Today's world doesn't deal well with sorrow. Deep, heartfelt grief is socially awkward to deal with. After CS Lewis' wife Joy died he wrote of how people he knew would cross the street to avoid having to talk to him. It wasn't that they didn't care, but they didn't know what to say.
But sorrow is part of our human experience. Most of us will know it at some time, whether it's due to bereavement, abandonment or failure. We shouldn't pretend it doesn't exist or that it won't happen to us, and we shouldn't imagine we will escape just because we're Christians. But the Bible gives us an assurance that sorrow need not defeat us. It doesn't have to rule our whole lives. There is a way through it and the hope of joy on the other side.
Bible verses about sorrow range from the heartfelt personal cries of the Psalms to the grief over Israel expressed by Jeremiah, the "weeping prophet". But even Jeremiah expresses his hope and trust that God will bring joy. Jesus speaks of his own sorrow in Gethsemane. Paul speaks remaining undefeated by sorrow, and its role in bringing us closer to God.
No one chooses sorrow. But God never abandons us in it, no matter how alone we may sometimes feel.
1. Be merciful to me, Lord, for I am in distress; my eyes grow weak with sorrow, my soul and body with grief (Psalm 31:9).
2. Our days may come to seventy years, or eighty, if our strength endures; yet the best of them are but trouble and sorrow, for they quickly pass, and we fly away (Psalm 90:10).
3. My soul is weary with sorrow; strengthen me according to your word (Psalm 119:28).
4. Those the Lord has rescued will return. They will enter Zion with singing; everlasting joy will crown their heads. Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee away (Isaiah 51:11).
5. Your sun will never set again, and your moon will wane no more; the Lord will be your everlasting light, and your days of sorrow will end (Isaiah 60:20).
6. Why did I ever come out of the womb to see trouble and sorrow and to end my days in shame? (Jeremiah 20:18).
7. Then young women will dance and be glad, young men and old as well. I will turn their mourning into gladness; I will give them comfort and joy instead of sorrow (Jeremiah 31:13).
8. "My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death," he said to them. "Stay here and keep watch" (Mark 14:34).
9. Rather, as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: in great endurance; in troubles, hardships and distresses; in beatings, imprisonments and riots...dying, and yet we live on; beaten, and yet not killed; sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing everything (2 Corinthians 6: 4-10).
10. Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death (2 Corinthians 7:10).
Follow Mark Woods on Twitter: @RevMarkWoods
