:: By Andrew Moore
“Into your hands I commit my Spirit” – Psalm 31 verse 5.
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What does this prayer mean?
What is understood of the nature of life and death…. How does the psalmist view himself in this prayer???
… “Into your hand I commit my Spirit”.
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Those words on their own, could be interpreted as fatalism…..it could be interpreted as a giving up to the relentless forces of evil (or good)- for with fatalism there is no good or evil, things just are, and will be.
Or it could be interpreted as arrogance …?
An unwillingness to understand. A refusal to see the other side… astubbornness in defeat… “I will not give up!!!”
Is that what it means… ?
And/or is it saying something about the body. “I’ll take care of the body… you God take care of the spirit”.
“Spiritual matters, and my ‘soul’ are for God to decide”- I have met many people who think that, haven’t you??
This is dualism.
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- Polycarp. Bishop of Smyrna in Asia minor, and burnt at the stake in AD 151- is said to have uttered this prayer.
- Martin Luther. The great 16th century reformer famously known for the 95 theses that were nailed to the church at Wittenberg.
Before facing the Imperial court, where his life hung in the balance, and he was to be asked to retract his teachings . …
he prayed… “It is not for me to decide whether my life or my death will contribute most to the salvation of all. . . . You may expect everything from me. . . except fly I cannot, and still less retract. Into your hands Lord I commit my spirit.”
But these famous last words are most famous because of the Lord Jesus. – Jesus… Luke 23.
V46 “Then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” And having said this he breathed his last.”
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What does this prayer mean?
How was it said by Jesus?
Well we need to go back don’t we, to the psalm itself?
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Psalm 31 is a prayer.
It’s a prayer of David (who was the King, the Lord’s servant to the peoples, God’s Son- God had said to David through Nathan the prophet “The Lord would be a father to him, and he would be a son to God… and whose throne was to be established forever).
It’s a prayer for help. There are 5 parts to this psalm, 3 of which each which begin with a plea for deliverance, a beg for mercy.
A cry to quickly come to the rescue for “it seems to me that I am going to die- David is on his CB radio, the ship is sinking… mayday, may day may day!”
There is a great struggle, of “them” against “me”. This is the context- think of a hunted animal- chased, traps being set… (this is David, and he cries for hepl).
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And he begins…
Part 1. Read vv 1- 2
Here is the first cry for help.
31:1 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!
A cry to not be put to shame.
This will come up again in the psalm- verse 17 (“let me not be put to shame”).
17 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.
You might remember Adam and Eve in the garden, when they had eaten of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they felt shame.
They were embarrassed. … for they were nude and now that sin had entered in, they felt vulnerable. And they hid from God.
The shame that David fears is different to this- it is the shame of the innocent sufferer.
He is oppressed. He is hunted.
Here, most probably from his archrival Saul and the armies of Saul (you need to read 1 Samuel for the details).
And David is persecuted.
And he is also innocent. In the story he refuses to lift a hand to Saul… for Saul is the Lord’s servant…
Three times David was given the opportunity to rid Saul from his life, but David refuses.
And yet despite this, David’s suffering multiplies.
Saul’s armies continue to hunt him.
The people continue to dob David in, and people are afraid of him.
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David does the right thing, and yet he suffers.
It’s the shame of the innocent sufferer.
It’s the suffering of the Christ… of the messiah…
Isaiah 53 “the man of sorrows… despised and rejected… as one from whom men hide their faces… the righteous one, my servant”
Peter says… “Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you, as though something strange were happening to you… You share in “CHRIST’S” suffering”… 1 Peter 4.12.
And so, this is the context in which David prays.
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And David cries for vindication.
For Justice.
There is that movie the fugitive- Tommy Lee Jones, Harrison Ford.
A great movie… cat and mouse plot… Harrison Ford has been set up. He is a doctor who has made a great medical discovery, and someone he thought was a friend organizes to kill his wife, and have it look like he did it.
He is shamed.
He suffers innocently.
Harrison Ford escapes and is on the run from Police.
And he wants justice…
He doesn’t pray,… but he is driven still by the need to put things right, and clear his name.
Well David prays for JUSTICE!.
(pause) And he prays for protection. David asks Yahweh to be a ROCK. To be the fortress- strong, stable,… immoveable.And he asks Yahweh. … Not anyone. But Yahweh…. because Yahweh is his God!
Read vv 3-5.
