“Into Your Hand I commit My Spirit” Psalm 31

Turn with me in your Bibles to Psalm 31. Psalm 31. We are back into a text this evening, a little more topical last week, but now we’re back into a single text.

Psalm 31 is a song, and it’s a song to the anxious, a song really for the anxious. Anxiety, worry, stress, fear. All of these things, they’re a reality for humans, including for believers. They’re not feelings we probably ought to have, and we know that, because God is sovereign and God is good. And yet, those are things that we still struggle with.

You look around this week, we’ve seen a lot of worry and anxiety and even fear. There was, leading up to Tuesday, People on both sides had a lot of anxiety of what the results were going to be. And then following Tuesday and the following days, as states finally counted their votes, you saw a lot more anxiety and fear on one side that didn’t get the outcome that they were hoping for. And that’s just an example of our human condition, that we are fearful, anxious, worrisome people. And again, we know as Christians, that we shouldn’t be, that we shouldn’t be fearful.

We know the God who is in control of all things, and yet, we still are anxious and fearful at times. There are many things we face every day that cause anxiety for us. It could be big fears like our health, a medical diagnosis, cancer, or other diseases and illnesses that can cause anxiety, the unknown, what’s gonna happen? Could be fears for our own safety, fears of loneliness, fears for our loved ones, even things like our day-to-day finances. How will I afford to put food on the table or gas in my car? Will I have enough money for retirement?

There’s so many things in life that can cause anxiety and fear and worry. And again, we know we shouldn’t, but we still do. And it can be, and usually is, sinful for us to be overwhelmed by worry and fear. Fear can be a good thing. It’s a good and natural reaction that we are given, things to preserve our life. There are times that we can be really controlled by fear, and sometimes it’s fear that we view as even a rational fear, fears that we shouldn’t have, but still. We struggle with them. We fight them. We don’t want to have them, but sometimes we still do.

And yes, we know that God is in control and God is good. That doesn’t make it easy to be rid of our fears. That is the truth that will cure us of our anxiety and worry, but how do we get that knowledge into our life? How do we put that into practice so that it puts our fears and worries to bed? Well, that’s what we see in this Psalm. What do I do when I can’t seem to stop worrying or feeling anxious? That’s why a Psalm like Psalm 31 is so helpful.

Psalm 31 is a Psalm of David. And as one Puritan described this psalm, he summarized it in one sentence. And you can tell by the length of the sentence and the length of the list of descriptions he gives, everything that’s packed into this psalm. And this is how John Newton described this or summarized this psalm. He starts with, the Lord can be trusted to preserve his saints through many dangers and toils and snares and disasters and troubles and fears and aggravations and assaults. And that’s a summary.

So that’s all that’s really packed into a Psalm like this, because all those things are things David faced. David was the king, and being king came with a lot of responsibility. David was a hunted man. He was a revered man, and he often had the weight of the world on his shoulders. And in Psalm 31, we see David pour out his heart. about his own anxiety and fears. This is a psalm that’s classified as a lament in that he is almost complaining or voicing his complaint and his fears to God and asking God to do something because of the situation he’s in.

And this psalm, I really like this psalm. I really like studying it because it just, it breaks down so well. I mean, if you know me by now, you know that I like the structure, and this structures is really well. We first see David’s position, and that’s verses one through eight. Then we see David’s trouble, and that’s verses nine through 13. Then David gets to his help. in verses 14 through 20, and then he closes with his testimony in 21 through 24. And we’ll come to those as we come through all of the different parts of this psalm. And even within those breakdowns, there’s things that David uses, different further subcategories that help him to come to a solid standing ground in the midst of his worry and fear. And we’ll see the significance of all those things as we come through this Psalm of David.

