28 February • Wednesday of the Second Week in Lent
Psalm 31:3-5, 14-18
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.
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!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. 18 Let the lying lips be mute,
which speak insolently against the righteous in pride and contempt.
Meditation
“Into your hand I commit my spirit...” is a prayer that I have prayed, in varying words, many times in the last 26 years of pastoral ministry. Not for myself, but with people grappling with terminal or acute and debilitating illnesses, including my mother. It was not an exclamation of surrender, but a proclamation of trust. Beyond the hopelessness of death, there is the assuredness of life in God!
However, such proclamation need not necessarily be restricted to physical close-to-death situations. In Psalm 31, David was going through a period of intense physical, psychological, emotional, and spiritual turmoil. But still, he stubbornly and triumphantly proclaimed, “Into your hand I commit my spirit; you have redeemed me, O LORD, faithful God.” He was not conceding to death.
He was committing his life to the hand of His Lord, the faithful God. The proclamation “Into my hand I commit my spirit” was a foreshadowing of what would happen on that first Good Friday (Luke 23:46). While it seems that the Lord had lost, He had won the most important victory at the Cross for our salvation. What challenges are you facing? Health, finance, relationships, or entrapped in some habits that seem to be enslaving you?
This same Lord and God is beckoning you to lift up your eyes to see beyond the physical realities to the spiritual reality. The battle is won! Commit your challenges and your life to God with the sure knowledge that your “times are in [His] hand” and He will rescue you. (v.15) My mum was finally called home to Whom she committed her spirit. I miss her dearly. But I rest too in her proclamation of trust in God. She is not lost. She is where her Lord is!
Prayer
Dear Unchanging God, the Lord of our King Jesus, the faithful God of King David. Who else can I turn to beside You? Indeed, into Your hand I commit my spirit. Grant me eyes to see beyond my struggles to the victory that has been won. So, grant me grace to press on with the sure knowledge that You are the Almighty, never-changing God, even when the world and things around me are ever-changing. In Jesus’ name, Amen!
Action
Read again Psalm 31 and Luke 23:26-49. How might the challenges you are facing echo the narratives? Remind yourself that you are not alone. Think about how King David and the Lord Jesus responded to their own challenges. Finally, draw out a plan on what will you do, and not do, when you “commit your spirit into God’s hand.”
Rev Dr Alby Yip
Senior Pastor
Zion Bishan Bible-Presbyterian Church