--- title: "Bible Verses for Loneliness and Sadness: Turn to Me, for I Am Desolate" description: "Lonely and sad, alone or surrounded by people? Psalm 25:16-17 gives words to pray, with the people in Scripture who said they were alone, and when to see a doctor." url: "https://biblenudge.com/blog/bible-verses-for-loneliness-and-sadness" lang: "en" published: "2026-01-18" modified: "2026-01-18" author: "Cal Hewitt" tags: ["loneliness","sadness","bible verses for loneliness","psalm 25","psalm 88","depression"] image: "https://biblenudge.com/og/blog-bible-verses-for-loneliness-and-sadness.jpg" alternates: es: "https://biblenudge.com/es/blog/versiculos-para-la-soledad-y-la-tristeza.md" --- # Bible Verses for Loneliness and Sadness: Turn to Me, for I Am Desolate [Cal Hewitt](https://biblenudge.com/about/cal-hewitt)Published January 18, 2026 - loneliness - sadness - bible verses for loneliness - psalm 25 - psalm 88 - depression ![Bible Verses for Loneliness and Sadness: Turn to Me, for I Am Desolate](https://biblenudge.com/blog/bible-verses-for-loneliness-and-sadness/featured.jpg) Loneliness does not always look the way people expect. One person wrote on Reddit's r/Christian, ["There's been times when I was surrounded by people but still felt lonely or empty"](https://www.reddit.com/r/Christian/comments/1tasw0l), and another in the same thread said, ["I knew I had Him, but still was longing for a human interaction"](https://www.reddit.com/r/Christian/comments/1tasw0l). Someone on r/TrueChristian asked the question underneath it all: ["is it a sin to feel sad and lonely even though Jesus is all we need?"](https://www.reddit.com/r/TrueChristian/comments/mg369w) If any of that is close to where you are, there is a short prayer in the Psalms that says it plainly, in the first person, and asks God to turn toward the one praying. You can pray it exactly as it stands. ## If you only have a minute ### Words to pray tonight [Psalm 25:16-17](https://biblenudge.com/context/psalm-25-16-17), "Turn to me, and have mercy on me, for I am desolate and afflicted." ### People in Scripture who said it A sparrow alone on a housetop, a man in a cave, Elijah on the run, Paul in prison, and Psalm 88. ### If you have been told God should be enough What people on both sides have said, and what Psalm 25 itself does. ### Lonely, sad or something more Two weeks of low mood or lost interest that affects daily life is the point to see a doctor. ### If it is getting harder The crisis lines at the end name their countries. ## Turn to me: Psalm 25:16-17 The passage this site offers for loneliness is two verses from a psalm of David, in the World English Bible: > Turn to me, and have mercy on me, for I am desolate and afflicted. The troubles of my heart are enlarged. Oh bring me out of my distresses. It is a prayer rather than a statement about you. David describes his own condition and asks for one thing first: that God would turn and look at him. It lets the person praying come to God as low as they are, and the psalm keeps asking. Psalm 25 as a whole is a prayer for guidance and mercy. Just before these lines David says his eyes are "ever on Yahweh," and just after them he asks about his sins and his enemies. The passage stops at verse 17 on purpose. Verse 18 turns to forgiveness, and set straight after somebody has said they are lonely, it can sound like the two are connected. The verses offered here make no link between being lonely and having done something wrong. One way to use it: read the first four words, "Turn to me, and," and stop. If you want to say more, say what the troubles of your heart are, in your own words, after the psalm's. You can [read the prayer with the verses around it](https://biblenudge.com/context/psalm-25-16-17), and the [loneliness page](https://biblenudge.com/resources/loneliness) gathers the other help on the site. ![A single mug and a folded napkin on a small kitchen table set for one](https://biblenudge.com/blog/bible-verses-for-loneliness-and-sadness/table-for-one.jpg) *Ordinary moments, like a meal, can be where it shows most.* ## People in Scripture who said they were alone The Bible has several people who say they are alone in so many words, and it records them without correcting them. **Psalm 102:7.