My Prayer at a Friend's Funeral

I’d like to read a familiar bit of Scripture and then offer a prayer to the Father.

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me.

Dearest Father,

You are a good God, a very good God, to Your people. And one way that You are so good to us is that You explain life to us, the life that we deal with every day.

You tell us that life is a journey. It is a journey through a valley, the valley of the shadow of death. And You have explained to us that, because of sin, death touches everything. It touches our bodies, our relationships, our plans, our desires, our hopes and our dreams. It touches everything because the wages of sin is death.

But this does not overwhelm us. Our journey through this valley isn’t a journey of despair. And the reason for that is clear. Jesus has come. You have sent Him. And we are so grateful to You for this. His coming has changed our lives. To be sure, there still are the effects of death that continue to touch our lives. But there is now also the life of eternity that You have granted to Your people, that You have granted to us. So, as we travel through this valley, we are able to grow more and more in our experience of this life, more and more in our experience of You.

And we are able to experience more and more of the freedom of Your grace, more and more freedom from the power of death. Because of Jesus, Your Son, we know that there is more than this dark valley.

Pat has walked the dark valley, having been touched through the years by its death just like the rest of us. But now, because of Your grace, she’s done with all of that. She no longer walks in the valley. Now, she is in a broad field filled beautiful flowers, with the bright rays of a glorious sun beaming on it all. Now, for her, there is no darkness, no death in any of its forms. Now, she is completely free. And that is because You have sent Jesus to rescue us, and Pat trusted Him to do that for her. She is free and rejoicing in her experience of the life of eternity. All because of Jesus.

We are so grateful, Father, that this is true of her. However, Bill is still in the valley. He’s in one of the darker places in the valley.

Death has more than just touched him. And he feels it deeply. But he knows, because of the work of Your Spirit in his life, he knows that he does not walk through the valley alone. He knows and can say by faith, ‘I will fear no evil: for thou are with me.’ You are right there with him, taking each step with him.

You are his faithful God. You will get him through this darker part of the valley. You will take care of him. And the day is coming when his journey in the valley will also be over. And he will also be in that beautiful, sunlit field. He will be with Pat once again. But more than that, he will be with Jesus. You will make sure of that.

So, thank You, Father. Thank You for the Gospel of Jesus, the Gospel that gives hope to Your saints, to those who have entrusted themselves to Jesus. Thank You for the Gospel as we all walk through this valley.

Thank you for the sure hope that all who believe in Jesus have.

You will bring all Your saints through the valley and out into that beautiful field.

We thank You, Father, through Christ our sovereign Lord and faithful Savior. Amen.