Views from The Ridge 09.06.23
Sunset Ridge is a church that desires to follow Jesus, reach people, and radiate God’s love and hope to all.
This Week…
Wednesday, September 6, 7pm Youth group at the Stirmans’
Saturday, September 9, 10am Second Saturday
Sunday, September 10
9:15am Life Groups, children’s Roots gathering, teen gathering (see website for more info)
10:30am Worship (Help - Psalm 86)
4:30pm Chapel worship
Upcoming…
Wednesday, September 13, 7pm Youth group
Wednesday, September 20, 6:30pm Sunset Worship
Saturday, September 23, 10am La Luz Opening Reception
Building Blocks Of Lament
Riley Stirman
Last Sunday, we began talking about prayer - specifically, how the book of Psalms can guide us as we think about different kinds of prayer. The first one introduced was what we know as “lament”.
Despite the lack of lament songs in our hymn books, lament is the most common type of psalm, making up about 60 of the 150 psalms. Ancient Israel seemed to believe that lament, grief, pain, etc., were a vital part of the human experience, so they were a vital part of worship.
Interestingly, psalms of lament are almost always composed of some combination of the same five elements. There is a set pattern that Israel used to turn their pain into praise and their troubles into trust. Here are the elements, with quotations from one of the most famous psalms, Psalm 13, as an example:
1. Address to God
"How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever?"
2. Description of Trouble
"How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and day after day have sorrow in my heart?"
3. Request for God to Act
"Look on me and answer, Lord my God."
4. Attempts to Motivate God into Action
"Otherwise I might sleep in death, and my enemy will say, 'I have overcome him.'"
5. Statement of Confidence/Praise
"But I trust in your unfailing love. . . . I will sing the Lord's praise, for he has been good to me."
Feel free to check me on this one, but almost every lament psalm will have each of these themes included within it.
This week, I wanted to challenge you to compose a lament psalm of their own. You don't have to show it to anyone, post it on Facebook, or glue it into your Bible. You just have to be honest. Be honest with God about what troubles you. Be honest with God that you need him to act. In doing so, you're joining a rich tradition of people who had the courage to speak to God with boldness about the pain in their lives. And we will be slowly but inescapably transformed by the God who hears our cries.
Around the Community
Did you notice the new coloring pages created for our new Sunday morning sermon series, Simple Prayer? These sheets were created by two of our teens - Jacob Saylors and Ellery Fink! Try out the new word search below or click here to download the coloring page!
From Our Leaders
Each week we will share an update from our Committees here in Views from the Ridge.
This week our update comes from Holly Glasgow, the Shepherd Chair & Shepherd for the Trustees.
The Shepherds are hard at work making contact with the members of our congregation. Each Shepherd has a group they have committed to caring for. Currently, this looks like contacting regularly to show support, offer encouragement, and address any needs or concerns.
We want to celebrate and support each and every person in our community.
We welcome all prayer requests and are praying diligently for them. Please let us know if you would like your request to be shared or remain private. Please call the church office to update the prayer needs listed in the program.
We love you, and look forward to walking alongside you.
