Finding The Words to Weep: Bible Verses for Mourning

A delicious beauty can be found when you come across a poet or writer who phrases things just so, and you feel them speaking to your heart. Such writers, poets, or musicians help us to express the depths of our being with words that aren’t ours, but that feel like part of us.

We need words like these in our moments of deep, ineffable joy, but we also need them in our moments when grief crashes over us like relentless, overpowering waves. Bible verses for mourning help us get through the hardest seasons of our lives.

Grief in the Bible

The Bible is a book that tells the human story in many ways. A large part of the human story is the grief we experience. Our lives are marked with loss of various kinds, whether it’s the loss of loved ones, loss of our vitality or a sense of purpose, or the end of cherished dreams. Scripture walks with us through these varied experiences, and the Lord through His Word gives us guidance and the words to utter when words fail us.

We come across many stories of grief, such as Jeremiah weeping over the destruction of Jerusalem in the Book of Lamentations, or David mourning the death of his son Absalom in 2 Samuel. Jesus weeps over Jerusalem and their rejection of Him, and over the death of His friend Lazarus (John 11). Samuel grieves over Saul and the man and king he could have been but failed to become (1 Samuel 15:35). We also read stories of grief over childlessness (1 Samuel 1).

Grief is a part of our lives. We learn through the pages of Scripture that death is an enemy (1 Corinthians 15), and that death has been defeated by Christ’s dying for our sins and rising bodily from death. This means that there is hope because God through Jesus Christ has the final word over death. That is why Paul urges believers to mourn, but not to do so as those who don’t have hope (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18).

As we mourn, we aren’t meant to be doing it alone. As with everything else, believers are meant to stand together in times of weeping. As Paul writes to the Christians in Rome, “Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn” (Romans 12:15, NIV). We stand together in solidarity, empathizing with others’ loss. Grief then, doesn’t and shouldn’t divide believers – it’s a season in which to show mutual support and love.

Some Bible Verses for Mourning

When you lose a loved one, it can feel like your world has ended. It affects your sense of identity and purpose, your joy, and your ability to function. The words of Scripture can help you to acknowledge the feelings accompanying your loss. Instead of bottling up those emotions, we find many passages where people are pouring their hearts out to God through lament.

This permits us to grieve, and it gives us the language with which to grieve. It’s a mistake not to be affected by loss, to feel that you’re above it, so to speak. Jesus wept (John 11:35), so surely, we can weep too. The warrior king David wept over his son Absalom despite, and maybe because of, their fractious and frayed relationship (2 Samuel 18:33). It is right to grieve a loss.

What the Bible also does is to give us the language with which to grieve. As mentioned earlier, the believer’s grief is not a hopeless one. Scripture gives reminders that God is a God of love, a God who comforts us in our grief, and a God who can do the impossible. One of the ways believers can approach their mourning is with honesty but with hope in what God will do. Thus, we can pray like this:

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, so far from my cries of anguish? My God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer, by night, but I find no rest – Psalm 22:1-2, NIV

Similarly, those honest prayers can also carry a note of hope because of who God is. And so, a believer can also pray:

You have turned for me my mourning into dancing; you have loosed my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness, that my glory may sing your praise and not be silent. O Lord my God, I will give thanks to you forever! – Psalm 30:11-12, ESV

Coping with Grief Through Scripture

Scripture gives us the words to speak our anguish and sense of abandonment, but it also gives us the words and a basis for hope, even in the face of death. Losing your loved one doesn’t mean the end of your life. The Lord can intervene in the way only He is capable of, bringing healing to your places of hurt, and comfort that speaks to your soul. It isn’t an easy road, but we don’t have to walk alone.

You can seek help from a Christian grief counselor. They can walk with you to find rest in the Lord’s promises, reconnect with the Lord, and find comfort in Him. Your counselor is a safe and non-judgmental professional who can walk with you as you process your emotions and thoughts about your loss. They can help you find ways to cope with the loss and to find yourself amid the loss. Your journey toward healing can begin today. Reach out for help.