A psalm of lament: a personal exercise

I am currently part of a small group at my church studying a book by W. David O. Taylor, Open and Unafraid: The Psalms as a Guide to Life, published by Thomas Nelson in 2020. Chapters are devoted to honesty, community, history, prayer, poetry, sadness, anger, joy, enemies, justice, death, life, nations, and creation. At the end of the chapter devoted to sadness the author has given readers the following exercise:

Write out your own psalm of lament, following the basic pattern presented in the chapter on poetry. Write your complaint to God. Write a specific petition of God. Write a resolution to trust that God will hear and heed your petition in a timely fashion, even if it is not according to your timetable (78).

I decided to take up the challenge, using the pattern he describes and the poetic scheme typical of the canonical Psalms, including Hebrew parallelism and three rhythmic stresses in each line. Naturally much of the language draws on scripture itself. This is the result:

A PSALM OF LAMENT

O Lord, my days are woeful,
my years replete with sorrows.
My tears are flowing freely,
weeping dampens my pillow.
My loss is too great to bear;
I cannot endure your anger.
My soul is dragged through ashes,
my belly through the dust.

Forsake me not, O God!
Leave me not alone!
I beg for your deliverance,
and plead for your saving grace.
O Lord, fulfil your promise,
your pledge of faithfulness.
Hasten to my defence;
soothe my bitter anguish.

Yet my trust is ever in you;
my faith is in your mercy.
I know your ways are perfect,
beyond our understanding.
The story is not over;
the tale is scarcely written:
one day we’ll taste salvation,
your saving grace as promised.

© David Koyzis, June 2026