Prayer: God, we praise you for how you pause to weep with us in our sorrows and for how you continue to work everything for our good. Help us to remember your kindness and to turn to you, for you will meet us where we are. In your almighty name, Amen.
Reading: Psalm 79:1-9 (Click to read text) Stop and GROW: After reading the text, discuss/ponder the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's Book of Faith questions, which are part of Camp Mount Luther's GROW Time with campers. QUESTION 1: What scares, confuses, challenges, or doesn’t make sense to me in this text? QUESTION 2: What delights me in this text or is my favorite part of the story? QUESTION 3: What stories or memories does this text stir in me? QUESTION 4: What is God up to in this text? Reflection: When reading this Psalm there are feelings of desperation and sorrow that come through the verses. Because of the expression of these feelings, this particular Psalm is a lament. Lamenting isn’t necessarily a pleasant thing to do, but think of a time where you felt overwhelming grief or sorrow, and then try to think of a moment when it began to feel like it was turning around. In the Psalm, leading up to verse 9 each preceding verse expresses lament, and then verse 9 turns to God for help and forgiveness. When I think of a lament, I think of the song “Weep with Me” by Rend Collective (you can listen here: https://youtu.be/GAGqvq4N_zQ ). This song is about how God will meet us in our grief and our sorrow and will weep with us. And just as the psalmist asks for God’s help and forgiveness in verse 9 of Psalm 79, the song turns to say, “help my unbelief…” And then flips to a love song, praising God for what he has done to care for our weeping hearts! --Anne Harshbarger
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