So I’m going to read Psalm 31 now, and then we’ll walk through all of these different portions of it. Psalm 31. This is the word of the Lord. For the choir director, a Psalm of David. In you, O Yahweh, I have taken refuge. Let me never be ashamed. In your righteousness, protect me. Incline your ear to me. Deliver me quickly. Be to me a rock of strength, a fortress to save me. For you are my high rock and my fortress. For your name’s sake, you will lead me and guide me. You will bring me out of the net which they have secretly laid for me. For you are my strength. Into your hand I commit my spirit. You have ransomed me, O Yahweh, God of truth. I hate those who regard worthless idols, but I trust in you, Yahweh. I will rejoice and be glad in your loving kindness because you have seen my affliction. You have known the troubles of my soul. You have not given me over into the hand of the enemy. You have set my feet in a large place.

Be gracious to me, O Yahweh, for I am in distress. My eye is wasted away from grief, my soul and my body also. For my life is worn down with sorrow, and my years with sighing. My strength fails because of my iniquity, and my bones waste away. Among all my adversaries I have become a reproach, especially to my neighbors, an object of dread to my acquaintances. Those who see me in the street flee from me. I am forgotten like a dead man, out of mind. I am like a broken vessel, for I have heard the bad report of many. Terror is on every side. While they took counsel together against me, they schemed to take my life. But as for me, I trust in you, O Yahweh. I say, you are my God. My times are in your hand. Deliver me from the hand of my enemies and from those who pursue me.

Make your face to shine upon your slave. Save me in your loving kindness. Oh, Yahweh, let me not be put to shame, for I call upon you. Let the wicked be put to shame. Let them be silent and shield. Let the lying lips be mute, which speak arrogantly against the righteous with lofty pride and contempt. How great is your goodness. which you have stored up for those who fear you, which you have worked for those who take refuge in you. Before the sons of men, you hide them in the secret place of your presence. From the conspiracies of man, you keep them secretly in a shelter from the strife of tongues. Blessed be Yahweh, for he has made marvelous his loving kindness to me in a besieged city. As for me, I said in my alarm, I am cut off from before your eyes. Nevertheless, you heard the voice of my supplications when I cried to you for help. Oh, love Yahweh, all you his holy ones. Yahweh guards the faithful but repays fully the one who acts in lofty pride. Be strong and let your heart take courage, all you who wait for Yahweh.

That is Psalm 31. You can see it’s almost like a roller coaster. David starts up and comes down and goes back up. And this is the life of David’s emotions. This is what David feels. We see first of all in verses one through eight, David reminds himself of his position. David begins by reminding himself where he stands with God. And there’s a tone of confidence to David’s words here as he begins a lament psalm.

Worry and anxiety are a reality for everyone, even those who can be confident at times. And as we begin this, David is not sounding like an Eeyore here. He’s not down in the dumps. He’s feeling pretty good. He starts off riding pretty high. So first we see that David’s position is one that is in God’s protection, in God’s protection.

Verses 1-4, in you, O Yahweh, I have taken refuge. Let me never be ashamed. In your righteousness, protect me, incline your ear to me, deliver me quickly. Be to me a rock of strength, a fortress to save me. For you are my high rock and my fortress. For your namesake, you will lead me and guide me. You will bring me out of the net which they have secretly laid for me. You are my strength. David uses different images over and over to show that he is in God’s protection. He knows this.

He reminds himself that God is his protector. God is his fortress, his rock. He says he’s taken refuge in Yahweh. And because Yahweh is eager for righteousness to be done, David knows that God will save him, that he will grant him this escape that he is longing for. He says that God is his rock, his fortress. And then he asks God to be that for him. He says there in verse three, you are my high rock and my fortress. For your name’s sake, lead me and guide me. David knows he has God’s protection. David is confident.

And next we see that David’s position is one that is convinced of God’s reality. He’s convinced that God is real, that God is there, that God is hearing him. He says in verse five and six, into your hand I commit my spirit. You have ransomed me, oh Yahweh, God of truth. I hate those who regard worthless idols, but I trust in Yahweh. The beginning of this verse should sound familiar. It’s what Jesus quoted as he hung on the cross, was crucified and died, and breathed his last. Luke 23, 46, Jesus crying out with a loud voice said, Father, into your hands, I commit my spirit. And having said this, he breathed his last. Jesus quotes David’s words in Psalm 31. Into your hand, I commit my spirit.

