Pray the word with David Platt is a resource from radical dot net.

Ezekiel chapter 19 verse 1 and you take up a lamentation for the princes of Israel.

This is the first verse of an entire chapter that is dedicated to a lamentation.

That's how the chapter ends.

After 14 verses of lament, we see these words, this is a lamentation and has

become a lamentation. So what is a lamentation? Well basically, a lamentation is a deep, passionate expression of grief or sorrow.

And it's obviously a familiar term in the Bible.

We see it in a book of the Bible, lamentations that Jeremiah writes to lament to express grief and sorrow over

sin and its effects specifically in the destruction of Jerusalem at the hands of the Babylonians.

And this is what's happening here in Ezekiel Chapter 19.

God is saying take up a lamentation for the princess for the leaders of Israel

and by implication for the people of Israel God's people who have sinned against him and are experiencing the effects of their sin.

The reason I want to read the simple verse, Ezekiel 19 verse one and you take up a lamentation for the princes of Israel and to pray accordingly is because I think

We are pretty unfamiliar with lament.

What the Bible means when it talks about lament

when it comes to our prayer lives, when it comes to our lives as a whole.

If we're not careful, we can go through day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year, maybe even decade after

decade after decade.

In our lives, individually, in our families families in our churches and not lament.

Not ever expressed deep passionate grief and sorrow over sin over sins

over sins effects around us like when was the last time, think pre-COVID even, when we were in a

church gathering and people everywhere were on their faces like weeping over sin in our midst.

...