Our destiny is in God’s hands

Psalm 31:5-6, 14, 15-16. March 8, 2023 - Wednesday, 2nd Week of Lent

Psalm 31 is a petition in a time of crisis permeated by the trust. It is best read in reference to Jesus Christ and all the martyrs. According to the Gospel of Luke, verse 5, “into your hands I commit my spirit” were the last words spoken by Jesus before he died (Luke 23:46). The psalmist addresses his prayer to the Lord, and Jesus addresses that prayer to the Father. We find the same prayer on the lips of Saint Stephen, the first martyr. But he addresses it to the risen Christ: “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit” (see Acts 7:59).

The trust of the psalmist is commendable. Although surrounded by enemies that plan to take his life, he proclaims that his destiny is in the Lord. It reminds me of Jesus’ predictions of his passion. “The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him. And when he is killed, after three days he will rise” (Mark 9:31). Who was going to deliver Jesus into the hand men? On the historical level, it was Judas. But, Jesus made it clear that the cross came from the Father. When Peter tried to defend him, Jesus said: “shall I not drink the cup that the Father has given me” (John 18:11)?

Although our destiny is in God’s hands, our enemies are real and want to harm us. Therefore, we cry to the Lord to rescue us from their clutches. At the end of 2014, one of the bishops of Nigeria, Oliver Dashe Doeme, while praying in the chapel before the Blessed Sacrament had a vision of Christ. Jesus gave him a sword that turned into a rosary and three times said: “Boko Haram will disappear”. The bishop immediately realised that praying the rosary is the key to combatting that Islamic terrorist group. And so he began a rosary crusade that spread across the globe.

The words “into your hands I commend my spirit” entered the night prayer of the Divine Office. In Christian tradition, sleep is a metaphor for death. In this way, each night reminds us of death as human destiny. But, each morning we wake with the words of Psalm 51, “Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will proclaim your praise” (Ps 51:15). Jesus entered the sleep of death with the words, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit” (Luke 23:46). But, then on Easter morning, He rose from the grave to live forever. And as Saint Paul explains: “death no longer has dominion over him” (Rom 6:9). This is also our destiny.

Let us imitate the psalmist, Jesus, and all the martyrs and saints who committed their lives to God’s power and authority. Let us place our life and death in the hands of our Lord Jesus Christ trusting that he will rescue us from the clutches of our enemies of which the last one is death (see 1 Cor 15:26).