Psalm 131: Into Your Hand I Commit My Spirit

Today’s reading is Psalm 131.

Extreme Calm

The pilgrim psalmist was satisfied with God’s presence, content with God’s Word, sufficed by God’s grace, and confident in God’s promise. What a beautiful picture. But has anyone ever pulled that off completely? Yes. In fact, someone has: Jesus.

We could, no doubt, trace these concepts throughout the life of Jesus. But, to me, one moment stands out as a clear, incredible, and extreme example of this calm, quiet trust. It will, no doubt, be an odd one because it was at a moment which physically was anything but calm and quiet for Jesus. His own body screamed with pain. The crowd around Him yelled taunts. Yet, in Luke 23:46, Jesus pushed up on the spike through His feet to gasp out one last statement, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” (ESV).

That is an incredible statement all on its own. However, recognize Jesus’s final statement was not just a saying. It called to mind a context.

For you are my rock and my fortress;
and for your name’s sake you lead me and guide me;
you take me out of the net they have hidden for me,
for you are my refuge.
Into your hand I commit my spirit;
you have redeemed me, O LORD, faithful God.
–Psalm 31:3-5 (ESV)

Jesus is not merely saying, “My spirit is about to leave my body and it is coming to You, Father.” He is expressing His trust and refuge in the Father. Most folks expect God to save their lives from such awful, agonizing death as Jesus experienced. But the Father held back His own hand and watched this terrible tragedy. He let the net the people had laid around His Son snap closed over Jesus’s head and strangle Him to death. Yet, even in this moment Jesus hoped in the redeeming promise of the Father. And He breathed His last.

Except not.

On the third day, He began breathing again. The stone rolled back. The tomb was empty. Then the women and the disciples saw Jesus who had been slain alive again. Resurrection!

This is the power of Psalm 131 maturity. This is the power of being satisfied with God’s presence, content with God’s Word, sufficed by God’s grace, confident in God’s promise. Like our King and Christ, we can commit our spirit into God’s hands. We can take our refuge in God. We can hang on and find redemption even after the last possible moment.

Praise the Lord!

Today’s reading is Psalm 132.

PODCAST!!!

Click here to take about 15 minutes to listen to the Text Talk conversation between Andrew Roberts and Edwin Crozier.

PATHS:
Discuss Today’s Meditation with Your Family

What do you want to share with others from Psalm 131?

“I Will Die for You!”

Today’s reading is Matthew 26.

I know at this point, I shouldn’t be surprised by anything one of the apostles does, but I am surprised. When Jesus said one of them would betray Him, they all start asking, “Is it I?” Surprising humility. However, when He says the Shepherd will be struck and all they like sheep will flee, they all say, “Not I!” Peter leads the way, “Even if I must die with you, I will not deny you!” But they all say the same. Surprising self-confidence after the aforementioned humility.

After yesterday’s post about having the humility to realize we are each capable of falling, failure, and even betrayal, it may be equally surprising for me to lift up Peter’s proclamation as a good example also. Certainly, we shouldn’t emulate Peter arguing with Jesus. Further, I don’t want to remotely lift up the competitive nature of Peter’s statement found in other gospel records in which he says, “Even though they all fall away…” (Mark 14:29).

With those caveats in place, let’s recognize Peter verbalizes a profound commitment: “Even if I must die with you, I will not deny you!” Read that again. Hear it proclaimed in your mind’s ear. We tend to dismiss this commitment because of Peter’s failure at it just hours later. However, be aware, while Peter struggles with this commitment in the short term, he does keep it in the long term. In fact, I am convinced, one of the keys that helped him keep this commitment in the long term is that he verbalized it here in the presence of witnesses. In part, it was the verbalized commitment that played on his heart when he failed and made him ready to receive Jesus’s forgiveness, strength, and continued opportunity to serve later.

Let’s put this principle together with the one we learned yesterday. While we need to have a healthy humble awareness of our own capability for failure, we should also be ready to verbalize the commitments of faithfulness and victory we want to keep. I pray we are all committed to dying for Jesus if the opportunity and need arises. Yes, we will sometimes fail at our commitments, even our verbalized ones. But making those commitments and doing so in the presence of witnesses is a big help in actually keeping them.

Tomorrow’s reading is Matthew 26

PODCAST!!!

Click here to take about 15 minutes to listen to the Text Talk conversation between Andrew Roberts and Edwin Crozier sparked by this post.

Discuss the Following Questions with Your Family

1. What are your initial reactions to the chapter and the written devo above?
2. Do you think verbalizing our commitment to Jesus will help us keep that commitment in the long term?
3. Do you think verbalizing our commitment to Jesus in the presence of witnesses will help us keep our commitment in the long term?
4. What advice would you give to help us keep our commitments to Jesus?
5. What do you think we should pray for and about in light of this chapter and today’s post?