“Then Job answered and said, Even today is my complaint bitter: my stroke is heavier than my groaning” (Job 23:1,2).

In the Old Testament there are only three notables who used the word “complaint” when they spoke: Hannah, Job, and David. From their innermost being they expressed in words their complaint or grievance to God. Their only recourse was to pour out their soul to One who hears and answers prayer.

Hannah’s complaint concerned an unfruitful womb and she could turn only to the Lord. To Eli she explained: “for out of the abundance of my complaint and grief have I spoken hitherto” (I Samuel 1:16).

Job uttered the word complaint on five different occasions. “When I say, My bed shall comfort me, my couch shall ease my complaint; Then thou scarest me with dreams” (7:13,14). “If I say, I will forget my complaint. . . . Yet shalt thou plunge me in the ditch” (9:27,31). “My soul is weary of my life; I will leave my complaint upon myself” (10:1). “As for me, is my complaint to man?” (21:4). “Even today is my complaint bitter” (23:2).

David also uttered grievances (complaints) to God. “Attend unto me, and hear me: I mourn in my complaint, and make a noise; Because of the voice of the enemy, because of the oppression of the wicked” (Psalm 55:2,3). As a hunted man hiding in a cave he wrote: “I poured out my complaint before Him; I shewed before Him my trouble” (Psalm 142:2). Similarly, “A prayer of the afflicted, when he is overwhelmed, and poureth out his complaint before the Lord” (Psalm 102, title).

In spite of the intense suffering, grief, pain, and complaint, Hannah, Job, and David came through victoriously. Hannah trusted God and received her son. Job trusted God and received a double blessing. David trusted God and received a kingdom. NPS