Lament

A prayer or song of grief and honest complaint directed at God, expressing pain, confusion, or abandonment while still trusting in His power to restore. One of the dominant genres in the Psalms.

lightbulbLa-MEANT — a prayer that says what you really meant. Grief, anger, and confusion poured out to God

Definition

A prayer or song expressing grief, sorrow, or complaint to God. About one-third of the Psalms are laments — honest cries directed at God, trusting He hears. They typically move from raw pain toward renewed trust.

Used In41 mentions across 11 books

2 chronicles

The Death of a Good King

2 Chronicles 35:23-25

A lament is what Jeremiah composes upon Josiah's death — this formal song of grief captures the national heartbreak over losing a king who had done more to restore true worship than anyone in living memory.

2 samuel

The Song of the Bow

2 Samuel 1:17-18

Lament is introduced here as the form David chooses for his grief — not a private cry but a composed, public song he orders taught to all of Judah, treating sorrow as worthy of communal remembrance.

A King Who Grieved

2 Samuel 3:31-39

David's lament over Abner is a formal poetic elegy — similar in form to his lament for Saul and Jonathan, signaling that Abner deserved honor as a great man despite their years of conflict.

amos

A Funeral for the Living

Amos 5:1-3

Lament appears here as the literary form Amos chose to open his message — singing a funeral dirge over a still-living nation to shock them into understanding the gravity of what was coming.