Psalm 31:1-5, 15-16

“Into your hand I commit my spirit; you have redeemed me, O LORD, faithful God.” (Psalm 31:5)

An individual lament whose opening verses are nearly identical to Psalm 71:1-3, one of several places where the Psalter reuses a common stock of petitionary lines. The selection joins two passages that the Christian tradition has always held together. Verse 5 is the sentence Luke places on Jesus’ lips at his death, with “Father” added and the second clause left off (Luke 23:46), and Stephen’s dying words echo it in turn, addressed to Jesus (Acts 7:59). Verse 15, my times are in your hand, takes up the same image from the other direction, so the two hands frame the whole. The metaphors between them are architectural and defensive, rock, fortress, stronghold and refuge, and the psalm asks not for the removal of enemies but for a place to stand among them. The omission of vv. 6-14 is worth noticing, since it removes the long complaint the psalm was written to carry and leaves the trust without its grievance.

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