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.
