Into Your Hand . . .


Psalm 31
To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David.
1In you, O Lord, do I take refuge; let me never be put to shame; in your righteousness deliver me!
2Incline your ear to me; rescue me speedily! Be a rock of refuge for me, a strong fortress to save me!
3For you are my rock and my fortress; and for your name’s sake you lead me and guide me;
4you take me out of the net they have hidden for me,
for you are my refuge.
5Into your hand I commit my spirit; you have redeemed me, O Lord, faithful God.
6I hate those who pay regard to worthless idols,
but I trust in the Lord.
7I will rejoice and be glad in your steadfast love, because you have seen my affliction; you have known the distress of my soul,
8and you have not delivered me into the hand of the enemy; you have set my feet in a broad place.
9Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am in distress; my eye is wasted from grief; my soul and my body also.
10For my life is spent with sorrow, and my years with sighing; my strength fails because of my iniquity, and my bones waste away.
11Because 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.
12I have been forgotten like one who is dead; I have become like a broken vessel.
13For I hear the whispering of many— terror on every side!— as they scheme together against me, as they plot to take my life.
14But I trust in you, O Lord; I say, “You are my God.”
15My times are in your hand; rescue me from the hand of my enemies and from my persecutors!
16Make your face shine on your servant; save me in your steadfast love!
17O 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.
18Let the lying lips be mute, which speak insolently against the righteous in pride and contempt.
19Oh, 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!
20In the cover of your presence you hide them from the plots of men; you store them in your shelter from the strife of tongues.
21Blessed be the Lord, for he has wondrously shown his steadfast love to me when I was in a besieged city.
22I 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.
23Love the Lord, all you his saints! The Lord preserves the faithful but abundantly repays the one who acts in pride.
24Be strong, and let your heart take courage, all you who wait for the Lord!

As we take a moment to let the words settle into our spirits one must admit that this psalm feels a little frantic. The tone seems to vacillate between lament and thanksgiving. David, the writer of this prayer, is leaping from emotion to emotion here in rapid succession and it’s a little whiplash inducing. But this psalm points to real life. None of us dwell in the shelter of God all the time. It isn’t that we aren’t welcome to live there, because we are. But, for reasons that are often difficult to understand, we all tend to run out on our own on occasion and the panic can set in fairly quickly. Even David found himself there.

Remarkably, Jesus quotes this psalm from the Cross. “Into your hand I commit my spirit.” If ever there was someone who had reason to rail against the plans of His enemies it was Jesus. But instead, He accepts the position of Sufferer and does so with God rather than without Him. And here is our choice as well. We can suffer with God beside us, or we can go it alone and that’s a far more painful place to find ourselves. The words of the prayer are heartbreaking. The troubles of life are wearing David down to nothing more than sorrowful lump of humanity. But with verse 14, a shift is taken. “But I trust in You, O Lord; I say, ‘You are my God’”. David makes his choice when he recognizes that God does indeed hear all his cries for help. From that point forward the psalm seems almost jubilant and that fills us with – you guessed it – hope! We can be confident because our Redeemer has surrendered all things into the hands of the Almighty Father. We have nothing to fear.

24Be strong, and let your heart take courage, all you who wait for the Lord!

That decision to leave it all in God’s hands brings peace and the desire to lift up praise. But we cannot make light of how difficult that can be for we all struggle frequently to do so. Our Redeemer brings these words to life when He voices them from the Cross. “Into Your hand I commit my spirit.” If Jesus Christ is submitted into the hands of the Father, who am I to do otherwise?

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