Into your hand I commit my spirit; you have redeemed me, O LORD, faithful God. (ESV) 

Into your hands I commit my spirit; deliver me, LORD, my faithful God. (NIV)

I entrust my spirit into your hand. Rescue me, LORD, for you are a faithful God. (NLT)

Dive Deeper:

My wife and I are the parents of four sons—two out of the house in college, one ‘leaving the nest’ in a few months, and our youngest functioning independently in many ways. It’s not always been this way, however. In their younger years, they depended on us as parents—they committed themselves to our care for even life itself.

Just as our children once depended on us for their well-being, the Psalmist demonstrates an even greater dependence—entrusting his very life to God (Psalm 31:5). This same verse is later quoted by Jesus in His last moments on the cross. Luke 23:46 says, “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.”

In these last moments, Jesus willingly laid his life down, entrusting His death to the Father. He did this knowing that He was delivered up to death for our sins and was raised for our justification (Romans 4:25). In these truths we find hope and the forgiveness of our sins, and from these passages we can learn a few things about Jesus’ death.

We don’t know the exact circumstances of the author of Psalm 31 when this Psalm was written, but we do know it takes the highest level of trust to place your life and death in the hands of someone else. The Psalmist entrusted his very life and breath to the Father and Jesus expresses the same in Luke 23. In Volume Two of his commentary series on the Psalms, scholar Christopher Ash says, “This is “the ultimate surrender of the very animating force of life into the care of the God from whom it comes.”

Psalm 31:5 illustrates a deep trust amid the darkest trials of life. The Psalmist says, “…you have redeemed me, O LORD…”. To redeem something means to regain possession of it at a cost. The Psalmist acknowledges that his life belongs to God, who has ‘won him back’ through His faithfulness.

Through Jesus’ death on the cross for the payment of our sins, we are redeemed. In Ephesians 1:7, Paul writes, “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace”. Nothing we do on our own will ever be enough to redeem ourselves. The Lord is the One who redeems.

The Psalmist declares the faithfulness of our God, even in trials and death. God does exactly what He says He’s going to do and He’s always worthy of our trust. Like the Psalmist and like Jesus, we can entrust our lives to the faithful hands of God. Even in suffering, uncertainty, and death, He redeems, He restores, and He is always worthy of our trust.

Written by Scott Kedersha