Ps. 89.15-18 (in the king)

How blest are the people / who know the festal shout
O Yhwh / they will walk / in the light of your face
they will rejoice / in your name / all day long
and be jubilant / in your righteousness
for you are the glory / of their strength
in your goodwill / you raise our horns.
Truly / Yhwh is our shield
and the Holy One of Israel / is our king. 

This is not a general cry of joy. It is the festal shout of those who live within the presence and authority of Yhwh-king. Both its source and its summit are in the face of the king. We need to note this important observation—that this joy is the ‘response’ to the previous verses regarding the ‘abidingly mobile’ presence of Yhwh. It is a joy grounded in the utter stability of Yhwh (the throne established on justice) and in his being utterly for his people (his attendants of loyal-love and faithfulness). Notice how “the people” dwell in Yhwh: they walk in the light of your face; they rejoice in your name all day; they are jubilant in your righteousness; their horn is raised in your goodwill. They walk, they rejoice, they are jubilant and they are raised up in Yhwh. He is the one “in whom” they live and move and have their being. And, most importantly, in this kingly-presence of Yhwh, there is liturgy: rejoicing, jubilation, and a clearly ecstatic wonder at Yhwh’s goodness. To be in Yhwh is not to be in some neutral space, but to be in that presence whose effect is a saturating liturgy and joy. It is a tangible gaze of Yhwh. It is the realm of invigorating and life giving ‘blessing’, that moment in which the life of Yhwh is given over to his people and becomes astoundingly fruitful (as in Abraham; “I will make you fruitful”).  It is, in addition, an abiding presence (just as abiding as the throne): they rejoice in Yhwh “all day long”. Yhwh is “the glory of their strength”.

Along with this ‘interior’ presence is the ‘exterior’ “shield of the king”. The king not only provides for the internal stability and prodigality of his subjects but he also guards and protects them from without. This is the outward stance of Yhwh—when it is portrayed as a ‘glance’ it is one that instills a totalizing fear in enemies. If “the people” live in Yhwh, then Yhwh-as-shield is directed toward those who live outside of Yhwh’s presence as enemies.