Psalm 31: “Into Your Hand”

It has been a long time, too long since I have written for this blog. My other blogs either for school (Compelled2) or for the church (Our Long View) have demanded all discretionary writing energy. Now I have the privilege, in this season, of doing some freelance writing on the life of David from 1 & 2 Samuel. This also affords me the opportunity to revisit the psalms and ponder the circumstances in David’s life that accompany their writing.

Psalm 31:1-5

¹ In you, O Lord, do I take refuge;
    let me never be put to shame;
    in your righteousness deliver me!
² Incline your ear to me;
    rescue me speedily!
  Be a rock of refuge for me,
        a strong fortress to save me!

³ For you are my rock and my fortress;
    and for your name's sake you lead me and guide me;
⁴ you take me out of the net they have hidden for me,
    for you are my refuge.
⁵ Into your hand I commit my spirit;
    you have redeemed me, O Lord, faithful God.

Comments:

While for the sake of this post, I will only be addressing the first five verses, I would encourage the reader to read this entire psalm, hearing three different voices as you do so. 

• First, read it while listening to David speaking to God about of challenges and disappointments of his life’s journey. 
• Second, read it while listening to the voice of Christ in his Passion Week culminating on the cross. 
• Finally, hear the voices of the faithful martyrs mingling with our own as we seek to follow the example of trust set for us.

David’s Patient Voice

En Gedi, one place
where David hid from Saul

David’s life was full of situations where he might have written this psalm, yet it is not explicitly tied to any one of them. In a sense, it is a psalm for all seasons of need. John Phillips in his commentary, Exploring the Psalms, titles this psalm, “Life’s Ups and Downs.” That certainly covers David’s life. If we have read 1 Samuel 16-31 and 2 Samuel 15-20 then when we read Psalm 31 it is not hard to hear David voicing this prayer in a number of different contexts as he continually chose to surrender his fate into the hands of the Lord. This was especially true in terms of the timing and circumstances of David’s becoming king of Israel.

David did not ascend the throne by subtlety and strength but by surrender: “Into Thy hand I commit my spirit.” Because he was such a surrendered man, such a submissive man, God saw to it that he ascended the throne—and by power. But not by his own power!

...It was God’s power that preserved David during his fugitive years and God’s redeeming power that raised him to the throne.” (Phillips, Exploring the Psalms, Vol. 1, 234)

Jesus’ Passionate Voice

We know that Jesus quoted verse 5’s “Into your hand I commit my spirit” as he died on the cross (Luke 23:46). However, I am not sure that we take the time to consider the entire psalm in light of that fact. Patrick Henry Reardon in his book Christ in the Psalms wrote,

It is the prayer of “Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame” (Heb. 12:2), speaking to His Father in the context of His sufferings and death. This psalm is part of his prayer of faith…

In this psalm, we enter into the sentiments and thoughts of Jesus in His sufferings. We see the Passion “from the inside,” as it were. [p.59]

As Evangelicals, sometimes we view the atonement too transactionally and not incarnationally enough. Jesus’ entire life was part of the atonement mission of God, not just the last few hours. In his approximately 33 years on earth, he redeemed every stage of human life from infancy to adulthood. As we listen to this psalm through the voice of Christ, we will see how much he identified with and experienced our condition. One verse might require a note of further explanation. The last part of verse 10 says,

“my strength fails because of my iniquity,
    and my bones waste away.”

We know that Jesus was tempted in every way like we are yet was without sin (Heb. 4:15), so how could this verse represent the prayer of Jesus? The Bible says that Jesus not only died for our sins but that he became our sin on the cross (2 Cor. 5:21). Taken in that context this line makes perfect sense.

Our Voice (in Perspective)

If the Lord is to be our rock and our fortress, leading and guiding us, and rescuing us from the hidden traps of the enemy (v.3-5) then it is contingent upon our confession of need and calling on him for help. The first two verses introduce David’s prayer at a time when he was oppressed by others.

 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!

It is my belief that we will sooner or later “be put to shame” unless we cry out to the Lord in prayerful dependence as did David. But if we make it our practice to keep talking to the Lord, trusting our lives into his hand, and allowing him to lead and guide us through all the circumstances of our lives. We are not immune to the sorrows of life, but we need not be alone or without hope. While at the time of David, there was no certain understanding of a resurrection and eternal life; because of the work of Christ, we have a more complete understanding and a broader application of this passage.

The psalmist sought (v.18) and received deliverance from death and trusted in the coming of such deliverance; Jesus, on the other hand, gave expression to the same statement of trust as he died. He anticipated not deliverance from death, but trusted God even in dying and death (a trust that was later fulfilled in resurrection). It is in light of the use of the psalm in the worlds of Jesus that its transformation for contemporary faith becomes clear. The psalmist prayed for life, for deliverance from death, and that is the psalm’s fundamental and legitimate sense. But in the context of resurrection faith, the psalm may also be used as a prayer in death, expressing trust and commitment to the life lying beyond the grave. [Craigie, WBC Psalms 1-50, 263]

I am comforted to know that Jesus not only knows what it is like to face unjust attacks, lies, and rumors but walks with us (by the Holy Spirit’s presence) when we face the same. May our voices echo those of David and Jesus as we pour out our hearts to the Lord, and trust everything of this life and the next to the God who is there for us!

“Into your hand I commit my spirit;
    you have redeemed me, O Lord, faithful God.”