Love those whom you see today. Dignify them. Rejoice in them. You are planting seeds that will grow and blossom into eternity.

Jesus is the king, the leader of God’s people whose throne truly will never come to an end. And if you trust in Christ, his fate belongs also to you. You will share in his resurrection, his glory, his rule.

For us today, we see with the full light of day the length to which God was willing to go to ensure that we would never be truly alone, no matter our folly, no matter our stupidity. For Jesus endured Psalm 88. He really endured it. On our behalf.

Throughout the Bible, God’s city represents a place of safety and refuge. Indeed, the city of God becomes one of the chief metaphors for salvation itself. “Glorious things” are not spoken of Zion simply because of architectural beauty or geographical location. Zion represents God himself, in all his mercy, offered to sinners. In him we take refuge.

As you ponder your sinfulness, ponder his graciousness—a grace that ever outstrips even your sin.

Are you feeling dead and dry? Pray Psalm 85. Meditate on it in the morning and in the evening. After all, God has proven that he will not let such a prayer go unanswered.

God is above you, illumining—“a sun.” God is before you, protecting—“a shield.” God is for you, dignifying—he “bestows favor and honor.” God is with you, lavishing—“no good thing does he withhold.”

In Christ we are invincible, for Jesus was raised bodily, and we are now united to him by faith. Our future could not be brighter, whatever adversity washes over us in this fallen world.

Having been delivered from the greatest bondage—spiritual bondage—we become delighted and privileged to care for those in a lesser but real bondage—physical and material bondage.

When Christ came, he said he came to give life; he said he was the fountain of living water, the bread from heaven. You were made for him.

Do you feel forsaken, as if you keep disappointing God? Consider what God has done for you if you are in Christ. You are vitally connected to the life of heaven. Trust him. Enjoy him. Bear fruit. It is who you now are.

Jesus has washed away any reason for God to be angry with us in a punishing kind of way. Everything in your life, good and pain, comfortable and painful, is from the hand of a loving Father.

In him you are restored to your true self. Your sins are forgiven. You are promised an eternity in the new earth. Read this psalm and praise God for his goodness to Israel—and to you.

In the Old Testament, his way was through the sea. In the New Testament, his way is through the cross. The gracious provision of God confounds us even as it delivers us.

The ferocious wrath of God landed on Christ, not us. As a result, God can take up residence within us without threatening his holiness or justice.

God judged his own righteous Son in place of us unrighteous rebels, so that any who turns to take refuge in him gets the future that Jesus deserves. This, above all else, is reason to give thanks to God for his wondrous deeds.

In the destruction of Jesus, your own destruction is assured to be behind you instead of in front of you. When you look at the cross, you see your punishment being carried out, so that before you is only peace with God and an eternity with him.

Your greatest enjoyment—God—can never be taken away from you. In heaven, God is all you want and need. On earth, God is all you want and need. In death or in life, in sickness or in health, even as your body wastes away toward the grave, God is all you want and need.

Only one king ever lived up to this lofty prayer. In the Lord Jesus, we see the supreme promises of God come to climactic realization.

Adversity is not intended to diminish our hope in God. Adversity is intended to heighten our hope in him. We are brought to remember that God is all we have, and that he is enough.

Consider your own life. On what do you rely, moment by moment? True communion with God is the lifelong process of growing more and more deeply in dependence upon God: leaning on him, trusting in him, counting on him.

In your time of distress, you can pray this Psalm and know with confidence that God will somehow answer and deliver you, because Jesus prayed for deliverance but faced the cross nevertheless.

What difference does it make that God is both mighty and merciful, both powerful and gentle? All the difference in the world. It means he is able to deliver us from all our difficulties and sins, and it means he enjoys delivering us.

This is who God is. He is not a parochial, narrow-minded God. His welcome to sinners is wide. He asks only for our penitent faith, our trusting contrition—all he asks is that we humble ourselves enough to know of our need for his saving mercy.

Are you in a valley now? Do you feel now that you are fighting your way “through fire and through water"? Take comfort in this Psalm. Through tears he brings us “to a place of abundance.”