This is a cry of confidence in the midst of overwhelming, agonizing pain. Christ hanging on the cross is confident that his father is still there. And he commits his spirit into his hands. Even though the father has poured out his wrath upon Christ on the cross, Jesus still says, into your hand, I commit my spirit. This is the words of David here in this introduction to his lament, his cry for help. And here in verse five, David calls God the God of truth. That’s why he can trust in this God. That’s why he can know that God is there and God will save him. He is the God of truth.

Some versions render it faithful God. And David contrasts that, the God of truth, with those who worship worthless idols. He says in verse 6, I hate those who regard worthless idols. David trusts in Yahweh, the God of Israel. He trusts in a real God who has really redeemed him and whose hand really holds his life. In verse 6, Again, he says, I hate those who regard worthless idols, but I trust in Yahweh.

Now, this is not something we like to think about or even hear, but David is actually reflecting God’s attitude here. This may sound harsh for David, the one who is a man after God’s own heart, for him to say, I hate those who regard worthless idols. Jonah says something similar to this in Jonah chapter 2. And some will tell you that God hates the sin but loves the sinner.

But Psalm 5 verse 5 says, the boastful shall not stand before your eyes. You, meaning God, you hate all workers of iniquity. So God does hate sin, and he also hates sinners. He hates workers of iniquity. And when David says, I hate those who regard worthless idols, those who worship things that are not God’s, he’s reflecting what we read in Isaiah when God puts those false gods on trial. And he compares himself to the vain idols that are all over Israel, that they worship instead of the one true God. And David’s reflecting God’s attitude towards idolatry and towards idolaters when he says, I hate those who regard worthless idols.

And although we see that David is still in distress, and we’ll see that in a moment, David is confident that God is hearing him, that God hears his pleas for God to be who God is. Next we see that David’s position is one that is found in God’s compassion. He is found in God’s compassion. Verse seven, I will rejoice and be glad in your loving kindness because you have seen my affliction. You know the troubles of my soul. David hasn’t even gotten to the point yet.

He hasn’t even gotten into the meat of his complaint and his cry for help, and yet he says, I will rejoice. I know I will rejoice and be glad in your loving kindness because you have seen my affliction. I know you have. And you have known the troubles of my soul. David knows he worships a God who hears him. You see, Yahweh, the God David worships, the God we worship, Yahweh is no distant or absent God. He’s not a God who wound up the universe and let it go and is watching from a distance. God is a very present God, a very present help in time of need.

And he says, you have seen my affliction and you have known the troubles of my soul. This is the God who is I am. And in Exodus chapter three, as God gives his name to Moses and calls him to go rescue the people, this is what Yahweh, the God of Israel, says. Exodus 3, 7, and Yahweh said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, and I have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sufferings. So after 400 years, in slavery, in Egypt, thinking that God has forgotten them, that God can’t hear them, that God doesn’t know what’s going on. God steps in and says, I see you. I see your afflictions. I’ve heard your cry. And David knows that the God in Exodus is the God he worships. And the God of Exodus is still being himself. Nothing is distant about our God. He’s always willing to come down and get his hands dirty in my troubles. He’s always willing to come and rescue us. And that’s David’s confidence.

And then we see that David’s position is also in God’s stability, in God’s stability. Verse 8 he says, and you have not given me over into the hand of my enemy. You have set my feet in a large place. You have not given me over. After his confidence, because you have seen my affliction, you have known my troubles, and you have not given me over. This is future still. Because David is still in the midst of his trouble. He is not saved from it yet, but he knows that God will not give him over. He says, you have not given me over into the hand of my enemy.

