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A book review of Walking with God through the valley: recovering the purpose of biblical lament by May Young. It is to be published in January 2025.

When you think of lamenting what do you hear and see? For me, it is the mass keening in the Middle East. This is for the loss of a loved one, usually in horrific circumstances. The whole neighbourhood of women cry, wailing as they recover the body and hold it aloft. There is something base about it. Something that brings us to our very core of understanding of what it is to be human.

We are creatures who love well. Those who love well also lose and lament is a biblical process of that grief. In the bible, we have the great lamenter. David has 65 hymns of lament in the Book of Psalms. We also have the book of Lamentations. Lamentations testifies to the remnant’s pain and confusion after the destruction of Jerusalem. It shows how prayerful lament is a crucial part of our journey of faith in a broken world.

Does Young grapple with this?

Yes. Systematically Young takes us on a journey of case studies and the topics surrounding lament. She covers sin and repentance first followed by doubt and questioning. Having just read s treatise on Job I found these chapters dovetailed with that book also. Real life scenarios of health, wealth and loss are discussed as injustice, unfairness, anger, abandonment are explored. Finally, the possibility of lament with the journey of sickness and death are teased out.

When you are going through the valley of Baca, the valley of tears, it is good to know that there is always an end to a valley. It is good to know that there is always an end to a valley. This is helpful geography. A valley has an opening and an ending otherwise it would be a basin. This is comforting for those in the middle of a struggle.

At the end of each chapter there is an individual practice and a corporate practice suggestion. This makes me question the purpose of the book. Is it to dip into when you are in that place of lament and …? Is it to be read as a guide for pastors walking alongside those in need? Is it to encourage the practice of lament in the general population and/or church?

As I considered this and other options, I wondered. What would it look like to use this book in one of our weekly bible studies? I also wondered about our prayer meetings. I thought about the people who attend and what their sharing would add to it. I think I will encourage our group to buy the book, and we can work our way through it together.