Wrestling With Words

Writing Into the Psalms During Times of Tragedy

Photo by Wolfgang Hasselmann on Unsplash

A Difficult Week

Hi, friends. How’re you doing this week?

I’m asking because it’s been a hard one. News of tragic flooding and unimaginable loss, the escalation of wars, and persistent evil can become too much. Our hearts weigh us down, so heavy and hard to carry, they’re in danger of becoming callous or numb. And that’s not a healthy place to be.

Add to that personal struggles and losses, and we living beings can lose our joy and will to continue onward...

Yesterday, I experienced what my writing instructor Leslie Leyland Fields would call “wrestling with our words.” I spent the whole afternoon writing about grappling with tragedy. I wrestled with the words, trying to express our deepest emotional responses.

After I was done, it just felt too heavy to post. But this morning I felt a Holy Spirit “override,” so to speak. A nudge for sure.

I remembered a Psalms retreat I attended last year, which Leslie conducted based on her book Nearing a Far God (Praying the Psalms With Our Whole Selves). And I remembered that I could write like the psalmists, and write one of my own.

Have you ever tried that?

Jesus Knows

God isn’t afraid of our feelings, our heaviness, our despair. Jesus acts as our high priest because he walked this earth and experienced our tragedies as well. He gifted us with our emotions and understands our need to cry out in lament.

**Jesus Knows What It’s Like Down Here

I’ve experienced initial steps toward healing and release when writing my own psalms of lament. Similar to speaking our hearts out in prayer, expressing them through writing a personal psalm can free us enough to shift our gaze upward and refocus it on God.

The first Psalm I memorized in my twenties was Psalm 13, a David song of lament. What I love about it is how he turns it back toward hope in God at the end.

Below is my example of how you can use a Psalm to write one for yourself if you’ve never done this. (*Scripture taken from the online Blue Letter Bible, NIV).

(Life is so unpredictable. My last post was a personal Dayenu or praise. This week, it’s a personal lament of sorrows. The irony isn’t lost on me!)

Jen’s Psalm 13—A Lament in Times of Tragedy

Psa 13:1. How long, LORD? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?

How long, Lord? How long will you leave our earth in this mess? How long until you return in glory and renew it?

Psa 13:2 How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and day after day have sorrow in my heart? How long will my enemy triumph over me?

How many times will we have to deal with unimaginable loss, grief that cannot be assuaged? How long will our earth stay fallen, and the enemy still enjoy his influence?

Psa 13:3 Look on me and answer, LORD my God. Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death.

Lord! Where are you? Can you hear us? Answer our pain with your love and hope, or despair will eat us alive!

Psa 13:4 and my enemy will say, “I have overcome him,” and my foes will rejoice when I fall.

God, I can’t live in this broken world without the hope that you provide. Don’t allow the enemy’s darkness to take root and crowd out your Light!

Psa 13:5 But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation.

God, I know you now. I know your love for the world, and I know it personally. Remembering how you saved my own life gives me an eternal joy and a reason to persevere.

Psa 13:6 I will sing the LORD’s praise, for he has been good to me.

I won’t let events on this earth or my hurting heart shake my trust in you. I won’t forget all the blessings you’ve bestowed on us, including our hope of eternal life in you. I choose to look up from these circumstances and remember you’re here with us, alive and well, and still in charge.

Please, come quickly, Lord Jesus! It’s a wreck down here! Our hearts need you.

How about you?

Have you ever written your own psalms of praise or lament? Do you think you might find it useful and try it?

How Can We Help Victims?

1. Pray, pray, pray for the families, victims of war and natural disasters across the world.

2. If you feel like giving, I recommend Franklin Graham’s organization Samaritan’s Purse— Texas Disaster Relief with boots on the ground, and my friend Dr. Sherri McClurg’s organization which houses Ukranian orphans away from the war, through New Horizons For Children.

*"Psalm 13 (NIV) - *For the director of music.." Blue Letter Bible. Accessed 11 Jul, 2025. https://www.blueletterbible.org/niv/psa/13/1/s_491001

**Photo by Zane Persaud on Unsplash