The Lord Jesus Christ knew what it was to be in distress. He is called in Isaiah 53:3 a man of sorrows—what a name for God’s own Son! He was familiar with suffering, stricken by God and afflicted. He was pierced for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities. Isaiah 53:10 even says that it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and suffer he did deep within his soul! And God, though he did forsake his Son on the cross in a very real way as he poured out his wrath upon him (Psalm 22:1), did not leave him in his distress. That is not where the Lord Jesus is now! He is no longer in distress! The Lord answered his cry for mercy! He raised him up in glory, and now Christ sits at God’s right hand! So, if there is ever any doubt that God will give you relief from whatever distress you are currently in, look to the Lord Jesus, and rest confident that God answers his people when they call to him and shows his mercy by giving relief.

But Jesus is not only proof that God gives relief to his people; he is also the reason why God gives relief from our distress. He is the great high priest of Hebrews 4. He sympathizes with our weaknesses. He was tempted in every possible way, put under the worst possible form of distress when he endure God’s wrath—and he did it without sin. And what does Hebrews 4 draw from all this? Hebrews 4:16: Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy [the very thing we plead for in Psalm 4:1] and find grace to help us in our time of need. This is why—Jesus is why—we can pray the words of Psalm 4 with great confidence: You have given me relief when I was in distress; be merciful to me and hear my prayer.