In the fullness of time God sent his own Son to be our sacrificial Lamb. In him we receive forgiveness because the punishment we deserved was poured out on him.

What does it mean to “take refuge” in God, as David says numerous times in this psalm? What does it mean that God is our “fortress”?

Through Jesus’ death and resurrection, God draws near to sinners and enjoys fellowship with us once more. Let us praise him.

Has the awe-inspiring greatness of God displayed in unspeakable majesty and strength been pressed into your heart? If not, this psalm helps to do so.

David does not expend his energies engaging his enemies or defending himself or pursuing any other humanly contrived strategy. He receives the horizontal affliction but goes to a vertical solution.

If the Lord is your light and salvation, of whom will you be afraid?

David knows that he can count on the Lord to deliver him because this is who God has always been for his people.

When life overwhelms us, when the bottom is falling out, this is where Scripture takes us: to God. We do not achieve internal calm by securing external calm. We find internal calm by looking to God.

For, in the fullness of time, the high and lofty God came near to his people, tangibly near, in flesh and blood.

We know that Jesus Christ walked through the ultimate valley of the shadow of death, the darkness of condemnation and hell—a fate that should have landed on us. The result is that in our temporary dark valleys we can know that despite our sin and failure, God will bring us, in full moral integrity, to be with him forever.

David assumes God has forsaken him. He does not ask God if he has forsaken him. He asks why, assuming God already has. Yet in light of the promises made to David in Scripture, David ought to have known that God would never have finally forsaken him.

David rejoices in God’s goodness to him as the anointed king. But his own rule would quickly fade from history. A greater King, however, would one day come. Unlike David’s temporary “crown of fine gold”, this King’s reign would last forever.

God alone is able to bear the weight of our deepest trust. And God alone will never let us down when we place the full weight of our trust on him. In Christ he proved it.

The Word of God not only reveals who God is; it also reveals who we are, in all our sin and need. The lofty call of Scripture is worthy of all pursuit, yet frustratingly beyond our reach in light of our weakness and inadequacy.

We can trust God, no matter how dire the circumstance. For in the gospel the direst of circumstances—our deserved condemnation and an eternity in hell—have already been emptied of their threat and power.

Whatever unfolds in this life, David knows that one day he will be at rest in the presence of the Lord.

The ringing note on which the psalm ends has been deeply calming encouragement to saints down through the ages. “In your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore”. Nothing else is needed.

To dwell on God’s holy mountain means to pass into and abide in the temple. But Jesus did not come simply to the temple; he came as the temple.

Sin is universal. No one is exempt. But grace is universally available. No one need be exempt. All that is required is a trusting faith in Jesus Christ.

If David can bank everything on God, even when on the brink of despair, how much more can we today?

God delights to rescue us in our need. How do we know this? Because in Christ he’s already achieved the greatest deliverance and accomplished our greatest safety—deliverance from hell and condemnation, safety from Satan and eternal death.

What does it mean that believers will see the face of God? It means we will become ourselves, finally. It means dawn will rise on the dark gray of this fallen world. It means final rest will be ours. It means we will be with the One of whom even the best earthly friendships are only a faint glimpse and to whom the most sublime earthly joys are finally pointing.

God sent his own Son, the one man who was ever truly just, to go to a cross and swallow all of the injustice of all of those who would simply trust in him.

God is never caught by surprise amid global upheaval and strife. He is never perplexed or left groping for solutions. He reigns. And one day, all that is done in this stormy world will be brought into the light and into judgment.

David brings us to praise God for the remarkable care he has entrusted to us. He is the God of the heavens, having placed the stars in their orbits, and yet he has entrusted to humanity the care of the earth.