— J R Miller —
“Into thine hand I commit my spirit” (Psalm 31: 5a)

The same is true in its own measure in any human friendship. Think of the responsibility of being a friend! It is a sacred moment when God sends to you one to whom you are to be guide and guardian, one who trusts you, loves you, and comes under your influence. We are responsible for everything we do which may color, impress, or sway our new friend's life. If our influence is tainted, if we fail to be absolutely true in our words or acts—very serious will our accounting be when we stand before God.

So it is, when any of us commit our own life—to the love, the guiding care of another. Pure, wise, good, and rich human friendship is wondrously uplifting. But no human friend is perfect. None is wise enough to always choose the right things for us. None is wise enough to help us always in the truest and best ways. Some of the saddest wrecks in life, have come through mistakes in choosing friends. A gentle, unsuspecting girl trusts herself under the influence of one in whom she believes—but who proves unworthy, dragging her down to sorrow.

Then, even the sweetest and best human friends can stay with us only a little while. There is only one Friend to whom we can say with absolute confidence, “Into thine hand I commit my spirit unto the end, for you can guard me from stumbling and present me faultless before God at the last!” The hands of Christ are safe and sure, both for present and eternal keeping. I am glad I have a Friend who will take me as I am, make me what I ought to be, then guard and guide me through all possible experiences, and bring me at last to heaven’s gate without blemish.

Christ’s hands are eternal. They never will be folded in death’s stillness. Beautiful are those words in Deuteronomy, “Underneath are the everlasting arms” (Deut 33: 27). Human arms may be strong and gentle, and may hold us fast in love’s embrace today—but tomorrow they will be folded in the stillness of death, and we can find no comfort in them. One of the saddest things one ever sees—is a little child crying bitterly by its mother’s coffin. Heretofore the cry was never in vain—but now there is no answer. But the hands into which we are asked to commit the keeping of our lives—are everlasting!

“Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit” (Lk 23: 46). Jesus used these words when He was dying. He was about to pass into the strange mysteries of the valley of shadows. It was an unfamiliar way to Him—He had never gone that way before. But He was not afraid. So He said, “Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit.” That was all dying meant to Him. That is all dying will be to us—if we are in the keeping of Christ—only the breathing out of our spirit, into the hands of our Redeemer.

When we watch our friends passing out from us, it seems to us that they will be lonely, that they will be overwhelmed with the strangeness of the way. But no—a face like our own face—will beam its love upon them the moment the human faces vanish from their vision. A hand like our own hand—will clasp theirs the moment our hand lets go its clasp. We talk about the dark valley—but there is no dark valley for those who love Christ. Dying for a believer—is only coming up closer to Jesus Christ. We need not dread to lay our loved ones into His hands. He will take most gentle care of them, and will give them back to us in radiant beauty, when we come to the time of our home-going.

This is our lesson: for life, for death—we commit ourselves into the hands of Christ, our Redeemer. Life is full of danger—it is never easy to live in this world. It is never easy to send our children out into a world, of whose danger and evil we know so much and yet so little. Many a mother dreads to have her child go out from her safe and gentle home of love, even for an hour, to meet other children in the streets. The future is all dark to us. We know not what lies before us any moment. Here is the only ground of confidence and peace, “Into thine hand I commit my spirit.” Into Thine hand, all blessed Christ, I commit my dear ones, my friends. Into Thy hands, O Redeemer, I will commit my spirit as I enter the unseen world. “Into thine hand I commit my spirit: thou hast redeemed me, O LORD God of truth” (Ps 31: 5).

(Above article extracted from Gracegems website)