I was reading Psalm 31 recently and one line in it made me think of Jesus on the cross. In verse 5 the psalmist says, “Into your hand I commit my spirit.” In Luke’s Gospel (23:46) these were his last words, uttered shortly before he died. When I picture Jesus on the cross and hear these words they sound like the last gasp of a dying man. He is facing reality – death is inevitable and imminent. Later, when Stephen in Acts 7, when Stephen is being crushed by huge stones thrown down on him, he said the same thing. It’s clear that he also knows that death is inevitable and imminent. It’s as if both Jesus and Stephen are saying, it’s over, the end has come.
But when I read these words in the context of Psalm 31 that is not what I see. To be sure, the psalmist clearly is in trouble. He prays in verse 1, “rescue me speedily,” and in verse 4, “take me out of the net that is hidden for me.” Later in the psalm he cries out to God in distress, “my strength fails, my bones waste away” (10). And he speaks of enemies who scheme against him, and plot to take his life (13).
In other verses, however, he thanks God for rescuing him. In fact, the entirety of verse 5 says, “Into your hand I commit my spirit; you have redeemed me, O Lord, faithful God.” These are not the words of a man who thinks that life is over. Instead, he goes on to say, “I will exult and rejoice in your steadfast love because you have seen my affliction” (7). He may not be out of danger yet, but he has hope. In verses 14-15 he repeats and summarizes it for us: “I trust in you, O Lord. I say, ‘You are my God.’ My times are in your hand.” A cliché in the sports world says, “It’s not over till its over,” and for the psalmist it is not over yet. The end has not come
As I meditated on this psalm I remembered that Jesus undoubtedly knew the entire psalm and understood exactly what the psalmist was saying. The fact that Jesus turned to it as he faced death means that these were not just his final words, they were his motto for life. “Into your hand I commit my spirit … my times are in your hand,” – these words described how he lived as well as how he died. With such deep trust in God, Jesus knew that his life was not over and so he spoke the words of a psalm that faces the reality of pain and suffering and death with faith and hope and courage. In doing so he gave us a model for living that declares it’s never over when God is in it with us. Therefore, the psalm ends with an exhortation for all of us: “Love the Lord, all you his saints. The Lord preserves the faithful … Be strong and let your heart take courage, all you who wait for the Lord” (24-25).
As we take communion today may this be our prayer also: “Father, into your hand I commit my spirit; my times are in your hands.”
