Into
your hand I commend my spirit. You redeem me, Yahweh, God of truth.
Psalm 31:5
Psalm 31 [1.] In you, Yahweh, I take refuge.
Let me never be disappointed.
Deliver me in your righteousness.
Bow down your ear to me.
Deliver me speedily.
Be to me a strong rock,
a house of defense to save me.
For you are my rock and my fortress,
therefore for your name’s sake lead me and guide me.
Pluck me out of the net that they have laid secretly for me,
for you are my stronghold.
Into your hand I commend my spirit.
You redeem me, Yahweh, God of truth.
I hate those who regard lying vanities,
but I trust in Yahweh.
I will be glad and rejoice in your loving kindness,
for you have seen my affliction.
You have known my soul in adversities.
You have not shut me up into the hand of the enemy.
You have set my feet in a large place.
Have mercy on me, Yahweh, for I am in distress.
My eye, my soul, and my body waste away with grief.
Psalm 31 [10.] For my life is spent with sorrow,
my years with sighing.
My strength fails because of my iniquity.
My bones are wasted away.
Because of all my adversaries I have become utterly contemptible to my neighbors,
A fear to my acquaintances.
Those who saw me on the street fled from me.
I am forgotten from their hearts like a dead man.
I am like broken pottery.
For I have heard the slander of many, terror on every side,
while they conspire together against me,
they plot to take away my life.
But I trust in you, Yahweh.
I said, “You are my God.”
My times are in your hand.
Deliver me from the hand of my enemies, and from those who persecute me.
Make your face to shine on your servant.
Save me in your loving kindness.
Let me not be disappointed, Yahweh, for I have called on you.
Let the wicked be disappointed.
Let them be silent in Sheol.
Let the lying lips be mute,
which speak against the righteous insolently, with pride and contempt.
Oh how great is your goodness,
which you have laid up for those who fear you,
which you have worked for those who take refuge in you,
before the sons of men!
Meaning:
Psalm 31 is a prayer of David in great trouble. He is surrounded by enemies, slandered and in danger, and yet he trusts Yahweh as his rock and fortress. In the middle of his distress he says this simple sentence of trust. It became one of the best-known lines in the Psalms because Jesus prayed it from the cross.
- “Into your hand I commend my spirit”
To commend means to entrust or hand over for safe keeping. The “hand” of God stands for his power and care. David is not speaking first about death but about his whole life: he places himself, breath and being, in God’s keeping. Later in the psalm he says, “My times are in your hand” (Psalm 31:15).
- “You redeem me, Yahweh, God of truth”
The prayer rests on what God has done and who he is. To redeem is to set free, to buy back or rescue. David has known God’s rescue before, and he trusts the “God of truth” to keep his word. The ground of his trust is God’s faithfulness, not his own strength.
- Jesus’ prayer on the cross
As he died, Jesus cried with a loud voice, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” (Luke 23:46). He took David’s words and added the word “Father.” His death was not defeat but a willing, trusting surrender into the Father’s hands. Peter says that Jesus “committed himself to him who judges righteously” (1 Peter 2:23).
- Stephen’s prayer
The first Christian martyr prayed in the same spirit as he was stoned: “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!” (Acts 7:59). Stephen addressed the risen Jesus with the trust that the psalm directs to Yahweh. The early church saw in Jesus the Lord to whom believers may entrust themselves in death.
The Significance of Psalm 31:5
- A prayer for daily life
Many Christians, in Jewish and Christian traditions alike, have used this verse as an evening prayer before sleep. It is a way of handing the day and the night to God and resting in his care.
- A prayer for the hour of death
Because Jesus prayed it, the verse has comforted believers facing death. Those who belong to him can entrust themselves to God with confidence, for Paul writes, “to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21).
Cross-References:
Luke 23:46: "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!" Jesus prays the psalm on the cross.
Acts 7:59: "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!" Stephen’s dying prayer.
1 Peter 4:19: "let them also who suffer according to the will of God in doing good entrust their souls to him, as to a faithful Creator." Trust in suffering.
Conclusion: In the middle of danger David entrusted his spirit to the faithful God who redeems. Jesus prayed these words as he died, and Stephen echoed them as he was martyred. The verse invites every believer to place life and death into God’s hands with quiet confidence.
PIB Scriptures are derived from the World English Bible