Some of you probably grew up saying the prayer “Now I lay me down to sleep.” When I learned the prayer, it ended “and if I die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take.” I’m not sure whether we’re comfortable teaching our children to pray that anymore. It seems morbid.
That kind of stuff is all over in old hymnals and church services and in the Bible as well. We live in a time where we mostly have been able to pretend that we have conquered death. We don’t really want to think about it.
Sometimes, however, the Lord reminds us, as He does in Lent every year, that we are dust, and to dust we shall return. Our world right now has been forced to confront the possibility of death. Some of you reading this will be caring for people facing death. Some of you may be facing the death of a person you love. Some of you will be facing your own illness and possible death. Some of you will be trying to figure out what your place in the world is now that everything seems to be coming apart. Do we have hope in the face of death? Will God provide for us in time of need? What are His promises to me and the people I love?
I have been working on putting together a funeral planning guide. I included a list of verses from our church body’s guide to funeral planning from Lutheran Service Book: Agenda. I want to share these verses with you for your comfort.
Death is a reality. But so is our Savior rising from the grave, having conquered death by His death. Let these verses comfort you in times of trouble. Share them with those you serve who need the comfort of these eternal promises. Come to Him, all you who are weary, and He will give you rest.
Psalms
- Psalm 23: “The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want.”
- Psalm 25: “Guard my soul and deliver me! Let me not be put to shame, for I take refuge in you.”
- Psalm 42: “Hope in God; for I shall again praise Him, my salvation and my God.”
- Psalm 65: “Blessed is the one you choose and bring near, to dwell in Your courts”
- Psalm 71: “O God, who is like You? You…will revive me again; from the depths of the earth you will bring me up.”
- Psalm 73: “You guide me with Your counsel, and afterward You will receive me to glory.”
- Psalm 84: “Blessed are those who dwell in Your house, ever singing Your praise!”
- Psalm 116: “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His Saints.”
- Psalm 118: “This is the gate of the Lord; the righteous shall enter through it.”
- Psalm 121: “From where does my help come? My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth.”
- Psalm 126: “Those who sow in tears shall reap with shouts of joy”
- Psalm 130: “Out of the depths I cry to You, O LORD!”
Old Testament Readings
- Job 5: “[God] wounds, but He binds up; He shatters, but His hands heal.”
- Job 19: “For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last He will stand upon the earth.”
- Isaiah 25: “He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from all faces”
- Isaiah 26: “Your dead shall live; their bodies shall rise. You who dwell in the dust, awake and sing for joy!”
- Isaiah 40: “He will tend His flock like a shepherd He will gather the lambs in His arms”
- Isaiah 46: “Even to your old age I am He, and to gray hairs I will carry you. I have made, and I will bear; I will carry and will save.”
- Isaiah 53: “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 61: “Comfort all who mourn…grant to those who mourn in Zion—to give them…the oil of gladness instead of mourning.”
Epistle (Letters of the Apostles) Readings
- Acts 10: “They put Him to death by hanging Him on a tree, but God raised Him on the third day”
- Romans 5: “God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
- “Grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
- Romans 6: “Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with Him.”
- Romans 8: “I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us”
- “We ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved.”
- “I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
- Romans 14: “If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s.”
- 1 Corinthians 15: “For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.”
- “The Last enemy to be destroyed is death.”
- “Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
- 2 Corinthians 4: “He who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into His presence.”
- Philippians 3: “Our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like His glorious body.”
- Colossians 3: “You have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.”
- 1 Thessalonians 3: “Since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep.”
- 2 Timothy 2: “If we have died with Him, we will also live with Him; if we endure, we will also reign with Him”
- Hebrews 11: “They desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared for them a city”
- Hebrews 13: “Here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come”
- 1 Peter 1: “According to His great mercy, He has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you”
- 1 John 3: “Beloved, we are God’s children now, and…we know that when He appears we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him as He is.”
- Revelation 7: “The Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their Shepherd, and He will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”
- Revelation 14: “Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.’ ‘Blessed indeed,’ says the Spirit, ‘that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow them!”
- Revelation 21: “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”
Gospel Readings
- Matthew 5: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted”
- Mark 10: “Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it”
- Luke 2: “Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation”
- Luke 23: “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.’ And He said to him, ‘Truly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in paradise.”
- John 3: “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life”
- John 5: “Whoever hears My word and believes Him who sent Me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life”
- John 6: “This is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in Him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day”
- John 10: “I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.”
- John 11: “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in Me, though He die, yet shall He live, and everyone who lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?”
- John 14: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”
