I love the ministry of Bifrost Arts. One of their burdens is to help the church learn to lament like Jesus.
For example, here is a liturgy they have written:
Leader: The peace of the Lord be with you.
People: And also with you.
Leader: The Lord scatters His enemies; they are blown away as smoke, melted as wax before the fire. But the righteous will rejoice before Him. The Lord is Father to the fatherless and the defender of widows. He leads the prisoners out with singing.
People: Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be – world without end. Amen.
Leader: Let us pray. For the sick and the dying, for all who grieve, for those lonely and forgotten, for those estranged from family, and for all who are in despair, we cry out for them “Be merciful, O Lord.” “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me? O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer, and by night, but I find no rest. Yet you are the one who brought me from the womb; you loved me when I was at my mother’s breasts, Be not far from me, for trouble is near, and there is no one who can help me. I am poured out like water on the ground.”
People: We pray to You, Lord Jesus, for comfort . . (silent prayer)
Leader: For the unborn, and for all Your children who will never draw their first breath, for young girls sold into slavery, for little boys delivered into violence, “a voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping. Rachel is weeping for her children; she refuses to be comforted for her children, because they are no more. because infants and babes faint in the streets of the city. Even when we cry out, “Violence!’ we are not answered. How long, O Lord?”
People: We cry out to You, Lord Jesus, for justice. . . (silent prayer)
Leader: For the violence in our world, for the death of innocents in Syria, in Ukraine, in North Korea, in the streets of our own cities, and for every place in which Your people cry out, in which the stranger lives in fear of brutality, in which prisoners are abused, in which men plot against one another, we cry, “How long, O Lord?” “How desolate sits the city that once was full of people! How like a widow she has become, she that was great among the nations! She that was a princess among the provinces has become an object of scorn. For these things we weep; our eyes flow with tears. Comfort is far from us, for Your enemies have prevailed.”
People: We pray to You, Lord Jesus, for peace . . . (silent prayer)
Leader: Lord Jesus, in You all things were created—all things on heaven and on earth, all things visible and invisible, all thrones and powers and rulers and authorities. And You are reconciling all things to Yourself, making peace through the blood of Your cross. Renew us the zeal to see Your kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven. Make us ministers of Your reconciliation, we pray.
People: Amen.
(from Lamentations 1:1-6, Jeremiah 31:15, Job 19:7, Psalm 74:18-22, Psalm 22:1-8, Colossians 1)
Here is a video they have put together on lament in worship:
And here is one of their new songs, Rise Up:
You can get the whole album here.
