In my experience, evangelical worship tends to be almost entirely praise oriented. But if one looks at the Psalms, the most common category is laments, psalms in which the worshipper pours out his complaint to God and prays for help and healing.
In our congregations there are many who come to worship bearing great pain in their souls, and they need the opportunity to express their woes to God. If the way is not clear for them to do so, they will feel even more excluded and cut off from their fellow worshippers and from God.
I'm enjoying this book, and so far have especially enjoyed Mark Strauss' excellent pastoral introduction and concluding comments, and Gordon Wenham's interesting suggestions for churches which believe they have been too permissive on this issue in the past.
Highly recommended.