** "I watch, and have become like a sparrow that is alone on the housetop." The [psalm's heading](https://ebible.org/eng-web-c/PSA102.htm) calls it the prayer of someone afflicted and overwhelmed, pouring out a complaint before God. The speaker has stopped eating and compares himself to a pelican, an owl, and then one small bird on a roof. **Psalm 142:4.** "Look on my right, and see; for there is no one who is concerned for me. Refuge has fled from me. No one cares for my soul." Its [heading](https://www.biblehub.com/web/psalms/142.htm) places David in a cave, praying. **1 Kings 19.** Elijah, threatened with death by Queen Jezebel, runs, leaves his servant behind, and asks God to take his life. At the mountain of Horeb he says twice, "I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away." God's answer comes in stages: food and sleep, a question, a task, a companion in Elisha, and news that seven thousand others in Israel have stayed faithful. Nobody tells him that what he felt was a sin. **2 Timothy 4.** Near the end of his life, Paul writes from prison, "At my first defense, no one came to help me, but all left me." In the same letter he writes, "Be diligent to come to me soon," names who has gone, says "Only Luke is with me," and asks Timothy to "Bring the cloak that I left at Troas." An apostle who had God's company asked for his friend and his coat. **Psalm 88.** Psalms 102 and 142 both turn toward hope before they end. This one does not. Its speaker has "cried day and night," and the last line is "You have put lover and friend far from me, and my friends into darkness." It stands in Scripture exactly like that, with no turn. ## What loneliness is, and who feels it The World Health Organization defines loneliness as ["a subjective, distressing feeling that arises when there is a gap between the social connections one has and those one wants or needs"](https://www.who.int/news-room/questions-and-answers/item/social-connection). That is separate from social isolation, having too few relationships in fact. A person can live alone and not be lonely, or be married, busy and surrounded, and be lonely anyway. WHO's commission says so in its [plain-language report](https://cdn.who.int/media/docs/default-source/who-commission-on-social-connection/whocsc-plainlanguage-en_comp.pdf): "You can feel lonely even if you're surrounded by people." The same commission estimates that about 1 in 6 people worldwide reported loneliness between 2014 and 2023, and that the rate was highest among young people, around 21 percent, generally falling with age. If you are married and lonely, there is a [separate post on loneliness in marriage](https://biblenudge.com/blog/bible-verses-for-loneliness-in-marriage). The mental health charity Mind lists some of the changes that can bring it on: [a bereavement, a relationship breakup, retirement, becoming a parent](https://www.mind.org.uk/information-support/tips-for-everyday-living/loneliness/about-loneliness/), moving to a new area or country without family, friends or community, and caring for someone and finding it hard to keep up a social life. Mind also notes that people can find it hard to talk about loneliness "for fear of stigma or not being understood." When the loneliness follows a death, the [grief page](https://biblenudge.com/resources/grief) may be a better place to begin. ## If you have been told God should be enough In the same Reddit thread on r/Christian, one person wrote, ["If God is all you have then you have all you need"](https://www.reddit.com/r/Christian/comments/1tasw0l). Others answered from their own lives: "I knew I had Him, but still was longing for a human interaction," and "God can be your only friend and you still feel lonely." Nobody has to settle that tonight. It is worth noticing, though, what Psalm 25 itself is. It is a man who trusts God, lonely enough to say he is desolate, asking God to turn toward him. Paul, in prison, asked for Timothy by name. Wanting another person beside you shows up in the prayers of people Scripture honors. ![A coat hanging on the last of a row of empty hooks by a door](https://biblenudge.com/blog/bible-verses-for-loneliness-and-sadness/empty-hooks.jpg) *Paul, near the end of his life, asked a friend to come soon and bring his cloak.