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Godly Complaining

We all know it is wrong to complain, right? After all, Phil 2.14 says, “Do all things without grumbling or disputing.” Look what happened to the Israelites when they complained of adversity: fire from the Lord consumed some of them (Num 11.1). Thus Paul warns us against such complaining against God (1 Cor 10.9-11). Complaining is a mark of discontent and unbelief. Or is it? What about Job? Or what about Jeremiah who had even brought God to court, so-to-speak, accusing God of having deceived him (Jer 12.1; 15.18; 20.7). If it was wrong for Israel to complain against God (cf. Nu 14.27), then how do we deal with Jeremiah? Is it wrong for Christians to get depressed, to express deep anguish of the soul, or even to be angry with God at times? Must we simply buck up, stop whining, and “run with the horses” (Jer 12.5)?

It is helpful to notice the form of Jeremiah’s complaints. Scholars are unanimously agreed that Jeremiah’s “confessions” are in the form of an “individual psalm of lament.” The psalms of lament are a specific genre of scripture based on a conventional literary format (just as “country-western songs,” for example, always have a common theme and style). In the songs of lament, deep emotions (anger, frustration, depression, doubt, etc.) were expressed in the form of a complaint to or even against God. Amazingly, about half of the Psalms are individual laments. From these, scholars have identified a conventional format consisting of an invocation (calling on God’s name), a lament (complaint), a petition (e.g., deliver me, judge my enemies), an expression of assurance that God has heard the prayer, a vow, and a thanksgiving or praise. Not every lament psalm contains every component, but this is the general outline. Psalm 22 is a good example of an lament (“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”), a Psalm Jesus identified himself with as he hung on the cross. Consider also Psalm 55: “As for me, I shall call upon God/And the LORD will save me/Evening and morning and at noon, I will complain and murmur/And He will hear my voice” (vs.16-17). Jeremiah’s confessions occur in the same form as the lament psalms, and it is important to recognize that within the lament there is always an expression of trust and praise. Thus, there is a vast difference between Israel’s faithless, discontented complaining (Nu 11.1) and Jeremiah’s “psalms of laments.” Jeremiah combined his complaints with expressions of trust and praise (11.20; 12.1a; 17.14; 20.11-13).

It is also instructive to notice another one of God’s responses to Jeremiah’s complaints (last week we noted the “run with horses” response in 12.5). After Jeremiah accused God of being a deceptive stream (15.18), God called on Jeremiah to repent (15.19), and to “extract the precious from the worthless” (vs.19d). What does God mean by that latter phrase? The context suggests that Jeremiah’s accusations of God are the “worthless,” while God’s message (the Jeremiah was supposed to preach) is the “precious.” Not that his complaints were worthless, mind you. But perhaps Jeremiah simply carried them a bit too far when he likened God to a deceptive stream (especially considering that he earlier used the same metaphor to describe idols – 2.13). Nonetheless, Job and Jeremiah show us that God would much rather we complain to God, or even against God, than about God. After all, doesn’t the New Testament teach us to “cast all our anxiety upon him, because he cares for you” (1 Pet 5.7)? We need not fear expressing anger, complaints, or doubts to God, so long as we indeed bring these to God. The very act is an expression of trust. But from Jeremiah and the psalms of lament let us learn to combine our “complaints” with sincere expressions of trust and praise, and a vow to keep on running with the horses in the meantime.