Today’s Passage: Psalm 31
This is a psalm of David, handed to the choirmaster to be sung. It opens with a man running to God for shelter, hunted and afraid, and in the middle of that danger he prays a line you will meet again. Into Your hands I commit my spirit. You have redeemed me. David prayed those words first, in the thick of his trouble, not knowing how the story would end. Long after, the Son of God prayed the very same words as He died on the cross. That is not a coincidence to be explained away. It is the heart of the psalm, and we will hold it just as it stands.
As you read, hold this: Into Your hands I commit my spirit.
Psalm 31:1-5 (BSB)
For the choirmaster. A Psalm of David. ¹ In You, O LORD, I have taken refuge; let me never be put to shame; save me by Your righteousness. ² Incline Your ear to me; come quickly to my rescue. Be my rock of refuge, the stronghold of my deliverance. ³ For You are my rock and my fortress; lead me and guide me for the sake of Your name. ⁴ You free me from the net laid out for me, for You are my refuge. ⁵ Into Your hands I commit my spirit; You have redeemed me, O LORD, God of truth.
Listen to what the prayer reaches for. A refuge to hide in, shame kept off, rescue by God’s own righteousness. A rock, a fortress, a stronghold to run to. There is a net laid out in the dark to catch him, and God is the one who frees him from it. And then, set right in the middle of all that pleading, comes the line the whole psalm will be remembered for. Into Your hands I commit my spirit. You have redeemed me, O LORD, God of truth.
Study notes David prayed it. The Son prayed it.
Verse 5 is not some later echo that happened to land in the Gospels. It is, word for word, what Jesus prayed as He died.
"Then Jesus called out in a loud voice, “Father, into Your hands I commit My Spirit.” And when He had said this, He breathed His last." Luke 23:46 (BSB)
David prayed it in danger, not knowing whether rescue would come or when. The Son prayed it knowing exactly what the next hour held, which was death itself, and He still meant every word of it as trust. The same words, laid into the same hands. The meaning does not bend.
Psalm 31:6-8 (BSB)
⁶ I hate those who cling to worthless idols, but in the LORD I trust. ⁷ I will be glad and rejoice in Your loving devotion, for You have seen my affliction; You have known the anguish of my soul. ⁸ You have not delivered me to the enemy; You have set my feet in the open.
In the LORD I trust, he says, and then he tells God why he can. You have seen my affliction. You have known the anguish of my soul. Notice that the seeing and the knowing come first. God gives His full attention to the trouble before He ever sets the man’s feet in the open.
Psalm 31:9-13 (BSB)
⁹ Be merciful to me, O LORD, for I am in distress; my eyes fail from sorrow, my soul and body as well. ¹⁰ For my life is consumed with grief and my years with groaning; my iniquity has drained my strength, and my bones are wasting away. ¹¹ Among all my enemies I am a disgrace, and among my neighbors even more. I am dreaded by my friends—they flee when they see me on the street. ¹² I am forgotten like a dead man, out of mind. I am like a broken vessel. ¹³ For I hear the slander of many; there is terror on every side. They conspire against me and plot to take my life.
The psalm does not rush past any of this. It names the distress one piece at a time: eyes failing from sorrow, a life worn down with grief and groaning, strength drained away, disgrace in front of enemies and neighbors alike. Friends see him coming and cross the street. He is forgotten like a dead man, out of mind, no better than a broken vessel. There is slander in his ears and terror on every side, and men are plotting to take his life. It is all honest, and all of it named plainly.
Psalm 31:14-18 (BSB)
¹⁴ But I trust in You, O LORD; I say, “You are my God.” ¹⁵ My times are in Your hands; deliver me from my enemies and from those who pursue me. ¹⁶ Make Your face shine on Your servant; save me by Your loving devotion. ¹⁷ O LORD, let me not be ashamed, for I have called on You. Let the wicked be put to shame; let them lie silent in Sheol. ¹⁸ May lying lips be silenced—lips that speak with arrogance against the righteous, full of pride and contempt.
Word study "Commit" — paqad (Psalm 31:5)
Hebrew: אַפְקִיד (aphqid), from paqad, pronounced ahf-KEED. Strong’s H6485.
It means to entrust something, to hand it over for safekeeping, the way a man deposits what is precious to him into the care of someone he trusts. That is what the psalm does with a human spirit: it places it in God’s hands the way you would place a treasure in the keeping of a friend. And verse 15 stretches that same trust across a whole life. My times are in Your hands, it says. Not only the last breath, but every ordinary hour along the way.
But I trust in You. You are my God. My times are in Your hands. Save me by Your loving devotion. And then, in the same breath, let the wicked be put to shame. This is a real prayer from a hunted man, and we let it teach us to pray as it stands. We do not dress its hard edges up in softer, more religious language, and we do not sand them smooth. The psalm asks God for rescue and for justice together, and it is not ashamed to.
Psalm 31:19-24 (BSB)
¹⁹ How great is Your goodness which You have laid up for those who fear You, which You have bestowed before the sons of men on those who take refuge in You! ²⁰ You hide them in the secret place of Your presence from the schemes of men. You conceal them in Your shelter from accusing tongues. ²¹ Blessed be the LORD, for He has shown me His loving devotion in a city under siege. ²² In my alarm I said, “I am cut off from Your sight!” But You heard my plea for mercy when I called to You for help. ²³ Love the LORD, all His saints. The LORD preserves the faithful, but fully repays the arrogant. ²⁴ Be strong and courageous, all you who hope in the LORD.
Context A city under siege
Verse 21 keeps the danger concrete: a city under siege, hemmed in, with no way out. We are never told which siege it was, or when. What we are told is the feeling of being cut off, and verse 22 tells the truth about that feeling. In my alarm I said, I am cut off from Your sight. But You heard my plea when I called. The panic and the fact were two different things. What felt like abandonment was not abandonment at all.
So the psalm ends the way it began, leaning its whole weight on God. There is goodness laid up in store for those who fear Him, and a secret place in His presence where He hides them away. Even in a city under siege, His loving devotion reaches them. I said I was cut off, and He heard. And the last word turns outward to everyone at the table: love the LORD, all you His saints, for He preserves the faithful. Be strong and courageous, all you who hope in the LORD.
Into Your hands I commit my spirit.