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Glory · Grief & Loss
Not by getting over it, but by learning Scripture's rhythm: recall, wait, receive the morning. Jeremiah found hope by recalling mercies that arrive new every morning. The psalmists let weeping stay for the night while insisting joy is coming, and one of them preached hope to his own soul twice because once was not enough. Living with loss is daily bread, not a finished project.
https://glorystudy.com/questions/how-do-i-live-with-this-loss · Scripture quoted from the World English Bible
Lamentations 3:19-39
As you read: The turn in the middle of the book's darkest poem: what Jeremiah recalls, and what arrives every morning.
19Remember my affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall.
20My soul still remembers them, and is bowed down within me.
21This I recall to my mind; therefore have I hope.
22It is because of Yahweh’s loving kindnesses that we are not consumed, because his compassion doesn’t fail.
23They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
24Yahweh is my portion, says my soul; therefore will I hope in him.
25Yahweh is good to those who wait for him, to the soul that seeks him.
26It is good that a man should hope and quietly wait for the salvation of Yahweh.
27It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.
28Let him sit alone and keep silence, because he has laid it on him.
29Let him put his mouth in the dust, if so be there may be hope.
30Let him give his cheek to him who strikes him; let him be filled full with reproach.
31For the Lord will not cast off forever.
32For though he cause grief, yet he will have compassion according to the multitude of his loving kindnesses.
33For he does not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men.
34To crush under foot all the prisoners of the earth,
35To turn aside the right of a man before the face of the Most High,
36To subvert a man in his cause, the Lord doesn’t approve.
37Who is he who says, and it comes to pass, when the Lord doesn’t command it?
38Doesn’t evil and good come out of the mouth of the Most High?
39Why does a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins?
Psalms 30:1-12
As you read: What David was rescued from, and the timetable mercy keeps: weeping, night, morning, joy.
1I will extol you, Yahweh, for you have raised me up, and have not made my foes to rejoice over me.
2Yahweh my God, I cried to you, and you have healed me.
3Yahweh, you have brought up my soul from Sheol. You have kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit.
4Sing praise to Yahweh, you saints of his. Give thanks to his holy name.
5For his anger is but for a moment. His favor is for a lifetime. Weeping may stay for the night, but joy comes in the morning.
6As for me, I said in my prosperity, “I shall never be moved.”
7You, Yahweh, when you favored me, made my mountain stand strong; but when you hid your face, I was troubled.
8I cried to you, Yahweh. To Yahweh I made supplication:
9“What profit is there in my destruction, if I go down to the pit? Shall the dust praise you? Shall it declare your truth?
10Hear, Yahweh, and have mercy on me. Yahweh, be my helper.”
11You have turned my mourning into dancing for me. You have removed my sackcloth, and clothed me with gladness,
12To the end that my heart may sing praise to you, and not be silent. Yahweh my God, I will give thanks to you forever!
Psalms 42
As you read: The refrain repeated twice, the waves sweeping over, and the song that belongs to the night.
1As the deer pants for the water brooks, so my soul pants after you, God.
2My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?
3My tears have been my food day and night, while they continually ask me, “Where is your God?”
4These things I remember, and pour out my soul within me, how I used to go with the crowd, and led them to God’s house, with the voice of joy and praise, a multitude keeping a holy day.
5Why are you in despair, my soul? Why are you disturbed within me? Hope in God! For I shall still praise him for the saving help of his presence.
6My God, my soul is in despair within me. Therefore I remember you from the land of the Jordan, the heights of Hermon, from the hill Mizar.
7Deep calls to deep at the noise of your waterfalls. All your waves and your billows have swept over me.
8Yahweh will command his loving kindness in the daytime. In the night his song shall be with me: a prayer to the God of my life.
9I will ask God, my rock, “Why have you forgotten me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?”
10As with a sword in my bones, my adversaries reproach me, while they continually ask me, “Where is your God?”
11Why are you in despair, my soul? Why are you disturbed within me? Hope in God! For I shall still praise him, the saving help of my countenance, and my God.
Jeremiah sits in Jerusalem's ruins when he performs the act that changes everything: 'This I recall to my mind; therefore have I hope.' What he recalls is not his circumstances but God's character: 'They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.' Living with loss starts here, in deliberate remembering, because hope is fed by memory of who God is.
“This I recall to my mind; therefore have I hope. It is because of Yahweh’s loving kindnesses that we are not consumed, because his compassion doesn’t fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. Yahweh is my portion, says my soul; therefore will I hope in him.”Lamentations 3:21-24
Right after the morning mercies comes a pace: 'Yahweh is good to those who wait for him, to the soul that seeks him. It is good that a man should hope and quietly wait for the salvation of Yahweh.' Waiting quietly does not mean the grief is over; it means you have stopped demanding that the whole future resolve today, and started receiving salvation in installments.
“Yahweh is good to those who wait for him, to the soul that seeks him. It is good that a man should hope and quietly wait for the salvation of Yahweh.”Lamentations 3:25-26
David sang it after his own near-death season: 'Weeping may stay for the night, but joy comes in the morning.' The promise is not that night is short; it is that night is bounded. Jesus' beatitude confirms the pattern: 'Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.' Mourning is a residence, not a permanent address.
“For his anger is but for a moment. His favor is for a lifetime. Weeping may stay for the night, but joy comes in the morning.”Psalms 30:5
“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.”Matthew 5:4
Psalm 42 holds both halves honestly: waves and billows sweeping over, and yet in the night 'his song shall be with me: a prayer to the God of my life'. Twice the writer interrogates himself: 'Why are you in despair, my soul? Why are you disturbed within me? Hope in God!' Twice, because once did not settle it. Some mornings hope is something you say before you feel it, and saying it again is faith, not failure.
“Deep calls to deep at the noise of your waterfalls. All your waves and your billows have swept over me. Yahweh will command his loving kindness in the daytime. In the night his song shall be with me: a prayer to the God of my life.”Psalms 42:7-8
“Why are you in despair, my soul? Why are you disturbed within me? Hope in God! For I shall still praise him for the saving help of his presence.”Psalms 42:5