Instead, David says, you’ve made my feet to stand in a large place. There’s no dangerous footing or slippery slopes where David is standing. There’s plenty of room where he can stand and worship his God. And again, David is writing this song of lament to cry out to God about his worries and his anxieties and his fears. And while it seemed there’s many things that he does not have at this moment, the things he’s crying out and asking for, like safety, like deliverance, even though there’s a lot of things that he does not have, David reminds himself of what he does have. Before he even gets into his request, He reminds himself of what he has in God. And David reminds himself that he has God’s protection, that he’s confident in God’s reality, that he has God’s compassion, and that he knows of God’s stability.

And I think this is really instructive to us. When we come to God with our requests, when we are struggling with our own fear and our own worry and our own anxiety, and we ask God for help, when we come to God in prayer, we first ought to remind ourselves and thank God for who he is. And make a list. Don’t just be general. God, I thank you for who you are. Make a list of the great benefits that God is for you. Things like David just listed off. This is what God has already given to me. These are the things that God has already made a reality in my life. Therefore, I know he is the one I can come to. God has already shown me that he loves me, and I know he will hear me when I cry out to him in my trouble.”

That’s what David has said, and that’s before David even gets to our next section, which is David’s trouble, verses 9 through 13. And here, the tone changes a bit. His trouble seems a lot more intense as we come to verse 9. And there can be many causes for our distress and our trouble. and our fear and worry and anxiety. There’s a lot of things that can lead to that, as it does for David, and we see that here.

And the first part of David’s trouble is his exhaustion. David is exhausted. Verses nine and 10, he says, be gracious to me, O Yahweh, for I am in distress. My eye is wasted away from grief. My soul and my body also, for my life is worn down with sorrow, and my years with sighing. My strength fails because of my iniquity, and my bones waste away.” This is not a new pop-up trouble for David. This isn’t something that just happened this afternoon. David’s been dealing with this for a while. David has been eaten away by this. This has been a long time that David struggled with these things. He says, his eye and his bones have wasted away. We see David use this language elsewhere.

In Psalm 6, verse 7, he says, my eye has wasted away with grief. It has become old because of my adversaries. You see, our troubles in life, our stress, our anxiety, our worry, it takes a physical toll on us. It wears down our bodies. And David is communicating that. He is exhausted because of this trouble that he’s in. Verse 10, it says, he’s worn down with sorrow. He’s physically and emotionally worn out. His bones are wasting away. And he even says, my iniquity, my iniquity has played a part in this. My strength fails because of my iniquity.

Now it’s hard to say exactly what David is referring to here, whether it’s one particular sin that he’s had all this exhaustion and trouble over, or if it’s just his sinful condition. that he is struggling with his sin nature, and that’s what’s led to this spot in life. He does describe a lot of external things, but here David is clear that his own sin is taking a toll on him. His sin is wearing him out. My strength fails because of my iniquity.

And the next aspect of David’s trouble after his exhaustion is isolation. Isolation, verses 11 and 12. Among all my adversaries, I have become a reproach, especially to my neighbors, and an object of dread to my acquaintances. Those who see me in the street flee from me. I am forgotten like a dead man, out of mind. I am like a broken vessel. So not only is David exhausted physically and emotionally, but he is excluded socially. He is left out. And it makes sense at the beginning of verse 11 where he says, among all my adversaries, I have become a reproach.

Well, yeah, your enemies are going to reproach you. You should understand the mockery of your enemies. But David goes on and he says he’s receiving the same treatment from his neighbors and his friends. In fact, all those who have contact with him flee from him. He says he’s like a dead man to them. He’s forgotten, he’s out of mind. And isolation and loneliness can be a devastating and painful reality. Loneliness really takes its toll on us. And whether these things that David is describing are the reality of the situation, or maybe it’s just his perception. Because when you’re battling loneliness, sometimes it feels like everybody hates you. Like nobody in the world wants anything to do with you.

