Saturday, April 26, 2014

Psalm 31:5

Copyright Ó 2014 J. Neely
Psalm 31:5

5 Into thine hand [yad] I commit [paqad] my spirit [ruwach]: thou hast redeemed [padah] me, O LORD [Yahovah] God ['el] of truth ['emeth].  KJV-Interlinear

5 Into Thy hand I commit my spirit; Thou hast ransomed me, O Lord, God of truth.   NASB

The first portion of this verse was the quote that Jesus made after He had finished all of His work on the Cross, Lk. 23:46.  Note, that He was very much alive when His work had been completed.   But there is more to it than just Jesus saying these words.  Redeemed, ‘padah,’ means to ransom, to preserve, to deliver, to rescue, and in the spiritual realm, our lives have been purchased out of the slavery to sin and death, not just sin alone, and for that reason we are redeemed or bought by God, and belong to Him.

God only keeps that which He owns, and God always gives us the choice to remain His or to reject Him and His work and effort in our behalf.  God never coerces anyone to do anything that they do not want to do.

And therefore, at the very last moment of our life, this verse in its entirety, applies to every person who has believed in Christ.  Because our belief recognizes that we believe in His work and in the results of His work, which paid the price of sin and death, and that we freely commit ourselves to God and place ourselves into His custody.

Once we have died, we are totally helpless and can do nothing for ourselves.  We are, in effect, at the mercy of God, or the cosmos, depending on our beliefs and depending on truth.

And since God is truth, then better to rely on Him, than on some unknown.

This is Davids psalm.  He knew of redemption.  He knew of the price that must be paid, in order to purchase someone out of slavery.  And since this applies to after death events, then there must be a next life beyond this one, otherwise there would be no need for placing oneself into Gods hands if it all ended with nothing beyond death.

So, David knew of the Savior.  He knew of the sacrifice that must be made, of which all those Levitical sacrifices portrayed.  He knew of the price that had to be paid, and of the one unique person, the Savior, who had to pay it.

And as a result, all lives belong to God the Father, for it is to Him than all lives go, if the person has chosen, through faith in Christ, to remain in Gods care.