Like a child asking his Father for help- David appeals to God his eternal father.
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.
Here we see the nature of David’s relationship with God.
“My fortress/ my refuge, my Yahweh”
A personal relationship…
The Lord guides him and leads him… and protects him.
In fact there is already evidence of deliverance… v 4.
4 you take me out of the net they have hidden for me,
for you are my refuge.
That’s past tense…. Which is either a great confidence in God that God will deliver him, or God has already delivered him in the past.
What an awesome privilege to know the living and true Lord like this!!!
Have you ever experienced God like this?
God is not some impersonal force.
This is definitely not fatalism….
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And is not self-deluded arrogance either.
Read vv 6.
6 I hate those who pay regard to worthless idols,
but I trust in the Lord.
These are real enemies. … for they are enemies of God.
Part of David’s righteous confidence is a godly anger. A hatred for those who trust worthless idols.
He’s not saying he hates them because they make my life misery… but he hates them because they do not acknowledge God.
Strong language though isn’t it?
And this sort of language is not confined to the Old Testament either…
In the New Testament, Paul says “do not overcome evil with evil, but evil with good”… and his reason is surprising…he quotes from Proverbs-
“If your enemy is hungry, feed him;
if he is thirsty, give him something to drink.
-> In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.”
There comes a point, when sin is unrepentant. Where God’s patience is run out…
(And we mustn’t take revenge)… but God will.
And it is right to feel angry at sin.
I remember talking to someone who had suffered terribly (she didn’t go into the details). But she was upset because she’d been told to forgive and that “there was no place for anger… it is unchristian”. …. And I told her, I don’t think that’s right.
In fact, there is a place for hate. Righteous, non-vengeful hate.
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Each part of this psalm as I said, begins with a cry for help.
And both the first and second part also contain a reason.
The first part- help, because you are MY God.
The second part- help, because I really need you. David describes in vv 9-13 what he is suffering.
It makes sense that you only cry for help if you need help, and so here David outlines, at some length, his oppression.
And perhaps picture Jesus.
For really this is a psalm of Jesus…
Our king, the Son of God… who for us…
“his eye was wasted with grief”… vv 9b-
9 Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am in distress;
my eye is wasted from grief;
my soul and my body also.
“iniquity” there could be translated “affliction”, as in the NIV. But I think the NIV has tried to smooth out a difficulty.
There is a difference between David and Jesus.
David of course was not perfect, and did suffer because of his sin…and here sees that his sin is part of the cause for his suffering so pleads for grace.
David is not innocent.
But he goes on…
Read v 11- remember the crowds and then even his closest disciples fled from him. ….
11 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.
12 I have been forgotten like one who is dead;
I have become like a broken vessel.
V 12a.
“My God my God, why have you forsaken me” Jesus cried.
V 12b. the empty vessel a picture of a body smashed, battered, …empty and of no use.
13 For I hear the whispering of many—
terror on every side!—
as they scheme together against me,
as they plot to take my life.
V 13.
The Herodians and the Pharisees, enemies until they find a common interest in ridding the people of Jesus, and so they plotted together for his destruction.
Help me!….. for my life is spent-> says the psalmist.
This not someone who just calls on God in trouble.
For many God is just that…. someone for whom, when the going gets tough and no-one else cares, well God cares…. But God is not their Lord, God is a “fix it man”.
Here is someone whose Lord is Yahweh.
And here is someone who’s cry for help has become intense not because they’re an anxious person.
Here is someone suffering INTENSELY.
And if you think what Jesus went through for us wasn’t much… “Jesus was God, superman Jesus… and he doesn’t really understand what REAL suffering is like”- well you ought to read this again.
-Jesus was without sin, but he wasn’t without suffering.
Jesus was tempted in every way. His Father, the light of whose face he had enjoyed since eternity struck him, forsook him…
God sent an angel from heaven to strengthen him because of his agony. He cried with tears of blood.
He was hunted, mocked, beaten, deserted and finally killed, -no wonder he prayed Psalm 31!!.
But he wasn’t SHAMED as we’ll see.
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And he says… read v 14-15.
14 But I trust in you, O Lord;
I say, “You are my God.”
15 My times are in your hand;
rescue me from the hand of my enemies and from my persecutors!
The third cry for help.
Despite the agony and the loneliness, he trusts God.
And he prays….
Read v 16-17.
