14 Bible verses for grief and loss
For the first raw days and the long months after, with a few honest words on what to say when the loss is someone else’s.
The MySavior teamUpdated · 8 min read
The LORD is near to the brokenhearted; He saves the contrite in spirit.
Psalm 34:18 · BSB
Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
Matthew 5:4 · BSB
The Bible verses most people reach for in grief are Psalm 34:18 and Matthew 5:4. The psalm says, “The LORD is near to the brokenhearted; He saves the contrite in spirit.” And Jesus says, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.” Neither one tells you to stop hurting; both say that God comes close to people who are hurting.
Grief is not only sadness. It is the mug nobody uses now, the voicemail you cannot bring yourself to delete, the turn you nearly take toward their street on the drive home. It is forgetting for one second when you wake, and then remembering.
The fourteen passages below are quoted from the Berean Standard Bible: some for the first week, some for the months after the cards stop coming, and the last for when the loss is someone else’s. You do not need all of them. One is enough for today.
If grief has turned into despair, or into thoughts of ending your life, please tell someone today: a pastor, a doctor, a friend. In the US you can call or text 988, day or night.
When the news is still new
Psalm 34:18
The LORD is near to the brokenhearted; He saves the contrite in spirit.
Psalm 34:18 · BSB
The word to hold on to is “near”: not near to the composed, but to the brokenhearted. Other English Bibles end the line with “crushed in spirit.” You do not have to pray well this week. Being crushed is reason enough for Him to come close.
When you wonder if God minds
John 11:35
Two words, on the way to the tomb of his friend Lazarus. Jesus knew he was about to raise him, and he wept anyway. Your tears are not a failure of faith. The Son of God cried at a funeral.
When you feel you should be over it
Matthew 5:4
Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
Matthew 5:4 · BSB
Jesus calls mourners blessed, which sounds backwards until you hear the promise. Mourning is not a phase to hurry through so you can get back to normal. It is a place he has already promised to meet you.
When you are angry, or simply numb
From Psalm 13:1–2
How long, O LORD? Will You forget me forever? How long will You hide Your face from me? How long must I wrestle in my soul, with sorrow in my heart each day? How long will my enemy dominate me?
From Psalm 13:1–2 · BSB
Four times David asks “How long?” and the Bible keeps every word. Lament is a kind of prayer, not a lapse in it. The psalm does reach trust by verse 5, but it gets there through the complaint, not around it. You are allowed to start where David starts.
When no one else saw the tears
Psalm 56:8
You have taken account of my wanderings. Put my tears in Your bottle—are they not in Your book?
Psalm 56:8 · BSB
David wrote this psalm when the Philistines had seized him in Gath, far from home. He pictures God keeping his tears in a bottle. The crying in the car, in the shower, in the kitchen at 2 a.m.: none of it went unseen.
For the valley itself
Psalm 23:4
Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.
Psalm 23:4 · BSB
Notice the word “through”: the valley is real, but it is a place you walk through. And right here the psalm stops saying “He” and starts saying “You,” as if David can only speak to God face to face once it gets dark.
For the wound that will not close
Psalm 147:3
He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.
Psalm 147:3 (BSB)
Binding a wound is slow, close work, done by hand. It does not make the injury vanish; it protects it while it heals. In MySavior’s wallpaper maker you can write this line, or words of your own, over a calm background and set it as your Lock Screen wallpaper, the first thing you see when you pick up the phone.
Sunday, November 8
9:41
He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.
Psalm 147:3 · BSBTurn this verse into your Lock Screen wallpaperWrite it over a photograph in MySavior’s wallpaper maker and save it to Photos at the size of your iPhone’s screen.
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For the first mornings
Lamentations 3:22–23
Because of the loving devotion of the LORD we are not consumed, for His mercies never fail. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness!
Lamentations 3:22–23 · BSB
Lamentations was written over the ruins of Jerusalem, and these lines sit in its middle chapter, with sorrow on every side. Mornings are often the hardest part of loss. Say this one before your feet touch the floor.
When death seems to have the last word
From John 11:25–26
I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in Me will live, even though he dies. And everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?
From John 11:25–26 · BSB
Martha had just said what every grieving person thinks: “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.” Jesus does not argue with her. He gives her himself, and then a question each of us has to answer on our own.
When you wonder where they are
John 14:2
In My Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you?
John 14:2 · BSB
Jesus said this at the Last Supper, to friends who were about to lose him. It is the language of home: a Father’s house with room in it, and someone who has gone ahead to get it ready.
When hope and sorrow sit together
1 Thessalonians 4:13
Brothers, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you will not grieve like the rest, who are without hope.
1 Thessalonians 4:13 · BSB
Paul does not tell the Thessalonians not to grieve, only not to grieve “like the rest, who are without hope.” The next verse gives the reason: Jesus died and rose again. Christians still cry at funerals. The tears just mean something different.
When you are afraid the love is gone
Romans 8:38–39
For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor principalities, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 8:38–39 · BSB
Paul lists everything he can think of that might come between us and God, and death is the first word on the list. The love of God that holds you holds the ones who died in Christ as well.
For the long view
From Revelation 21:4
‘He will wipe away every tear from their eyes,’ and there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the former things have passed away.
From Revelation 21:4 · BSB
The words in quotation marks go back to Isaiah 25:8, a promise made centuries before. Picture it plainly: tears are not forbidden in that city; they are wiped away, by a hand, one face at a time.
When you are the one who has to comfort
2 Corinthians 1:3–4
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.
2 Corinthians 1:3–4 · BSB
Paul wrote this after a time in Asia so heavy that “we despaired even of life.” The comfort he received was never meant to stop with him. In time, your own losses are what will make you gentle with someone else’s.
What to say to someone who is grieving
Less than you think. Job’s friends did their wisest work before they said a thing: “they sat on the ground with him for seven days and seven nights, but no one spoke a word to him because they saw how intense his suffering was.” It went wrong when they started explaining, and God told them so (Job 42:7).
Say short, true things. “I’m so sorry.” “I don’t know what to say, but I love you.” Say the name of the person who died; most grieving people ache to hear it. Leave out “everything happens for a reason” and anything that begins with “at least.” Paul puts it simply: “weep with those who weep.”
Then do one specific thing instead of “let me know if you need anything”: text “I’m leaving soup on your step Thursday, no need to reply.” Put the anniversary in your calendar, and write to them that day next year, when everyone else has gone quiet.
Keep one verse in view
MySavior’s wallpaper maker puts a verse, or a line of your own, behind your Lock Screen clock, and its Bible verse and prayer widgets keep Scripture on your Home Screen.
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Questions
What does the Bible say about grief?
That it is real, that God is near in it, and that it does not have the last word. Jesus wept for Lazarus (John 11:35), and Paul tells Christians they may grieve, only not like people without hope (1 Thessalonians 4:13).
What is a good Bible verse to send to someone who is grieving?
Choose one short verse, not ten, and add a line of your own. Psalm 34:18, Psalm 147:3 and Matthew 5:4 are gentle and brief. Let the verse keep them company rather than explain the loss.
Is it wrong to grieve if my loved one is with the Lord?
No. Paul says Christians grieve with hope (1 Thessalonians 4:13–14), not that they do not grieve. Jesus wept for Lazarus shortly before he raised him. Hope changes what the tears mean, not whether they come.
Which Bible translation is quoted here?
Every verse in this article is quoted from the Berean Standard Bible (BSB).
