Born out of a painful “personal trauma” (1-2, 26, 136), Young’s study explores Old Testament laments for insight into how we can process the manifold losses of life, personally and collectively. The book is divided into two main sections: context (Part 1) and practice (Part 2). Young defines lament as the expression of feeling (grief, anger, doubt, despair) in the withering face of suffering (3). Next, she undertakes a linguistic, typological, and literary analysis of the genre of lament, identifying the most common term as qînâ (plural qînôt), differentiating between individual and communal (or corporate) laments, and noting their prevalence in the Psalms, where they account for roughly 1/3 of the book (15, 17, 19).

 Structurally, biblical laments have a stable—albeit loose—sequence: (1) address or invocation; (2) lamentation/petition/complaint; (3) motivations; (4) confession of trust and assurance of being heard; and (5) vow of praise (20 ff). Young operates within this structure throughout the study, reiterating its pliability and variability. At the end of every chapter, she includes reflection questions as well as individual and corporate practice suggestions. Helpfully, she surveys the ancient near eastern context of lament, providing examples and juxtaposing them with biblical laments. Lament, she argues in the final chapter of Part 1, “gives voice” to pain, expressing it directly to God (60-61). Rather than run away from our painful feelings, she argues that we should lift them up to the Lord, who knows our pain and understands suffering from the inside.

            In Part II, she identifies different existential sites of lament in practice: sin/repentance, doubt/questions, injustice/unfair circumstances and anger, loneliness/abandonment, sickness/physical pain, and death/loss. For each, she unpacks a particular biblical lament, explicating its significance for these experiences within the structure of lament. Interestingly, she ends these chapters with an anecdote that illustrates the loss under consideration and the lessons from the text, which personalizes the theological concepts, rendering them more relatable and accessible.

Young writes with biblical expertise, pastoral sensitivity, and the wisdom that only arises from painful personal loss—the unexpected gift from an unwanted experience. The church, she argues, should incorporate lament into its practice, thereby normalizing and destigmatizing it in a culture of “toxic positivity” and “good vibes only.” Too often we present curated personas personally and collectively, which marginalizes those in the throes of suffering, where they feel outside of the (obviously false) culture of perfection. Lament recognizes the messiness of life, invites the integration of our losses into our new identity—our new normal—and, corporately, welcomes the wounded into the congregation just as they are.

Many turn inward when they suffer the “slings and arrows” of life, retreating into social isolation and emotional detachment. Through her analysis of lament in the Old Testament, Young advises that we turn outward to others—family, friends, the church—and upward to God, “leaning in” (her recurrent exhortation) to our pain in hopeful expectation, entrusting it to the God of all comfort.