Who’s In Charge?
Into Your hand I commit my spirit; You have ransomed me, O Lord, God of truth. Psalm 31:5 NASB
I commit my spirit– Exodus 34:7. Yes, that’s right. The infamous verse about “visiting the iniquity of the fathers” uses the same verb we find here, pāqad. Speiser writes, “There is probably no other Hebrew verb that has caused translators as much trouble as pqd.”[1] TWOT notes that “the basic meaning is to exercise oversight over a subordinate, either in the form of inspecting or of taking action to cause a considerable change in the circumstances of the subordinate, either for the better or for the worse.”[2] It is the function of oversight that matters here. The translation, “commit,” obscures this fact. This is not a pledge or a dedication, like signing a treaty. Here “commit” means allowing God full oversight of my existence. In simple terms, He’s the boss of my breath.
“Spirit” translates rûaḥ, the animating force that provides me with life. It’s interesting that David does not choose nepeš (usually translated “soul”). Nephesh (how its pronounced) is the Hebrew collective noun for person, but David isn’t concerned with the full collective of his being in the world. He’s focused on the “life-force” of existence, the direct connection to God’s decision to create humankind in Genesis 1:26. If God is not the overseer of what is essentially His own breath, then God is not involved in the site im leben of my existence. He might be the originator but is not the producer. David rejects this. God has rescued. That is a fait accompli (as even the Greek tenses of the apostolic writings imply). Therefore, to be alive in God’s purpose is to be under His oversight. David and you and I declare this to be true. To live is to breathe His breath through us. As David says, this is ʾĕmet (truth). Perhaps we should nod our linguistic hats to the fact that ʾĕmet is about reliability and faithfulness. Once again David circles back to the beginning. It’s all about God’s character. He is the rescuer, the faithful One, the One who oversees what He created with His own breath. He will not let it become useless.
David knows this fact experientially because he has already been ransomed. We might also translate the verse with “rescue” or “deliver.” But ransom is a very useful term because it is not exactly what we expected. In our culture, we would like David to say something like “You saved me” or “You delivered me.” Ransom isn’t a prominent feature of our way of understanding salvation. It comes from the times of slavery. The verb is pādâ, basically, to “transfer of ownership from one to another through payment of a price or an equivalent substitute.”[3] The key event establishing its meaning is the exodus. We think of the exodus as God’s redemption or deliverance, but the use of pādâ concerning the watershed in Israel’s identity proclaims that God ransomed Israel from slavery at the cost of every first born. God paid for Israel’s release. This foundation stands behind the idea that something (or someone) dedicated to YHVH could no longer be redeemed, that is, returned to ordinary existence because that thing was already purchased by God. The application to Israel itself is found in Deuteronomy 15:15, “You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt and the Lord your God redeemed you …,” that is, you were ransomed from Egypt. David puts this long etymological history to use in this song by personally and collectively recalling God’s character in the act of the exodus. How does David know that he can safely submit to God’s oversight? Because of the history of God and His people.
There is a crucially important lesson here. It is simply this: without the history, there is little to convince us that God will exercise faithful care over us. Remove the history, personally or corporately, and you remove the God of Israel.
Topical Index: pāqad, oversight, pādâ, ransom, Psalm 31:5
[1]Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament. 1999 (R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer, Jr. & B. K. Waltke, Ed.) (electronic ed.) (731).
[3]Coker, W. B. (1999). 1734 פָּדָה. Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament(R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer, Jr. & B. K. Waltke, Ed.) (electronic ed.) (716).
I will respond quickly here due to little time this morning. I was sparked as I read TWOT. Sparked by the thought of faith in the finished work of Christ. We have been ransomed, past tense. We are trying to live so much of the time into getting somewhere instead of living into where we really are. While we look not on the things which are seen, for the things which are seen are temporal but the things which are not seen are eternal. Living into the finished work of Christ. Although it sounds fantastical, we can walk by faith on the water of His Word. Tuning into a different channel, so to speak! Looking not, on the things which are seen ! Abraham considered not….He Who promised was also able to perform ! We get all caught up in defining who we are by how we act instead of our actions resulting from believing who we are in Christ! God said it, I believe it, that settles it! We live as though we are trying to make something happen instead of living into something that has already occurred. Skip mentions being redeemed or ransomed from Egypt. Past tense. We live as thoughwe are trying to make something happen that has already taken place in Christ. It is for freedom that Christ has set us free, past tense, but maybe because of lack of faith or desire we don’t experience the reality of this freedom in our daily lives! We can rejoice today and move into what has already been accomplished in Christ! But the truth of it is so much of the time we are like a dog walking backwards, instead of the head leading, we are being led along by our senses instead of truth !
God help us !
Continuing to seek…. thanks so much, Skip! I feel fortunate to have connected to this community of seekers !
Wow, Skip, thanks for getting me to look stuff up! I need that challenge to the tendrils of complacency I still wrestle with. I really don’t know what I think I know…
-In Biblical criticism, Sitz im Leben (German pronunciation: [ˈzɪt͡s ɪm ˈle:bn̩]) is a German phrase roughly translating to “setting in life”. It stands for the alleged context in which a text, or object, has been created, and its function and purpose at that time.
-Before the sources which comprise the Pentateuch were written, they were transmitted orally, probably within the context of worship (their ‘Sitz im Leben’).
-Though sometimes rendered by phrases like “life setting”, “situation in life” etc. the German term Sitz im Leben is better translated by “sociological setting” or left untranslated. As a technical term, it refers to the social setting of a text, particularly in the Bible.
fait accompli: a thing that has already happened or been decided before those affected hear about it, leaving them with no option but to accept; an accomplished fact, something that has already occurred; a (colloquial American) “done deal”; a thing accomplished and presumably irreversible; a French phrase commonly used to describe an action which is completed before those affected by it are in a position to query or reverse it.
And, why oh why do I keep forgetting that I was ransomed?!? I am now YHVH’s servant/bondslave. I am NOT my own (Greek thinking wants me to forget this). His breath is mine, my breath is His, “the One who oversees what He created with His own breath. He will not let it become useless.” I’ll be breathing this today!
Our very lives belong to our Redeemer. David does not assume that there may be a possibility another probability even exists. No ‘independent’ humanism for him! We are spiritual ‘slave drives’ to a Master computer; either the so-called “god of this world” or the God of creation. Our very spirits were designed to be spiritually yoked (the connections of love) with other spiritual forces, but I believe our spiritual free will exists so that we can freely choose which spiritual force(s) that might be.
The idea of “ransomed” is distasteful to us who suffer from the humanist illusion that, inferentially speaking (because we have free will), it therefore follows that we ourselves are ‘free’ (independent spirits). Very Greek: but, I think, very wrong. I think we were designed to fit into a chain of spiritual command: either one side gets us or the other. “It may be the devil, or it may be the Lord”, sings Dylan, “but you’ve got to serve somebody”. Spiritually speaking, anyway. Body and soul (breath, too) to follow after, of course.
Spirit refers to life force in us. This spirit is what is said in scripture returns to God the giver thereof when we die.
Not the soul.
Now if God is the giver of the life force it actually directs us towards doing as the force empowers. That per se is what I understand is being anointed or Christ manifesting in us.
If this is true, then David could be commiting his soul towards doing as the spirit direct.. This concept of devoting unto the will of God would this then be the nazarene vow. The same vow it is said was found in the last three years of the lifestyle of Yeshau…
The later teachings aligned to this say that those led by the Spirit of God are sons and daughters of God. Those calling or trusting in the name or lifrstyle of Yeshau…
Would this be in line with what David is proclaiming here?