"For You are my rock and my fortress; therefore, for Your name’s sake, lead me and guide me" (Psalm 31:3).
David offers a prayer of thanksgiving in Psalm 31 for God’s faithfulness in protecting him throughout his life. Like David, we also rely completely on God’s strength, even though at times we do not recognize this. While God protects us in our various trials in this life, we enjoy His refuge even beyond the grave. Those who are in Christ Jesus are protected spiritually in that nothing can separate us from His gracious love.
Commenting on this psalm Calvin wrote, “We must therefore put our life into God’s hand, not only that He may keep it safely in this world, but also that He may preserve it from destruction in death itself, as Christ’s own example has taught us.… This is a general prayer, therefore, in which the faithful commit their lives to God, first that He may protect them by His power, so long as they are exposed to the dangers of this world; and, secondly, that He may preserve them safe in the grave, where nothing is to be seen but destruction. We ought further to assure ourselves that we are not forsaken of God either in life or in death; for those whom God brings safely by His power to the end of their course, He at last receives to Himself at their death.”
The hope of every Christian is that one day they will see God face to face and escape the torments of hell. This is not a vain hope because it is founded on the very promises of God, who says He will redeem His people and bring them into safe pasture. Those who believe in Jesus Christ will surely be saved.
Therefore, God’s people ought not to torment themselves with worries and anxieties. We need not fear the struggles of this life or the terrors of the grave. David here praises God for deliverances from temporal struggles, but we can learn from Paul who transfers this theme to eternal salvation: “I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him” (2 Tim. 1:12). If David derived so much confidence from temporal deliverance, how ungrateful we would be if the redemption purchased by Christ does not furnish us with courage against all of Satan’s schemes. Let us then dwell on God’s faithfulness, knowing that “the LORD preserves the faithful” (Psalm 31:23–24).
It is possible to be secure in salvation without feeling secure, but how much better when the fact is accompanied by experience. Read again Psalm 31:14–15a. Ask God to give you a measure of trust in Him such that you can affirm before people that God holds your times—all of them—in His hands.