And I think that’s what David is showing us here. The feelings he has over this loneliness and this isolation, that everybody runs from it. that everyone thinks of him like a dead man, that he’s just already forgotten. And many, many people battle with loneliness and isolation for many different reasons. And we can see David He struggles with it too. He reveals his heart about the feelings he battles of these things, like loneliness and isolation.

And not only does David battle exhaustion and isolation, next we see intimidation. Intimidation in verse 13. He says, for I have heard the bad report of many. Terror is on every side. While they took counsel together against me, and they schemed to take my life, David’s enemies, and as he just mentioned, his acquaintances, his neighbors. Terror is on every side, and they are conspiring against him. They cause him to fear. Terror is everywhere. Everywhere he looks, he’s afraid. They’re scheming to take his life. Whether this is just a frightening suggestion that he’s heard or an actual conspiracy, because we know David faced that too. David’s life was attempted to be taken on more than one occasion. His enemies are creating nothing but fear for him. He has no one to turn to. Terror is on every side. And this is terrible distress for David.

This is David’s situation, his condition. This is what he’s living in. When you live in this, sometimes it feels like there’s no way out of it. Exhaustion, isolation, and intimidation can be vicious. And David pours out his heart in a raw and emotional way here. And remember, this is a part of David’s prayer. This is what he told God. This is what he’s crying out to God. Remember, you’re not the audience of this psalm, God is. We’re just eavesdropping on David’s conversation.

But that should give us confidence. Because often we won’t say things like this out loud. When somebody asks you how you’re doing, you’re not gonna sound like this. You say, I’m doing all right. I’m fine. But inside you might be feeling these verses. You might be right where David is. And just like David, we can bring these things to God and we can be real with God because God knows our heart anyway. This is David’s trouble in all of its severity and sadness and awfulness.

Yet, how blessed is he that he actually does have someone to go to? He does have the freedom to tell God what he actually feels. He doesn’t have to walk on eggshells when he’s talking to God. He can tell him what he’s actually feeling, and so can we. Even if it turns out not to be the truth, we can tell God what we actually feel like. We are a privileged people when we can pour out our hearts to God. We have somebody who hears us. Because unbelievers don’t. And unbelievers feel these things too. And who are they to go to? We have someone who hears us. That’s a motivation for evangelism. To give you somebody to go to in times like this.

So we’ve seen David’s position, that he’s confident in who God is, and yet, we see David’s trouble, the fear and the anxiety and the terror that he faces. And then we come to verse 14, we see David’s help in verses 14 through 20. And a section like this might seem like it covers sort of the same ground as verses one through eight, but it doesn’t, it’s different. David goes into a fuller, detailed description of the God that he worships and his confidence in his salvation. And really, this is a what-to-do section of this psalm. What do we do when we are battling fear and worry and anxiety? What are the things that we are supposed to do? And in this section, we see five resources from God that David can hold onto. Five things that can pull David out of this fear and worry.

And the first thing we see that David can hold on to is God’s promises. And all these things that David can hold on to, if you’re a believer, you can hold on to them too. Number one is God’s promises. In verse 14, but as for me, I trust in you, O Yahweh. I say, you are my God. In lament Psalms, you often see a turning point. And this is the turning point, verse 14. You see at the beginning there that construction, as for me, that’s a emphatic use of the personal pronoun. That’s like saying I, even I, despite everything that I’m in, all of the things that I just explained, even I trust in you. Even though I’m battling worry and fear, and they’re gonna take my life, and there’s terror all around me, and my bones and my eyes wasting away, even I trust in you. And notice what he says. I say, you are my God.

This is the language that reflects God’s covenant promise to Abraham. Because back in Genesis 17, when God made the covenant with Abraham, this is what he says. And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your seed after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant to be God to you and to your seed after you. That’s the promise. I promise to be your God and to be your seed after you, their God as well. I will be God to you.” And that’s what David’s reminding himself of. You are my God. That’s why he says, speaking to God, he says, I will say you are my God. He’s reminding himself, I will say you are my God. The significance of this promise in the Abrahamic covenant is it’s significance.

