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At this point you may be saying, "Hold on there one doggone, cotton-pickin', chicken-lickin' minute" – or something like that. "Church isn't about feeling sorry for yourself and wallowing in your own problems. It's about focusing on God, on who he is and what he's done, and in his presence our problems disappear. So pull yourself together, you moaning minnie."

But I disagree. I think there's something wrong with our worship, and here's why.

When the sermon came, it was one of those preachers that perform the miracle of making the notice sheet suddenly seem interesting. That wore off soon enough, and I picked up a Bible and found myself leafing through the Psalms. The contrast with what we had been doing for the last 40 minutes couldn't have been more startling.

Yes, the Psalms are full of gung-ho marching songs, hymns of joy and all the rest. But there is also a whole different and darker side. There are songs of depression, bitterness and despair. Songs that accuse and complain to God. It's stuff worthy of Leonard Cohen with a bad case of Seasonally Adjusted Disorder.

Lord I call to you for help;
Every morning I pray to you.
Why do you reject me, Lord?
Why do you turn away from me?
(Psalm 88:13-18, Good News Bible)

The point is not just that this is in the Bible, but that it is – believe it or not Ð a worship song. The book of Psalms is the hymn book of the Bible, and these things were sung in worship. This is the Songs of Fellowship of the Old Testament. Hymns for Yesterday's Church.

In the case of Psalm 88, quoted above, we're even told the name of the tune: "Mahalath Leannoth". We don't know how it went, but as it translates, "The Suffering of Affliction", you can't imagine it was particularly upbeat. It also says it is a psalm of The Sons of Korah, who may or may not be the group who had a hit with it.

And there are plenty more where this came from.

So why have these songs of complaint, or anything like them, failed so comprehensively to make it into our own worship? Why does our worship only reflect half of our experience?

I can think of a bundle of possible reasons. (Watch me shoot 'em down.)

1. Rotten things don't happen to Christians. Yeah, right.

2. When rotten things happen to Christians, we're so spiritual that we don't let them get us down. I suspect that's even further from the truth.

3. Rotten things do get us down, but we don't think they should, so our songs pretend that they don't. I think this is getting warmer. Surely our worship should be honest if nothing else is.

4. Church is seen as a pick-me-up, an escape from the problems of life. I hope not. This is not a good way to deal with problems or a good way of relating to God.

5. We don't want to sing songs about feeling bad and far from God, because half the people in church are happy and don't feel like that. But if that's the case, why do we sing songs about feeling really blessed and knowing that Jesus has got everything in hand, when half of us don't feel like that?

6. We believe doubt and complaining have no part in worship because they are not honouring to God. But whoever wrote the unhappy psalms knew that worship is bringing our real selves to God, our whole selves. It seems that he can take it.

The fact is that Old Testament worship shows up a startling deficiency in our own, and someone ought to do something about it.

Such as?

For one thing, we could be a bit less scared of reading from the Psalms in church. Churches which follow a lectionary are doing this already, and others could follow their lead.

Then worship leaders could lead us in prayers of complaint and questioning, using the Psalms as a model. If we really can't find anything to complain about, we can do it on behalf of someone else. In a world where hunger kills, that shouldn't be too hard.

Lastly, songwriters could try getting some songs from the angry Psalms. And as most of them have a happy ending, they wouldn't have to be quite as depressing as Leonard Cohen.

© Ship of Fools 2001