Daily Psalms February 25

READ Psalm 31:1–8.

1 In you, LORD, I have taken refuge; let me never be put to shame; deliver me in your righteousness.

2 Turn your ear to me, come quickly to my rescue; be my rock of refuge, a strong fortress to save me.

3 Since you are my rock and my fortress, for the sake of your name lead and guide me.

4 Keep me from the trap that is set for me, for you are my refuge.

5 Into your hands I commit my spirit; deliver me, LORD, my faithful God.

6 I hate those who cling to worthless idols; as for me, I trust in the LORD.

7 I will be glad and rejoice in your love, for you saw my affliction and knew the anguish of my soul.

8 You have not given me into the hands of the enemy but have set my feet in a spacious place.

INTO YOUR HANDS.

Under great stress it is possible to journey from great “anguish of . . . soul” (verse 7) to confidence and being in “a spacious place” (verse 8). David makes this journey by being spiritually active, not passive. He cries in prayer, “Come quickly to my rescue” (verse 2). He repents in prayer of all idols (verse 6) He communes with God in prayer until his love and favor produce joy, compensating for all other losses (verse 7). These are all ways of committing ourselves into his hands (verse 5). Do this, and God will bring you also into a spacious place, despite your sins, because Jesus committed his spirit into God’s hands (Luke 24:46) on the cross.

Prayer:

Lord Jesus, on the cross you were being betrayed, denied, rejected, and forsaken by everyone. Yet you trusted and put yourself in your Father’s hands. If you did all that for my sake, then I can trust and put myself into your hands, for your sake. Here I am. Amen.