Walking with God Through the Valley: Recovering the Purpose of Biblical Lament

Recovering the Practice of Lament

The church desperately needs to recover the practice of lament. But what exactly are we asking for?

The call for lament echoes throughout the pages of Scripture. This ever-present genre shaped the lives of ancient communities, and it should shape the practices of churches today. And yet contemporary Christian communities often don’t know how to engage texts of lament in their contexts. In a world experiencing so much pain, a recovery of biblical lament is more necessary than ever.

In Walking with God Through the Valley, Old Testament scholar May Young offers a guide for readers to engage lament texts both in their church communities and in their personal lives. Drawing deeply from key passages in Scripture, including the Psalms, Habakkuk, and Lamentations, Young posits that true lament must come out of a deep understanding of the biblical text. Through practicing lament in our own lives, we can move through pain and suffering and experience God’s renewed hope.

May Young (PhD, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School) is associate professor of biblical studies and chairs the Department of Biblical Studies, Christian Ministries, Intercultural Studies, and Philosophy at Taylor University. She has contributed to several volumes focused on lament, including Reading the Psalms Theologically (Lexham) and World Christianity and COVID-19: Discourses and Perspective (Routledge). She is a member of the Evangelical Theological Society and the Society of Biblical Literature and serves on the board of directors of the Institute of Biblical Research, as well as the editorial board for Sacred Roots.