One commenter describes it this way, and I’m just gonna read the way he describes it, because he does it so well. And speaking on this covenant with Abraham, he says this, I will be your God. What does that mean? It means that God is saying to Abraham, I will be for you. I will exist for you. I will exercise my Godness for you. I will be committed to you. There’s no way that can be improved upon. There is no more glorious promise. Not in Romans, not in Hebrews, not in Revelation, not in the Gospel of John, not in the upper room, nowhere. These words of the Abrahamic covenant have never been excelled and never will. I will be your God. That’s what’s packed into that phrase.

The God of the universe. speaks to us, says, I’ll be your God. And it’s only because that he says to us, I will be your God, that we can say what David says, that you are my God. It’s like 1 John 4, 19. We love him because he first loved us. Not one person on this earth would ever say, You are my God, unless God first says, I will be your God, that’s a promise, and I’m gonna make sure it happens. I’m gonna bring you to myself. I’m gonna make it so in your heart. God says, I will be God to you, and David’s reminding himself of that. We respond, yes, to God’s promise that I will be God to you. You are my God are responsive words.

And next we see what David can hold on to. And that is he can hold on to God’s hand. We already saw in verse five, he commits his spirit to God’s hand. And here in verse 15, he says, my times are in your hand. Deliver me from the hand of my enemies and from those who pursue me. David is trusting in God’s providence here. When he speaks of times, he doesn’t just mean his lifespan. He’s speaking about the times that I’m in right now, the times of verses 9 through 13, all of this distress. He says, even that is in your hand. Saying, God, you are sovereign over even these terrible times. God is sovereign over David’s despair. All of the things that he was seeing, that there’s terror all around him, his neighbors, his acquaintances, they flee from him. There are those who are plotting to take my life. All those things, God’s in control of it. My times, even these times, are in your hand.

And yet, just after saying those words, he says, deliver me. Deliver me from the hand of my enemies. My times are in your hand, deliver me from the hand of my enemies. This is the confidence that the sovereignty of God gives us. Because if God is sovereign over our suffering, if our suffering even comes from God, then he’s the one who can end it. He’s the one we can go to to deliver us from it. If God wasn’t sovereign over suffering, we would have no guarantee that he could deliver us from the suffering. But he is, and he can.

This prayer has been prayed many times by God’s people. God, I know you’re sovereign over my times. Deliver me from my times. One example, going back to the Reformation, Ulrich Zwingli. He was a reformer in Zurich. And he was visiting his people and trying to console the sick and dying as the plague was sweeping through Europe. This plague came to Zurich in August of 1519, and by the fall of that year, so a few months later, Zwingli caught the plague because he was ministering to his people. And while he was lying on his deathbed, staring death in the face, Zwingli prayed this, do as you will, for I lack nothing. I am your vessel to be restored or destroyed.” That’s confidence in the sovereignty of God. God is sovereign over even our worst times, so he’s the one we should go to for deliverance from them.

And David can hold on to God’s promises and he can hold on to God’s hand, and he can also hold on to God’s grace. to God’s grace. Verse 16, he says, make your face to shine upon your slaves. Save me in your loving kindness. Now this verse picks up on the priestly benediction in Numbers, chapter six, where it says, the Lord bless you and keep you. Make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you and lift up his face upon you and give you peace. This was part of the blessing of the priests regularly in the worship of Israel. And no doubt David had heard this many times as he worshiped God in the tabernacle.

He’d heard this pronounced over the people, God’s own words coming from the Word of God, often sung by the people of God. And now, in the middle of his trouble, he asked God for that very thing. That very thing he heard about in the tabernacle. The very thing he read about in God’s word. To let his face shine upon him. Or another way to say it, God, smile upon me. Show grace to me. David heard that in the sanctuary, in the tabernacle.

