Grief 05: Truths for the Mom Walking Through Grief Transcript
This transcript has been edited for clarity.
Laura Wifler: Hey, friends, Laura here, welcome back to another episode of Risen Motherhood. If you're just joining us, we're in the middle of our Grief series, and we're exploring different sorrows and hardships in life. When we grieve, one of the places we find hope is in Scripture and in practicing lament. In light of that, we've put together a show today that is entirely Scripture. We've done this a few times before in the past, and it's always one of our top shows in a series. Our heart behind this is to first recognize that Emily and I cannot give you anything better than what God has already given you.
We can talk all day about grief and how to process, but at the end of the day, God's Word is more helpful, more comforting, and more hopeful than anything we could ever say. Second, our hope is that you can allow the words that Emily will read today to wash over you. Perhaps settle into a comfy chair with a cup of coffee or listen while you drive. Just remember that each of these Scriptures have been carefully selected to walk through the stages of lament and end on hope. All the verses referenced are in the ESV from Crossway and will be listed in our show notes in the order we read them. You can also find them in the transcript if you'd like to find more.
Emily Jensen: “Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am in distress; my eye is wasted from grief; my soul and my body also. For my life is spent with sorrow, and my years with sighing” (Psalm 31:9-10).
“We know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves . . . groan inwardly” (Romans 8:22-23).
“Hear my prayer, O Lord; let my cry come to you! Do not hide your face from me in the day of my distress! Incline your ear to me; answer me speedily in the day when I call! For my days pass away like smoke, and my bones burn like a furnace. My heart is struck down like grass and has withered; I forget to eat my bread. Because of my loud groaning my bones cling to my flesh. I am like a desert owl of the wilderness, like an owl of the waste places; I lie awake; I am like a lonely sparrow on the housetop” (Psalm 102:1-7).
“My soul melts away for sorrow; strengthen me according to your word!” (Psalm 119:28).
“How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day? . . . Consider and answer me, O Lord my God; light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death . . . But I have trusted in your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation. I will sing to the Lord, because he has dealt bountifully with me” (Psalm 13).
“Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever” (Psalm 73:25-26).
“He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds” (Psalm 147:3).
“Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am languishing; heal me, O Lord, for my bones are troubled. My soul also is greatly troubled. But you, O Lord—how long? Turn, O Lord, deliver my life; save me for the sake of your steadfast love. For in death there is no remembrance of you; in Sheol who will give you praise? I am weary with my moaning; every night I flood my bed with tears; I drench my couch with my weeping. My eye wastes away because of grief” (Psalm 6:2-7).
“You have kept count of my tossings; put my tears in your bottle. Are they not in your book? . . . You have delivered my soul from death, yes, my feet from falling, that I may walk before God in the light of life” (Psalm 56:8,13).
“My soul is bereft of peace; I have forgotten what happiness is; so I say, ‘My endurance has perished; so has my hope from the Lord.’ Remember my affliction and my wanderings, the wormwood and the gall! My soul continually remembers it and is bowed down within me. But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. ‘The Lord is my portion,’ says my soul, ‘therefore I will hope in him.’ . . . For the Lord will not cast off forever, but, though he cause grief, he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love; for he does not afflict from his heart or grieve the children of men” (Lamentations 3:17-24, 31-33).
“Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will take joy in the God of my salvation” (Habakkuk 3:17-18).
“Why is light given to him who is in misery, and life to the bitter in soul, who long for death, but it comes not? . . . For my sighing comes instead of my bread, and my groanings are poured out like water. For the thing that I fear comes upon me, and what I dread befalls me. I am not at ease, nor am I quiet; I have no rest, but trouble comes” (Job 3:20-26).
“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning? O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer, and by night, but I find no rest. . . . Be not far from me, for trouble is near, and there is none to help” (Psalm 22:1-2, 11).
“My joy is gone; grief is upon me; my heart is sick within me. . . . Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there?” (Jeremiah 8:18, 22).
“Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my Spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations. He will not cry aloud or lift up his voice, or make it heard in the street; a bruised reed he will not break, and a faintly burning wick he will not quench” (Isaiah 42:1-3).
“There will be no gloom for her who was in anguish. . . . The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone. . . . For to us a child is born, to us a son is given . . . of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end” (Isaiah 9:1-7).
“He grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief . . . He was oppressed, and he was afflicted . . . yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied” (Isaiah 53:2-11).
“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted” (Matthew 5:4).
“Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. . . . When Jesus came, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. . . . Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him . . . saying to him, ‘Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.’ When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled. And he said, ‘Where have you laid him?’ They said to him, ‘Lord, come and see.’ Jesus wept. So the Jews said, ‘See how he loved him!’” (John 11:1-36).
“The Father of mercies and God of all comfort . . . comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too” (2 Corinthians 1:3-5).
“And [Jesus] said . . . ‘My soul is very sorrowful, even to death.’ . . . And going a little farther, he fell on the ground and prayed that, if it were possible, the hour might pass from him. And he said, ‘Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will’” (Mark 14:34-36).
“And being in agony he prayed more earnestly; and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground” (Luke 22:44).
“Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour. And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying . . . ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’” (Matthew 27:45-46).
“Then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, ‘Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!’ (Luke 23:46).
“And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split. The tombs also were opened. And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised” (Matthew 27:51-52).
“Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows . . . he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed” (Isaiah 53:4-5).
“We do not . . . grieve as others do who have no hope” (1 Thessalonians 4:13).
“Now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:6-7).
“For behold, the day is coming . . . for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings” (Malachi 4:1-2).
“The tree bears its fruit; the fig tree and vine give their full yield. Be glad, O children of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord your God, for he has given the early rain for your vindication; he has poured down for you abundant rain, the early and the latter rain, as before. The threshing floors shall be full of grain; the vats shall overflow with wine and oil. I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten” (Joel 2:22-25).
“Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees. Say to those who have an anxious heart, ‘Be strong; fear not! Behold, your God . . . will come and save you . . . and sorrow and sighing shall flee away” (Isaiah 35:3-4, 10).
“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away’” (Revelation 21:1-4).
Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. The ESV text may not be quoted in any publication made available to the public by a Creative Commons license. The ESV may not be translated in whole or in part into any other language.
