who He is, His power, and His mercy. There are also, “Thanksgiving Psalms,” where the author and singers thank the Lord for an answer to prayer.
There are “Songs of Ascents” (Psalm 120-134), which were traditionally used as pilgrims traveled to the Temple to worship. But the genre we often forget is the Psalms of Lament.
A Psalm of Lament expresses the opposite of praise. In a lament, the psalmist opens his heart honestly to God, a heart often filled with sadness, fear, frustration, and even anger. Perhaps the most well-known Psalm of Lament is Psalm 51, which King David wrote about being confronted and convicted of his sin with Bathsheba. But let’s take a look at a lesser-known Psalm of Lament, Psalm 102.
In Psalm 102:1-4, 11 we read, “Hear my prayer, O LORD; let my cry come to you! Do not hide your face from me in the day of my distress! Incline your ear to me; answer me speedily in the day when I fall! For my days pass away like smoke, and my bones burn like a furnace. My heart is struck down like grass and has withered; I forget to eat my bread… My days are like an evening shadow; I wither away like grass.”
Wow! Talk about distress! It’s okay to express that we are filled with sadness, it’s okay to express we are in fear, it’s okay to express we are frustrated, it’s okay even to express our anger to God. Not only is it okay, but it is good. When we come to God with our laments, we’re simply being honest with him about our emotions. Just as a good dad wants his children to come to him no matter what his children are going through, our heavenly Father wants us, his children, to come to him no matter what we are going through and allow Him to help us through.
This is true not only in our personal lives, but this is also true of our corporate lives as well. That is, God desires for us even to bring our laments to Him as the body of Christ, when we’ve gathered as the church. We bring our laments to God not only in prayer, but also in our corporate confession of sin and even at times our songs. So remember, as Christians we don’t always have to be happy, peppy, and positive, not individually or corporately. Working through many emotions in the Christian life, on our own and corporately within the Divine Service, is quite biblical. So don’t worry, you're in good company.