And isn’t that sometimes the way God brings his grace to us? By bringing to our memory a line from a hymn. or a prayer or a song, something that we heard in church as we were worshiping God. As one author said, “sometimes it can be something from the sanctuary that fortifies us for the darkness.” So don’t take our time of singing together in worship lightly. That may be the very thing that gets you through the darkest times, is the words that we sing on a Sunday morning or on a Sunday night. So we can hold on to God’s grace.

And fourthly, David can hold on to God’s justice. Verses 17 and 18, he says, O Yahweh, let me not be put to shame, for I call upon you. Let the wicked be put to shame. Let them be silent in Sheol. Let the lying lips be mute, which speak arrogantly against the righteous with lofty pride and contempt. One of the common problems with the wicked, as you read Psalms and Proverbs, one of the common problems with the wicked is their mouth, the words they say. Yeah, they can inflict harm in their actions, but David’s focus here is not on what they do, but what they say. But David says, if they’re in the grave, that will shut them up. He says, let the wicked be put to shame.

Let them be silent in Sheol. That’s the grave. Let them be dead. The grave has a way of quieting all of their mocking and accusations and threats. And that’s what David is facing. And now sometimes we might think that David’s being a little harsh here because we often think of ourselves as a little kinder than David. But David knows that God’s people will never have relief unless the wicked are silenced. And the reality for every Christian is that is our hope one day, that Christ will come back and silence the wicked.

The fifth thing David can hold onto is God’s riches. God’s riches in verses 19 and 20. How great is your goodness. which you have stored up for those who fear you, which you have worked for those who take refuge in you before the sons of men. You hide them in the secret place of your presence. From the conspiracies of man, you keep them secretly in a shelter from the strife of tongues.” David is counting up the resources he has in God. And he says, how great is your goodness. How great are the resources you have for your people. And he says, you’ve stored those things up for those who fear you.

It’s like God is squirreling away stockpiles of this goodness for us. And he’s hidden them away, but it doesn’t remain hidden. He works it out for those who take refuge in him. He stores it up, but then he works it out when his people need it most. He works it out for those who take refuge in Him. Romans 8, 28, anybody? God works things together for our good, for those who love Him, for those who take refuge in Him. So this goodness is stored up in God’s reserves, but then He works it out in our experience.

And one of the ways that His goodness is worked out David says, is in the protection from the conspiracies of man and the strife of tongues. He’s summarizing everything he explained that he’s suffering from. And this is all under the umbrella that David starts with. How great is your goodness, which you have stored up for those who fear you. God has secret treasures of goodness that we don’t even know about. we’re not even aware of, hidden away, ready to be used on your behalf when you need it most. So in our troubles, in our distress, in our worry and fear and anxiety, like David, we can remember the resources we have in God. Because David remembers he can hold on to God’s promises. to God’s hand, to God’s grace, to God’s justice, and to God’s riches.

That is David’s help. We have these resources in place so that when we face the darkest times like David is, those resources are stored up for us. And sometimes they’re hidden from our sight until we need it the most. That’s how the grace of God works. Even when we’re anxious. His mercy is more than anything we face.

Which brings us to the fourth and final division of this psalm, David’s testimony. David has voiced his complaint, the distress and trouble that he faces. And he’s reminded himself of who his help is and now we hear David’s testimony and his words to us. There’s two parts to his testimony. First, he speaks of the Lord’s goodness. Verses 21 and 22, he says, blessed be Yahweh. This is where the focus of his words changes from speaking to God to speaking to his reader. Blessed be Yahweh, for he has made marvelous his loving kindness to me in a besieged city. As for me, I said in my alarm, I am cut off from before your eyes. Nevertheless, you heard the voice of my supplications when I cried to you for help.”

