“Lord, how long? Turn and show compassion to your servants. Satisfy us at daybreak with your Love that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days. Grant us days of gladness for the days you have humbled us, for the years when we have known misfortune.” Psalm 90: 13 -15

Days of grief sorrow and loss come when our hearts are burdened with a crushing weight. Our world loses its color, it takes all the strength we can dredge up, to make it through the day.

To read Psalm 90, is to be reminded of our own mortality. We will not live forever. We are, the psalmist says, like grass that springs up for a moment, and then withers away.

The sudden passing of a loved one brings us to an abrupt reality. We face the fragility of life, and find ourselves grieving for deep losses, with all their broken dreams.

Like the psalmist, we may feel betrayed by God, forgotten or even punished, for real or imagined sins.

Psalm 90’s poet feels the weight of past mistakes, yet clings to the certainty God is not done with his life. He prays for relief from suffering and heartache, confident in God steadfast love.

Today may be bitter with heartache and gut-wrenching pain, the future looks bleak.

We are reminded in the psalm that “God is our dwelling place, in all generations.” Psalm 90:1

God is a refuge for all who suffer, for God is One of steadfast love, faithful to care for us all of our days. Dwelling in the presence of God, we find our rest, our healing, comfort and hope.

While our life on this earth may be  fleeting, may our hearts be both wise and tender,  using the days given  us, by offering compassion, and kindness, where grief rips a heart in two. So one day singing for joy, may again be heard.

“Life is short. We don’t have much time to gladden the hearts of those who travel this way with us. So, be swift to love and make haste to be kind.”
― Henri-Frédéric Amiel