Spiritual formation for today’s Indonesian churches through the psalms of lament

Abstract

Christians have discouraged the use of lament for various reasons. In Indonesia I never heard any single sermon preached on lament even though we have experienced many sufferings, persecutions and calamities. Current scholarly works on these psalms focus on their genre, life settings, and other academic considerations. However, in its life and practice the contemporary church is largely ignorant of the lament Psalms. The question is, how can we use them practically in our modern church setting? This article will answer this question through the usage of lament psalms as spiritual formation model for persecuted Indonesian churches.