David confesses his own panic here. David has no inflated view of his faith here. He’s not saying, yeah, it seemed bad, but I was all good. I had it under control the whole time. No. He says, I said in my alarm. I am cut off from before your eyes.” That’s like us today saying, I’m not a Christian anymore. I’ve lost my salvation. I’m cut off from God. And the best word of this whole psalm, nevertheless. Nevertheless. Even when David’s faith had failed, nevertheless. God pulled him out. God heard his cry, his distress, and he helped him.

David is genuinely terrified here. This is worry and anxiety and fear. And even though he feared that he’d been cut off from God, or that God hadn’t or wouldn’t spare him, God saved him anyways. Because our salvation is not dependent on our worthiness. Our salvation isn’t dependent on the strength of our faith, as if it’s up to our own strength to come to Christ and remain in Christ. No, God reaches down to us in the midst of our own mess and our own sin, and he saves us and he keeps us. Yes, we do come to him by faith. But we come to him by the faith that he gives us, in spite of our weakness. Nevertheless.

And then, because of God’s intervention for him, David turns to the people. And he has words for the people, for us, as we read his words. Verses 23 and 24. Oh, love Yahweh. all you His holy ones. Yahweh guards the faithful, but repays fully the one who acts in lofty pride. Be strong and let your heart take courage, all you who wait for Yahweh.

Oh, love Yahweh, all you His holy ones. Love Him. How could you not love Him? David brings us a demand here. A necessary response that we must make. Love Yahweh, all his holy ones. It’s as if David says, if you have the kind of God that Yahweh has shown himself to be over and over and over again, what must you do? Love him. It’s the only response we can have. Loving God is the basic response to His covenant with us.

In Deuteronomy chapter 10, Moses tells the people as he’s challenging them to keep the covenant God made with them. Deuteronomy 10, 12 and 13, so now Israel, what does Yahweh your God ask from you? You have this covenant. what’s required of you now, but to fear Yahweh your God and to walk in all His ways and love Him. Fear Him, obey Him, love Him. That’s our duty, because of who God is. And how do we do that? Deuteronomy goes on, and to serve Yahweh your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and to keep the commandments of Yahweh and His statutes which I am commanding you today, for your good.

That’s how you love God. When David says, love Him, that’s how we do it. Loving God is the ground level, first commandment, beginner Christianity stuff. We love God and it’s often more significant than we realize. Yes, we need to keep His commandments. We need to obey Him, but we do that because we love Him. Because of how great He is and how good He is to us. Because of all the storehouses of His goodness that He’s just waiting to work out in our lives. Because of that, we love Him.

So how do we handle our anxiety and our fear and our worry? that we do have, and I know that you have, because I have it too. What do we do when we are burdened with these things? We remember our loving God, as David did. We remember the resources we have at our disposal because of who God is. And we do like David and like Christ did on the cross, into your hand. I commit my spirit. You have ransomed me, O Yahweh, God of truth.”

We commit our spirit into the hand of our great and loving God. We trust that God is sovereign over my circumstances, the circumstances that have led me to worry and fear and anxiety, and we ask him to deliver us from them. We trust in his goodness, that he is waiting for us.

So if you do not yet know Christ, you need to come to Him today. You need to trust Christ as your Savior from the punishment of your sins. And if you do know Christ, commit your spirit into His loving care. Even in the midst of our worry and fear, remember who your God is.

If you’re able to, let’s stand and close in a word of prayer this evening. Our Father God in heaven, we are just so thankful for your word that speaks to our real situations. We do struggle with worry and fear and anxiety. We are a weak and needy people. And even though we know that you are sovereign and you are good, we still battle these things. We thank you for something like Psalm 31 that teaches us where we can go and what we should do in the midst of these sometimes even crippling fear and worry and anxiety. God, we thank you for your goodness. We thank you that we can trust you and that we can commit our spirit into your hands. I pray that we would take this with us this evening as we leave here, that we would bring your word with us so that it will comfort us and it will guide us when we face the toughest of times. Lord, we thank you for who you are and we pray all these things in Christ’s precious name. Amen.