A Prayer about Getting Good at Grief

I am shut in so I cannot escape; my eye grows dim through sorrow.

Psalm 88:9

Compassionate Father,

We don’t pray Psalm 88 enough, 

and maybe that’s why we’re not very good at grief. 

Today, we use the words of this dark yet hopeful Psalm

 to cry out for ourselves or for friends 

walking through agonizing losses:

For those who feel: 

“You have caused my companions to shun me; 

you have made me a horror to them” (Psalm 88:8),

come close in their isolation, 

and send us as comfort in the flesh. 

May we never shrink back from horrific suffering, 

but may we enter into it with your grace and hope. 

For those who feel: “I am a man (or woman) who has no strength” (Psalm 88:4),

soothe them with the rest they desperately need, 

and provide the energy to do the things they must do. 

Send us to lift them up, 

whether in prayer or in service, 

Most of all, Father, 

help our friends to see that they’re not alone, 

that you have supplied them with a great cloud of witnesses 

to walk with them in this long and torturous journey.

In Jesus’ faithful name. Amen.

Read Psalm 88:1-18.