This is Ann Weem’s Psalm of Lament I used in the Good Friday service.

From her book “Psalms of Lament” (Westminster John Knox Press)

O God of my heart

it is your name I call

when the stars do not come out.

O God of my soul,

it is to you I turn

when the torrents of terror

drown me.

O God of mercy,

it is for your hand I reach

when I stumble

on the stones of sorrow.

O God of justice,

it is to you I cry

when the landslide of grief

buries me.

I stand beneath the night

where stars used to shine

and remember

gazing mesmerized

at the luminaries of the sky

until I could walk

the ink-blue beach

between their shining.

Then their shining stopped,

for they left the sky,

and you, O God,

left with them.

And I am left

alone

beneath a starless sky

with a starless heart

that barely beats.

Will your stars

never shine again?

Will they never again

speak of your mystery?

Will they never again sing

their songs

to my soul?

Will I never again know

the wonder

of the God

of star and sky?

O God of my heart,

peel back the night

and let the starlight

pour out upon

my upturned face.

Let my eyes drink

a sky of stars.

Let my heart bathe

in the stunning light

until my soul sings again

with the conviction

of the faithful.

In your mercy and justice,

O God of my heart,

call me by name,

and the stars will shine

once more,

as they did

on that morning

when they first began

to sing.