Yesterday’s news hit hard. The headlines shouted of violence and more suffering. The riled response from folks and the division in our country continues to grow. It’s hard not to feel the weight of it all pressing down on my heart. Maybe you felt it too, that aching blend of sorrow, helplessness, and holy longing for something better.

Last night, I flipped to Psalm 16 to find some comfort.

David, no stranger to trouble, writes with remarkable calm: “I shall not be shaken.” How? Not because the world around him was stable, because it wasn’t, but his heart was anchored in the unchanging presence of God. He had “set the Lord always before [him].”

Psalm 16 is a quiet declaration of security, not from chaos, but within it. David speaks of refuge (v.1), delight in God (v.2), and a boundary line that falls in pleasant places (v.6), not because life was perfect, but because God was present. His security wasn’t circumstantial. It was relational.

This Psalm reminds us that we can grieve what’s broken in the world and still rest in God’s faithfulness. The Lord is not absent from the chaos. He is at your right hand. And because of that, you are not alone. You are not unprotected. You are not hopeless.

No headline can change the truth of verse 11: “You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” Even as we mourn the darkness, we hold fast to the Light.