Bible Verses About Grief and Loss

When the loss is fresh

For the first days, when the world has gone strange and ordinary things feel impossible.

• "Jesus wept."

  John 11:35

  He was minutes away from raising Lazarus and he still cried. Grief is not a lack of faith in the outcome.

• "The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit."

  Psalm 34:18

  Close. Not waiting at a distance until you're composed enough for company.

• "Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted."

  Matthew 5:4

  Jesus calls mourners blessed — not once they've recovered, but while they mourn.

• "He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds."

  Psalm 147:3

  Binding is slow work, done in layers. It is not the same as pretending the wound was never there.

• "My soul melteth for heaviness: strengthen thou me according unto thy word."

  Psalm 119:28

  A whole prayer in one line, for days when you can't manage more than that.

When you need to say it out loud

For anger, for the questions no one else will let you ask. Lament is in Scripture because God can hold it.

• "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring?"

  Psalm 22:1

  Jesus quoted this from the cross. The question itself is holy ground.

• "How long wilt thou forget me, O LORD? for ever? how long wilt thou hide thy face from me?"

  Psalm 13:1

  Four how-longs in two verses. The psalmist is not being polite, and he is not rebuked for it.

• "Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O LORD. Lord, hear my voice: let thine ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications."

  Psalm 130:1-2

  From the depths — not from a safe place above them. You can pray from where you actually are.

• "Thou tellest my wanderings: put thou my tears into thy bottle: are they not in thy book?"

  Psalm 56:8

  The image is a bottle kept for tears. Nothing you've cried has gone unnoticed or unkept.

• "Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God."

  Psalm 42:11

  Yet. Not now — yet. The psalmist leaves room for a praise he cannot presently feel.

When you have to keep living

For the long middle: going back to work, cooking dinner, answering how are you when there's no short answer.

• "It is of the LORD’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness."

  Lamentations 3:22-23

  Written in the middle of a book of grief, not after it. Mercy arrives in daily portions, like bread.

• "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me."

  Psalm 23:4

  Walk — a pace, not a sprint. Valleys are crossed slowly and in company.

• "Cast thy burden upon the LORD, and he shall sustain thee: he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved."

  Psalm 55:22

  Sustain is the quiet verb of the long middle: held up, day after ordinary day.

• "My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever."

  Psalm 73:26

  It allows for failing. Your strength running out is not the end of you.

• "Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God."

  2 Corinthians 1:3-4

  In our troubles, not after them. Comfort meets you inside the thing, not on the far side.

When you need the long view

For the hope that doesn't cancel the sorrow — held gently, only when you're ready for it.

• "And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away."

  Revelation 21:4

  Every tear, wiped by a hand. This is not a promise that the tears were unimportant.

• "But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope."

  1 Thessalonians 4:13

  Not do not grieve — grieve differently. Christian grief is real grief with a door left open.

• "Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints."

  Psalm 116:15

  The one you lost was not lost track of.

• "For his anger endureth but a moment; in his favour is life: weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning."

  Psalm 30:5

  The night is granted its full length here. Morning is promised, not scheduled.

• "For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

  Romans 8:38-39

  Death leads the list of things that cannot cut the cord. It was named first on purpose.

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