16 Make your face shine on your servant;
save me in your steadfast love!
17 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.
There is the ‘shame’ word again. And here he asks for the wicked, his enemies to be put to shame.
To be destroyed.
And for them to go silently to Sheol (the name used in the OT for the place of the dead. A place of darkness, a place of dust, silence, forgetfulness and joylessness, ofSHAME- cut off from God)… SILENTLY – the microphone turned off- that’s the big fuss with Saddam Hussein’s trial.
There is no question of the guilt of these oppressors,… he’s not asking that they be given no defence… they are already guilty.
He’s asking that they now be silenced.
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Is there a reason given here for his cry for help? Like the first 2 parts of the Psalm?
> Yes!…v 17 For I call on you.
Or I trust in you.
Save me because I trust in you.
And it’s the Lord’s faithfulness which is the real key here to how this works.
Verse 16- “the steadfast Love”.
OR sometimes translated “covenant love”.
God’s makes covenants with his people. Promises… .and is faithful to his promises.
He speaks, and keeps his word.
And God has made promises to David.
And promises to Israel…. And the Old Testament is the record of God’s faithful promise keeping- the promises to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob for Israel to be a great nation… then exodus event, where God acted to realign reality with those promises.
God’s people appeal to these promises.
And David does too.
It is the foundation of his confidence- v 7 he rejoices in this steadfast love (where we first saw this phrase).
And here he we see him trusting in God because of this love.
(pause)
Well, we’re on the home stretch, and David moves in these last 2 sections from a description of God’s future provision, to a call for all God’s people to praise God.
Read v 19-20.
19 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!
20 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.
The children of mankind, or as C. S Lewis put it in Narnia, the sons of Adam and the daughters of Eve ( the whole world!).
There will come a time when all mankind, even the enemies, particularly the enemies will see the provision of Yahweh.
That is to be vindicated. That is to be justified.
That is to not be shamed anymore.
Read v 21-22.
21 Blessed be the Lord,
for he has wondrously shown his steadfast love to me
when I was in a besieged city.
22 I had said in my alarm, [2]
“I am cut off from your sight.”
But you heard the voice of my pleas for mercy
when I cried to you for help.
Here David recalls an incident in 1 Samuel 23, where David was surrounded in the city of Keilah.
He had just fought one of the Lord’s battles, against the Philistines, and Saul hears that David is there. A city surrounded by a big wall with gates and bars… David is shut in.
David is told by the priest that the people of Keilah will betray him into the hands of Saul…
But David escapes!!! He flees into the wilderness and hills, and we read “everyday Saul sought him, but God did not give him into his hand”.
David recalls this in vv 21-22.
Which leads him to say…
Read v 23- 24
23 Love the Lord, all you his saints!
The Lord preserves the faithful
but abundantly repays the one who acts in pride.
24 Be strong, and let your heart take courage,
all you who wait for the Lord!
(pause)
Conclusion-
And so….
“Into your hands I commit my spirit”.
What is it?…
Well, obviously, it’s a prayer for God to protect and save.
To hold for safekeeping, our life.
But the not so obvious is…
That it’s a cry for justice.
A profound and deep trust in God that God will judge.
Not only is it okay to say that, it’s right to say that.
When Jesus died on the cross, he dies as the innocent one…and he dies because he loves the world. But that doesn’t mean the plotting, the pain, the shame, the evil was nothing.
It was!… and in that prayer is a prayer for judgement.
For only in judgement is there justice.
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1 Peter 4 says, “if you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you”.
“Let none suffer as a murderer or thief or an evildoer or as a meddler. If anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name”.
Why?, well the passage goes on to say, because God will judge… in fact judgement has begun.
And so trust him!… entrust yourself to a faithful creator while doing good.
(pause)
It’s a prayer for judgment.
(is that disturbing,… well maybe we haven’t really suffered yet! Maybe that’s the reason)
And on the flip side, this psalm motivates us to do good.
To suffer for doing good.
And to be proud of the name of Jesus… to be proud to suffer in the name of Christ. for he will not be ashamed of us when he comes with all his angels and all his glory.
When you are put down in front of others… endure.
When you are taken for granted… answer kindly.
When someone cuts in on you,…. don’t abuse them,… but to pray for them.
Read Psalm 31:5.
5 Into your hand I commit my spirit;
you have redeemed me, O Lord, faithful God.
Let’s pray.