• Author(s): Carl Trueman
• Date published: March 25, 2019
• URL: https://www.9marks.org/article/what-can-miserable-christians-sing/
• Tags:
  • prayer
  • prosperity gospel
  • psalms
  • worship
• Date accessed: March 26, 2019

This article argues that there’s a link between the health, wealth, and prosperity “gospel” and the disappearance of the Psalms from our worship. The disappearance of lament, which is prevalent in the Psalms, from Christian worship has normalized positive feelings and attitudes while leaving mourning and desperation out of the normative Christian life. We should learn the Psalms in part to have a vocabulary and grammar of lament, but also to seek to have our prayers match a more biblical model.

Quotes

• On singing:

  In the last year, I have asked three very different evangelical audiences what miserable Christians can sing in church. On each occasion my question has elicited uproarious laughter, as if the idea of a broken-hearted, lonely, or despairing Christian was so absurd as to be comical—and yet I posed the question in all seriousness.

• On prayer:

  One might also look at the content of prayers—those we speak in private and those at the church meeting. How often did Abraham, Moses, and Paul pray for health, for worldly success, for personal happiness and satisfaction? How do the concerns of these men compare with the content and priorities of our own prayers? Do our intercessions, despite the pious theological padding, unwittingly mimic the blasphemous priorities of the Elmer Gantrys of this world who peddle a pernicious gospel of health, wealth, and happiness?