Crown the head and the whole body shares in it.

The Lord is my portion;
    I promise to keep your words.

Recommended reading:

Suffering, by Paul Tripp.
A Book of Comfort for Those in Sickness, P.B. Power.
Torn to Heal: God’s Good Purpose in Suffering, Mike Leake.
Comfort the Grieving: Ministering God’s Grace in Times of Loss, Paul Tautges.
Help! - I Can’t Handle All These Trials, Joel James.
God’s Grace in Your Suffering, David Powlison.
Dark Clouds Deep Mercy: Discovering the Grace of Lament, Mark Vroegop.
Suffering and the Sovereignty of God, Piper and Taylor (2005 Desiring God Conference).

Learning to lament

1. Turn to God. In Psalm 142, the psalmist cries out to God. For example, he says, “I pour out my complaint before him; I tell my trouble before him” (vs. 2). This is the first lesson of the laments. When we are uncertain, afraid, confused or saddened, we need to come before our Father in heaven. As adopted children, redeemed by the blood of Christ, we are free to come into God’s presence with confidence and know that he will hear us. Not only that, but he delights that we come before him. More often than not though, turning to God with our emotions is not the first thing we do. Instead, we usually try to distract ourselves from painful emotions, pretend they don’t exist or seek to find a temporary savior to our problems. But the laments remind us that God is King. He is our Savior, deliverer and refuge. He alone is our salvation.

2. Cry for help. In Psalm 142, David then cried out to God for help, “Attend to my cry, for I am brought very low! Deliver me from my persecutors, for they are too strong for me!” (vs. 6). This is another element of the laments—asking God for help. Whether it is help for ourselves, for other brothers and sisters in Christ, for our country or for our world, we need to cry out to God. Like David, we need to seek God’s deliverance and mercy.

3. Speak the truth. The next lesson we can learn from the laments is how the psalmist speaks the truth about who God is. He reminds himself of God’s character and goodness. In verse three, David wrote, “When my spirit faints within me, you know my way!” He reminds himself that God knows all things. In verse five, he refers to God as his refuge, “I cry to you, O Lord; I say, ‘You are my refuge, my portion in the land of the living.’” As we cry out to God in sorrow or fear about all that is happening around us, we too need to remember who God is and what he has done. He is good and faithful. We need to remember “The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the LORD; he turns it wherever he will” (Prov. 21:1).

4. Trust in the Lord. Lastly, the psalmist voices a response of trust in the Lord, “Bring me out of prison, that I may give thanks to your name! The righteous will surround me, for you will deal bountifully with me” (vs. 7). This is the goal of the laments. They move forward from despair to joy, from fear to trust, from loneliness to hope. As the psalmist comes into God’s presence and cries out to the Lord, he remembers who God is and what he has done, and his joy is rekindled. He knows that God rules and reigns over all things. He knows that God’s redemptive hand is at work. He knows that God is good. And so he responds in praise and trust. He doesn’t know when the Lord will deliver him, but he trusts and believes that he will.