Bible Verses for a Broken Heart
The short answer
Psalm 34:18, Psalm 147:3, Psalm 51:17 and Lamentations 3:22-23 are the passages for a broken heart. What they share is that God is described as near to broken-hearted people specifically — brokenness is treated as a place where God draws closer rather than a state to be hidden.
A heart can break over a person, a marriage, a friendship, or a future that will not now happen. Scripture does not rank these.
Where to begin
Three short passages for the worst part of the day.
Psalm 34:18
Yahweh is near to those who have a broken heart, and saves those who have a crushed spirit.
Biblical context
Part of the teaching section of Psalm 34, addressed to people in trouble rather than to people who have recovered.
Selah’s reflection
Nearness is the promise. There is no timeline attached to it.
Psalm 147:3
He heals the broken in heart, and binds up their wounds.
Biblical context
Set in a psalm about God rebuilding Jerusalem and gathering scattered exiles.
Selah’s reflection
Personal healing is placed beside the restoration of a whole city. The small grief is not out of scale.
Psalm 51:17
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit. A broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
Biblical context
David's psalm of repentance, written after confronting his own serious wrongdoing.
Selah’s reflection
A broken heart is not something to be ashamed of before God. The verse says so directly.
Further passages
Lamentations 3:22-23
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.
Biblical context
Written amid the ruins of Jerusalem, in a book that does not resolve.
Selah’s reflection
Mercy renewed each morning suits a grief that resets each morning.
Psalm 73:26
My flesh and my heart fails, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
Biblical context
From a psalm about disillusionment that turns in the temple.
Selah’s reflection
Failing and being upheld are stated together in one sentence.
Isaiah 61:1
The Lord Yahweh’s Spirit is on me; because Yahweh has anointed me to preach good news to the humble. He has sent me to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to those who are bound;
Biblical context
A passage about restoration after exile, read aloud by Jesus in the synagogue at Nazareth at the start of his ministry.
Selah’s reflection
Binding up the broken-hearted is named as part of the job he came to do.
A short prayer
God, this hurts more than I expected and I do not know how long it lasts. Be near tonight. Keep me from becoming hard about it.
A question to sit with
What are you grieving underneath the ending itself — the person, or the life you thought was coming?
Try Selah
Tell Selah what tonight actually feels like, and it will help you find relevant passages for this moment.
Open the Selah verse finder