* ## Two verses people often send **Psalm 68:6**, "God sets the lonely in families," is a line inside a hymn of praise that celebrates God's care for the fatherless, widows and prisoners. It praises what God does, and it gives no timing or form for any one person's life, so some readers hear it as a promise that has not come true for them. **Hebrews 13:5**, "I will in no way leave you, neither will I in any way forsake you," finishes a sentence that begins, "Be free from the love of money, content with such things as you have." Sent on its own to a lonely person, it can land as a rebuke for wanting company. Both were set aside as a first passage for loneliness for those reasons, and Psalm 25:16-17 was chosen because it gives you words in your own voice. ## Lonely, sad, or something more Loneliness, sadness and depression are different, and they often arrive together. The NHS says [a low mood often gets better after a few days or weeks](https://www.nhs.uk/mental-health/feelings-symptoms-behaviours/feelings-and-symptoms/low-mood-sadness-depression/), and that a low mood lasting two weeks or more could be a sign of depression. The US National Institute of Mental Health describes depression as low mood or loss of interest ["most of the time for at least 2 weeks"](https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/depression) that interferes with daily activities. WHO uses the same two-week line, and its [depression leaflet](https://applications.emro.who.int/docs/EMRPUB_leaflet_2019_mnh_219_en.pdf) lists loneliness among the possible symptoms, which means the two can overlap without being the same thing. If you have been sad most days for two weeks or more, have lost interest in things you used to enjoy, or are finding it hard to get through work, meals or sleep, that is the point to talk to a doctor. It is not a verdict on your faith. WHO's commission also says that loneliness ["can lead to depression, anxiety, and even thoughts of self-harm or suicide"](https://cdn.who.int/media/docs/default-source/who-commission-on-social-connection/whocsc-plainlanguage-en_comp.pdf). That is an association across many people, not a prediction about anyone. ## Questions people ask **Is it a sin to feel lonely?** No passage quoted here calls loneliness a sin. Elijah, Paul and the writers of Psalms 88, 102 and 142 all say they are alone, and Scripture records them without rebuke. **Is there a passage about being lonely with people nearby?** In Gethsemane, Jesus took Peter, James and John with him, said "My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death," and came back to find them sleeping (Mark 14:33-37). **Does Psalm 68:6 mean God will give me a family?** It praises God as one who "sets the lonely in families," within a hymn about his care for the vulnerable. You can pray it as praise for that care and bring your own loneliness to him in it. ## Where to go next Start with [Psalm 25:16-17 in its setting](https://biblenudge.com/context/psalm-25-16-17), or let [Bible Nudge](https://biblenudge.com/) take a line about what you are carrying and come back with one passage and what surrounds it. [Find a passage](https://biblenudge.com/nudge). If loneliness or sadness has turned into thoughts of ending your life, please reach a person tonight. In the United States, call or text 988 for the [988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline](https://988lifeline.org/contact-us/). In Canada, call or text 9-8-8. In the UK and Republic of Ireland, [Samaritans](https://www.samaritans.org/how-we-can-help/contact-samaritan/talk-us-phone/) is on 116 123. In Australia, [Lifeline](https://www.lifeline.org.au/get-help/national-services/lifeline-crisis-support) is 13 11 14. Anywhere else, [Find A Helpline](https://findahelpline.com/) lists services by country. ## Words that come up here Tap a term to see what it means. **Desolate.** Left alone and empty, without help or company. It is the word David uses of himself in [Psalm 25:16](https://biblenudge.com/context/psalm-25-16-17). **Lament psalm.** A psalm that brings a complaint about suffering to God. Psalm 88 is one that ends without a turn toward hope. **Horeb.** The mountain, also called Sinai, where Elijah told God he alone was left. **Social isolation.** Having too few relationships in fact. It is different from loneliness, which is the felt gap between the company you have and the company you need. ## Share this page If somebody you know is carrying this, the link goes straight to the passage and what surrounds it. Nothing here asks them to sign up for anything. 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