Fifteen verses for mourning, from the first nights of tears to the slow return of joy.
The psalms of grief do not hurry. Psalm 6 describes crying every night until the bed is soaked. Psalm 42 says tears have been food day and night. Psalm 31 says life is spent with sorrow. Next to these are lines that speak to the mourner: God counts the wanderings and keeps the tears in a container, and the LORD is near to those who have a broken heart. The psalms put both side by side.
The verses are grouped for new grief, for tears that feel unseen, for the death of someone you love, for losing a parent, and for when joy begins to return. Print any that help for a card or a bedside. This is scripture, not grief counselling or medical care.
For the first days, when crying is most of what happens.
I am weary with my groaning.Every night I flood my bed.I drench my couch with my tears.
I am weary with my groaning; all the night make I my bed to swim; I water my couch with my tears.
Weary with groaning, flooding the bed every night. The grief is described at night, in bed, in plain physical terms.
My tears have been my food day and night,while they continually ask me, “Where is your God?”
My tears have been my meat day and night, while they continually say unto me, Where is thy God?
Tears as food, day and night, while others keep asking where your God is. Grief and other people's questions arrive together.
Have mercy on me, LORD, for I am in distress.My eye, my soul, and my body waste away with grief.
Have mercy upon me, O LORD, for I am in trouble: mine eye is consumed with grief, yea, my soul and my belly.
My eye, my soul, and my body waste away with grief. Grief is described as affecting the whole person, body included.
My soul is weary with sorrow;strengthen me according to your word.
My soul melteth for heaviness: strengthen thou me according unto thy word.
My soul is weary with sorrow; strengthen me according to your word. A short prayer for someone too tired to say more.
For when grief feels unseen by anyone.
You count my wanderings.You put my tears into your container.Aren’t they in your book?
Thou tellest my wanderings: put thou my tears into thy bottle: are they not in thy book?
God counts the wanderings and puts the tears in a container, written in a book. Nothing about the sorrow is treated as lost.
The LORD is near to those who have a broken heart,and saves those who have a crushed spirit.
The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.
Near to those who have a broken heart. The verse does not say the heart is mended here. It says the LORD is near and saves the crushed in spirit.
Verses that speak about a death itself.
Precious in the LORD’s sight is the death of his saints.
Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints.
Precious in the LORD's sight is the death of his saints. The death is noticed and valued, not passed over.
You have put lover and friend far from me,and my friends into darkness.
Lover and friend hast thou put far from me, and mine acquaintance into darkness.
You have put lover and friend far from me. Psalm 88 ends on this line, with no turn to comfort, and gives words to a loss that does not yet make sense.
So teach us to count our days,that we may gain a heart of wisdom.
So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.
After verses about how short life is, the prayer is to count our days and gain a heart of wisdom. It turns the loss toward the days that are left.
No psalm is a lament for a parent's death. These are the lines that speak of mourning a mother, of parents, and of the fatherless.
I behaved myself as though it had been my friend or my brother.I bowed down mourning, as one who mourns his mother.
I behaved myself as though he had been my friend or brother: I bowed down heavily, as one that mourneth for his mother.
The writer says he bowed down mourning, as one who mourns his mother. It is a comparison, made about grief for others, and the only line in the psalms that pictures mourning a mother.
When my father and my mother forsake me,then the LORD will take me up.
When my father and my mother forsake me, then the LORD will take me up.
When my father and my mother forsake me, then the LORD will take me up. The verse is about being left rather than about death, but it speaks to the loss of both parents.
A father of the fatherless, and a defender of the widows,is God in his holy habitation.
A father of the fatherless, and a judge of the widows, is God in his holy habitation.
A father of the fatherless, and a defender of the widows. The verse names the people a death leaves behind.
For later, not for the first week.
For his anger is but for a moment.His favor is for a lifetime.Weeping may stay for the night,but joy comes in the morning.
For his anger endureth but a moment; in his favour is life: weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.
Weeping may stay for the night, but joy comes in the morning. The night is not denied, and the weeping is allowed to stay.
You have turned my mourning into dancing for me.You have removed my sackcloth, and clothed me with gladness,
Thou hast turned for me my mourning into dancing: thou hast put off my sackcloth, and girded me with gladness;
Mourning turned into dancing and sackcloth taken off. The writer speaks as someone looking back on it.
Those who sow in tears will reap in joy.
They that sow in tears shall reap in joy.
Those who sow in tears will reap in joy. The tears are part of the sowing rather than wasted.
Some of the psalms complain to God with no comfort offered at all. Psalm 88 ends in darkness, with lover and friend put far away. Others turn before they finish. Psalm 13 asks how long four times in its first two verses, then says my heart rejoices in your salvation before it closes in song. Psalm 42 and Psalm 43 share a refrain asking the soul why it is in despair and telling it to hope in God.
Psalm 6, Psalm 31 and Psalm 42 describe grief from the inside. Psalm 56:8 and Psalm 34:18 speak of God seeing the tears and staying near the broken hearted.
Psalm 116:15 speaks directly of death: precious in the LORD's sight is the death of his saints. Psalm 90 sets one short life against God, who has been our dwelling place for all generations.
No psalm mourns a mother's death directly. Psalm 35:14 compares deep mourning to mourning for a mother, and Psalm 27:10 speaks of the LORD taking up someone whose father and mother have left them.
Psalm 68:5 calls God a father of the fatherless, and Psalm 146:9 says he upholds the fatherless and widow.
Psalm 30:5: weeping may stay for the night, but joy comes in the morning.
Psalms about DeathPsalms for FuneralsPsalms for a Broken HeartPsalms for Comfort and StrengthPsalms of LamentPsalms of Remembrance