Bible Verses for Moving to a New Place: For the First Nights Somewhere New

Psalm 25:16-17, for the first night

The passage Bible Nudge offers for loneliness is two verses:

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 of David asking God to turn and look at him, and the psalm keeps asking rather than resolving. It gives you words in your own voice for being alone in a new place, asking to be seen, and you are welcome to pray them exactly as you stand. Bible verses for loneliness and sadness reads the two verses closely.

Tonight, among the boxes, read the two verses once, slowly, and answer this in a sentence: "If you could ask for one thing to be noticed today, what would it be?" It takes a minute, and you can leave it there.

Before anything is unpacked.

Homesickness has a name

In their 2007 clinical report on children and teenagers away from home, Thurber and Walton define homesickness as "the distress and functional impairment caused by an actual or anticipated separation from home and attachment objects such as parents."

The NHS lists "moving to a new area, job, school or university" among the reasons people feel lonely, and says "you do not have to be on your own all the time to feel lonely." Its Every Mind Matters pages separate "emotional loneliness, a lack of emotional attachment," "social loneliness, a lack of friends," and "existential loneliness". These are UK descriptions, not diagnoses, and may help you place which one this is.

Psalm 137, the song of missing home

Van Tilburg and Vingerhoets, in their 2006 chapter on the psychology of geographical moves, name Psalm 137 as one of the oldest written accounts of homesickness. It opens:

By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down. Yes, we wept, when we remembered Zion. On the willows in that land, we hung up our harps. For there, those who led us captive asked us for songs. Those who tormented us demanded songs of joy: “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!” How can we sing Yahweh’s song in a foreign land?

These are captives in Babylon, asked by their captors for the songs of home. John Calvin read these four verses as the exiles' grief. The psalm ends in raw anger at Babylon, including a violent line about its children, so know that before you read past verse 4.

Jacob's first night away from home

In Genesis 28:10-22, Jacob, leaving Beersheba for Haran, stops "because the sun had set", puts a stone under his head, and dreams of a stairway reaching to heaven. God tells him, "I am with you, and will keep you, wherever you go, and will bring you again into this land." The words are spoken to Jacob on the road to Haran, and Rashi reads "this land" as the land of Israel, his own way home. Jacob wakes saying, "Surely Yahweh is in this place, and I didn’t know it."

Jacob's own prayer may sound familiar. He asks for "bread to eat, and clothing to put on, so that I come again to my father’s house in peace." Matthew Henry notes that Jacob "was alone, in the open field", and yet the place became "the house of God."

Not yours yet.

Others who lived far from where they began

Moses, settled in Midian, names his son Gershom, "for he said, “I have lived as a foreigner in a foreign land.”" (Exodus 2:22). Ruth, gleaning in a stranger's field, asks Boaz, "Why have I found favor in your sight, that you should take knowledge of me, since I am a foreigner?" (Ruth 2:10). And Psalm 39:12 prays, "For I am a stranger with you, a foreigner, as all my fathers were." If somebody else's decision sent you here, Jeremiah's letter telling exiles to "Build houses and dwell in them" is read on Bible verses for new beginnings.

A verse for the new house

For a card or a blessing, each of these has a setting worth knowing. Psalm 121:8, "Yahweh will keep your going out and your coming in, from this time forward, and forever more", closes a pilgrimage song. Joshua 24:15, "as for me and my house, we will serve Yahweh", comes from Joshua's covenant speech at Shechem. Psalm 127:1, "Unless Yahweh builds the house, they labor in vain who build it", is a Song of Ascents headed "By Solomon". Luke 10:5, "Peace be to this house", is Jesus sending out the seventy.

The traditions bless homes too. The Catholic Book of Blessings has an Order for the Blessing of a New Home whose prayer asks, "Bless this home and all who live here." The Greek Orthodox Archdiocese describes the Blessing of the Home after Theophany, and My Jewish Learning explains the mezuzah on the doorpost, which holds the Shema of Deuteronomy 6:4-9. To have your home blessed, ask your own priest or pastor.

If you feel you should simply be content

Paul writes, "I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content in it" (Philippians 4:11), and a verse later, "I have learned the secret both to be filled and to be hungry." Calvin says Paul was not "a stock or stone", and reads the verse as contentment learned through changing circumstances. It is a lesson Paul says he learned over time. The loneliness post explains why Hebrews 13:5 was set aside as a first passage for loneliness.

If you moved for a partner's job

Studying women who moved abroad mainly for a husband's or partner's work, Copeland and Griggs00003-2) write that the move can be stressful because of "family responsibilities, social isolation, sociopolitical constraints, and changes in their social and/or work status." One person wrote on Reddit's r/expats, "here I feel unkown and that most of my relationships are empty and very surface level." Another, on Reddit's r/TwoXIndia, said, "I on the other hand never wished to move abroad."

When your child is struggling, or orders moved you

The Military Child Education Coalition's 2017 study with Columbia calls a school move during a permanent change of station "especially daunting" for US parents, and a 2019 Penn State Clearinghouse review says military families relocate "every 2 to 3 years". One parent wrote on Reddit's r/Parenting, “Even her therapist has said this has been an incredibly traumatic adjustment for her, despite us doing "all the right things."” If you did everything right and your child has still not settled, tell their teacher, the school counselor or their doctor.

Learning which key fits.

Finding a church in a new place

Church is where many movers look first. The student on Reddit's r/offmychest wrote, "Back home I was religious and prayer gave me inner peace." A commenter on Reddit's r/InternationalStudents wrote, "I’ve felt that if I went to Bible study or church, I’d probably have a social life overnight." In a 2022 study of Chinese Christian migrants in Ireland, Chen and Yuen report participants for whom church life "felt at home". One small step this week is enough: one service, one group, or one conversation with a pastor or priest. If a new church already has its circle, Bible verses for feeling left out is for that.

When the low mood outlasts the settling in

The NHS says to see a GP, a family doctor, if "you’ve had a low mood for more than 2 weeks" or what you are doing is "not helping", and to call NHS 111 in the UK if you need help urgently. Every Mind Matters says loneliness that is "very severe or lasts a long time" may raise the risk of "stress, anxiety, low mood or depression". Elsewhere, start with your own doctor, and on a harder night, the routes below.

Questions people ask

Are international students more likely to feel homesick? In a 2002 study of international students in the US, Rajapaksa and Dundes found them "more likely to feel lonely, homesick, and as if they had left part of themselves at home."

How does Psalm 25:16-17 read in the King James Version? "Turn thee unto me, and have mercy upon me; for I am desolate and afflicted. The troubles of my heart are enlarged: O bring thou me out of my distresses."

What does the Bible say about welcoming a newcomer? Leviticus 19:34 tells Israel to love the stranger "as yourself; for you lived as foreigners in the land of Egypt."

Where to go next

If the loneliness 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. In Canada, call or text 9-8-8. In the United Kingdom and Ireland, Samaritans is on 116 123. In Australia, Lifeline is on 13 11 14. Anywhere else, Find A Helpline lists services by country.

On the first night, read Psalm 25:16-17 with the verses around it once before you sleep. Or describe what you carry in your own words, and Bible Nudge can suggest one passage. Find a passage.