When you are hurting, you do not need a lecture. You need someone to sit with you. That is why we start this page with one verse, and why we put it first.
The heading over Psalm 34 names David, and David knew what it was to be crushed. He lost friends, his best friend Jonathan, and more than one son. Out of that kind of life came a sentence that people have read at hospital beds and gravesides for generations:
The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.
Psalm 34:18 (KJV)
The word nigh means near. Notice who God comes near to. Not the strong, not the people who have it all together, but the broken. If that is you today, you are exactly the person this verse was written for.
Below you will find more Bible verses for comfort, each with the setting it came from: who was speaking, who was listening, and what had just happened. We have arranged them by where you might be right now.
A gentle word. Standing on God's promises goes hand in hand with good care. Keep seeing your doctor, take what you have been prescribed, and talk to someone you trust. If healing is slow, that is never proof that your faith was too small. The people of the Bible waited too.
Where are you today?
Sorrow does not look the same from one week to the next. Pick the row that sounds most like you, then read the verse slowly, maybe more than once.
| If this is you | Start with | First heard by |
|---|---|---|
| The loss just happened and you are in shock | John 11:25 to 26 | Martha, four days after her brother died |
| You keep crying and feel you should be over it | Matthew 5:4 | Jesus' disciples, with crowds from Galilee and beyond |
| A heavy sadness will not lift | Psalm 42:11 | Sung in Israel's worship by the sons of Korah |
| You have lost a believer you love | 1 Thessalonians 4:13 to 14 | A young church in Greece |
| You wonder if it will ever end | Revelation 21:4 | John, on the island of Patmos |
When Jesus stood at a grave
Lazarus had been dead four days when Jesus reached Bethany. His sister Martha met Him on the road and said what grieving people still say: if You had been here, this would not have happened. Jesus did not scold her for it. He answered her with a promise.
Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?
John 11:25-26 (KJV)
A few verses later Mary came, and the mourners who had come with her were weeping too. Then comes the shortest verse in the Bible: Jesus wept. He knew Lazarus would walk out of that tomb very soon, and He still cried with the people who loved him.
That tells you something about God that is easy to miss. Your tears do not offend Him. He does not stand at a distance waiting for you to cheer up. The One who promised resurrection also stood in the dust and wept with His friends.
Blessed are they that mourn
Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.
Matthew 5:4 (KJV)
Jesus spoke these words near the start of the Sermon on the Mount. His disciples came close, and great crowds had followed Him from Galilee, Jerusalem, Judea and beyond the Jordan. Life was hard for most of them, and loss was never far away.
It sounds upside down. How can mourning be blessed? The blessing is not in the loss. It is in the second half of the sentence. Those who mourn are the ones who will be comforted, and the way the sentence is built points to God as the one who does the comforting. Grief is not a sign that God has left you. It is the very place He has promised to meet you.
The God of all comfort, and why He gives it
Paul wrote his second letter to the church at Corinth after a stretch so hard that he said he despaired even of life. He had come through it, and the first thing he did in the letter was praise God for the comfort he had received.
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 (KJV)
Read it again and look for the word that keeps coming back. The word comfort, in one form or another, shows up five times in two verses. Paul is saying that God does not just hand out comfort here and there. Comfort is part of who He is. He is the Father of mercies.
There is also a purpose in it. God comforts us so that we can comfort others. If you have walked through a loss, someday you will sit with someone else who is walking through one, and you will know what to say and, just as important, what not to say. Nothing you have suffered is wasted in His hands.
Bible verses for depression and a heavy heart
A prophet who wanted to die
Elijah had just seen fire fall from heaven on Mount Carmel. Then Queen Jezebel threatened his life, and he ran. Alone in the wilderness, he sat under a juniper tree and asked God to take his life.
Look at what God did next. No rebuke. No sermon. An angel touched him and told him to get up and eat. There was a cake baked on the coals and a jar of water by his head. Elijah ate, slept again, and the angel came a second time. Only after rest and food did God speak to him about the road ahead. That story is in 1 Kings 19, and 1 Kings falls in the span of Book Two of this series, which runs from Numbers through Esther.
A singer who argued with his own soul
The heading of Psalm 42 names the sons of Korah, Levites who led singing at the house of God. The writer is far from home and people keep asking him where his God is. Twice in the psalm he talks to himself:
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 (KJV)
He does not pretend he feels fine. He asks why he is so low. Then he chooses to hope anyway, not because the feeling has passed, but because he knows who God is. Psalm 42 falls in Book Three, which is coming next.
If the sadness has lasted for weeks, or you cannot sleep, eat or get through the day, please tell a doctor or a licensed counselor. Depression is an illness, not a failure of faith, and it can be treated. Elijah needed bread and sleep, and God gave him both.
If you are thinking about ending your life, call or text 988 to reach the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline in the United States, any time of day or night. If you are in danger right now, call 911. Please do not wait.
Beauty for ashes
Isaiah wrote these lines for people who had lost almost everything. Centuries later, Jesus stood up in the synagogue in His hometown of Nazareth, read the opening of this passage out loud, sat down and said it was fulfilled that day in their hearing.
The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn; To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified.
Isaiah 61:1-3 (KJV)
In Bible times, people who mourned put ashes on their heads. Oil was poured on the head at times of joy. So the promise is a picture of a swap: God takes the ashes off and pours on the oil. He trades a heavy spirit for a garment of praise. That trade does not usually happen in a day. Trees take years to grow, and Isaiah ends by calling the mourners trees of righteousness. Healing from grief grows the same way, slowly and from the roots.
Grieving a believer: sorrow, but not without hope
The church in Thessalonica was only a few months old when Paul had to leave town in a hurry. Some members died before he could come back, and the others were frightened. Had their friends missed out on the return of Jesus? Paul wrote to settle their hearts.
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. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.
1 Thessalonians 4:13-14 (KJV)
The Bible often calls the death of a believer sleep, because sleep is not the end. You wake up. Paul does not say that Christians should not grieve. He says their grief is different, because it has a morning in it.
He closed that part of the letter with a simple instruction: Wherefore comfort one another with these words. If someone you love has died in the Lord, these words are for you to read and to share.
The day the tears stop
The last book of the Bible was written by John, who tells us he was on the island of Patmos for the word of God. Near the very end, he saw a new heaven and a new earth, and heard a voice say that God Himself would live with His people.
Then comes the promise that grieving people have clung to for centuries. God will wipe away every tear. Death, sorrow, crying and pain will all be gone, because the old order of things will have passed away. That is not wishful thinking. It is the place the whole Bible has been heading since the garden.
Until that day, you are allowed to cry. One psalm even pictures God keeping our tears: put thou my tears into thy bottle. Not one of them is lost on Him.
Ways to let these promises hold you
- Read just one verse. On the worst days, a whole chapter is too much. Write one verse on a card and carry it.
- Pray honestly. The psalms show you can tell God exactly how you feel. You might pray: Lord, my heart is broken. You said You are near to the brokenhearted. Please be near me now.
- Let people help. God often sends His comfort through people, like the angel who brought Elijah bread. Say yes to the meal, the visit, the phone call.
- Give yourself time. There is no deadline on grief. Anniversaries and holidays may be hard for years. That is normal.
Read them one at a time
Book Two follows the promises from Numbers through Esther, the part of the Bible that takes in Deuteronomy, where Moses told Israel the Lord would not fail them nor forsake them, and 1 Kings, where Elijah was fed and rested in the wilderness. Each promise has its own page with the King James verse, who it was spoken to, what it meant then, what it means for you and a short prayer.