In grief or trouble, there's a tendency to ask "why did this happen to me?" or "how could God allow this to happen?" We tend to focus on ourselves and our current pain rather than God and His constant faithfulness.

Psalm 31 provides a framework for how we should properly respond in times of pain:

In you, O LORD, do I take refuge;

let me never be put to shame;

in your righteousness deliver me!

Incline your ear to me;

rescue me speedily!

Be a rock of refuge for me,

a strong fortress to save me!

For you are my rock and my fortress; and for your name's sake you lead me and guide me; you take me out of the net they have hidden for me, for you are my refuge. Into your hand I commit my spirit; you have redeemed me, O LORD, faithful God.  

Here David cries out to the Lord for refuge, acknowledging that He is the securest shelter.

I hate those who pay regard to worthless idols,

but I trust in the LORD.

I will rejoice and be glad in your steadfast love,

because you have seen my affliction;

you have known the distress of my soul,

and you have not delivered me into the hand of the enemy;

you have set my feet in a broad place.

David affirms his own obedience to God: how his enemies are those who oppose God, and how he trusts in surety that the Lord will save him.

Be gracious to me, O LORD, for I am in distress;

my eye is wasted from grief;

my soul and my body also.

For my life is spent with sorrow,

and my years with sighing;

my strength fails because of my iniquity,

and my bones waste away.

Because of all my adversaries I have become a reproach,

especially to my neighbors,

and an object of dread to my acquaintances;

those who see me in the street flee from me.

I have been forgotten like one who is dead;

I have become like a broken vessel.

For I hear the whispering of many---

terror on every side!---

as they scheme together against me,

as they plot to take my life.

Now we see David describe his troubles, after he's affirmed the saving grace of the Lord. He does not ever blame God for his situation, but rather simply and honestly describes the distress he's enduring.

But I trust in you, O LORD;

I say, "You are my God."

My times are in your hand;

rescue me from the hand of my enemies and from my persecutors!

Make your face shine on your servant;

save me in your steadfast love!

O LORD, let me not be put to shame,

for I call upon you;

let the wicked be put to shame;

let them go silently to Sheol.

Let the lying lips be mute,

which speak insolently against the righteous

in pride and contempt.

Now, having made his pain known to his Lord, David returns to crying out for God's salvation and vindication not against his enemies but against God's enemies.

Oh, how abundant is your goodness,

which you have stored up for those who fear you

and worked for those who take refuge in you,

in the sight of the children of mankind!

In the cover of your presence you hide them

from the plots of men;

you store them in your shelter

from the strife of tongues.

David praises God for His goodness, saying that God has "stored [it] up for those who fear [Him]." This is not just joyful praise, but also an accurate description of God's character as perfectly good. God is goodness, whether we confess it or not.

Blessed be the LORD,

for he has wondrously shown his steadfast love to me

when I was in a besieged city.

I had said in my alarm,

"I am cut off from your sight."

But you heard the voice of my pleas for mercy

when I cried to you for help.

Love the LORD, all you his saints!

The LORD preserves the faithful

but abundantly repays the one who acts in pride.

Be strong, and let your heart take courage,

all you who wait for the LORD!

Now David recounts the past salvation that the Lord has brought to His people; the God who is unchanging and perfectly-faithful will not, having once delivered David, now fail to bring David out of trouble.

So we see that David in his anguish responds:

• First by remembering the sureness of God's refuge to His children,
• Then with humbly laying his troubles before that sure Refuge,
• Next with pleading to God to deliver him from those troubles, and
• Finally by recounting the goodness and faithfulness of his unchanging Rock and Fortress.

The majority of this psalm is devoted to praising God and declaring His goodness. David is so consumed and ensured of God's perfectly-sovereign character that his own troubles shrink before God's perfect will.