Please turn with me to the word of God, book of Psalms, we shall read Psalm 31 and then again we shall read a few verses in Luke 23, Psalm 31. In you, O Lord, do I take refuge. Let me never be put to shame. In your righteousness, deliver me. Incline your ear to me. Rescue me speedily. Be a rock of refuge for me. A strong fortress to save me. For you are my rock and my fortress. And for your name's sakes, you lead me and guide me. You take me out of the net they have hidden for me, for you are my refuge. Into your hand I commit my spirit. You have redeemed me, O Lord, faithful God. I hate those who pay regard to worldless idols, but I trust in the Lord. I will rejoice and be glad in your steadfast love because you have seen my affliction. You have known the distress of my soul and you have not delivered me into the hand of the enemy. You have set my feet in a broad place. Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am in distress. My eye is wasted from grief, my soul and my body also. For my life is spent with sorrow and my ears with sighing. My strength fails because of my iniquity and my bones waste away. Because of 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've been forgotten like one who is dead. I have become like a broken vessel, for I hear the whispering of many, Terror on every side as they skim together against me, as they plot to take my life. But I trust in you, O Lord. I say, you are my God. My times are in your hand. Rescue me from the hand of my enemies and from my persecutors. Make your face shine on your servant. Save me in your steadfast love. O Lord, let me not be put to shame, for I call upon you. Let the wicked be put to shame. Let them go silently to Sheol. Let the lying lips be mute, which speak insolently against the righteous in pride and contempt. Oh, how abundant is your goodness, which you have stored up for those who fear you and work for those who take refuge in you in the sight of the children of mankind. In the cover of your presence you hide them from the plots of men. You store them in your shelter from the strife of tongues. Blessed be the Lord, for he has wondrously shown his steadfast love to me when I was in a beseeched city. I had said in my alarm, I am cut off from your sight, but you heard the voice of my pleas for mercy when I cried to you for help. Love the Lord, all you his saints. The Lord preserves the faithful, but abundantly repays the one who acts in pride. Be strong, and let your heart take courage, all you who wait for the Lord. Let's now turn to Luke 23. We shall read from verse 44 through verse 49. Luke 23, from verse 44. It was now about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour, while the sun's light failed, and the curtain of the temple was torn in two. Then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, Father, into your hands I commit my spirit. And having said this, he breathed his lust. Now when the centurion saw what had taken place, he praised God, saying, certainly this man was innocent. and all the crowds that had assembled for this spectacle when they saw what had taken place returned home beating their breasts and all his acquaintances and the women who had followed him from Galilee stood at the distance watching these things thus far the reading of God's word I would like to focus our attention on the words of Luke 23, 46, the first part of the verse, words that are a quotation from Psalm 31, verse 5. And I would like to consider with you the last words, or the seventh word of Jesus from the cross. We know that everything is now finished. The sixth word of Jesus from the cross was, it is finished. On the cross, the Son of God obeyed the commandment that he received from God the Father. And as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, now, at this point, he lays down his life to take it up again soon. Jesus fulfilled God's eternal purpose. He satisfied God's law in order to bestow God's grace to sinners as ourselves. And now, at the end of his work on earth, Jesus mentions the words of Psalm 31, verse 5. And it is important that we note that even though Jesus quotes only these few words from verse 5, the first part, we need to keep in mind that the whole psalm is important As Jesus is identifying himself with the sufferings of the righteous one about whom Psalm 31 speaks. And as we know, the Psalter is Jesus' prayer book. And now Jesus thinks about this psalm concerning the suffering and righteous one. And he applies the psalm to himself, even though he only mentions a few words from the psalm. understand the meaning of the last words of Jesus from the cross, considering that this quotation from Psalm 31 is not just the fulfillment of a small detail concerning the person of the righteous one, but rather it is a fulfillment of all that it's being said about the righteous one in the psalm. We have read that the suffering and righteous one is threatened by evil all around. And yet, he does not concentrate himself on his mortal enemies. He is not concentrated on the sufferings that his enemies are causing to him. But rather, he is trusting in God and in his promise of deliverance. And even though he is surrounded by death, he looks at the promise of life given to those who fear God's name. And in spite of the fact that before man, the suffering and righteous one is like a broken vessel, he waits patiently for a divine intervention because he knows that all his times are in God's hands. It is for all these reasons, and for many others, we don't have time to consider. It is for all these reasons that Jesus makes the whole psalm his own and applies it to his passion, praying victoriously, not looking at his enemies and to the evil he had to suffer, but rather he looks to God and to his promises. Therefore, let us think about the meaning of these words as we consider the benefits of our salvation and learn to pray as Jesus prayed. And first of all, considering these words of Jesus from the cross, we understand that we have before us a prayer. Jesus is praying using the words of Psalm 31. And Jesus' prayer is fully human. It is an anthropological prayer. Why? Well, a number of scholars observed that this verse of Psalm 31, verse 5, is part of the invocation that the Jews learned to pray before going to bed in the evening. So, since their childhood, the sons of Abraham repeated these words, Adonai, into your hand I commit my spirit, every evening before going to bed. And it is interesting to notice that the last thing on which Jesus concentrates his mind while he is on the cross is not an important and explicit messianic passage. In the previous six words of Jesus from the cross, we have a number of important references or allusions to passages such as Isaiah 53 or Daniel 7.13 where the prophet speaks about the son of man. Or we have a number of allusions and even quotations to Psalm 22. Important messianic passages. But now Jesus prays the prayer of the common man. Jesus now prays the prayer of the common Israelite. Jesus' prayer is absolutely and fully human. It is an anthropological prayer. It is the prayer of the child who is afraid of darkness and trusts in God before going to bed. Into your hand, I commit my spirit. I don't know about you but I remember when I was a kid and when it was time to go to bed I was a little scared I was afraid of darkness it is the prayer of the lone woman afflicted by the frustrations of life it is the prayer of the man who must toil in pain as every day he struggles with thorns and fistals as he goes about to do his labor. It is the prayer of the old man and of the old woman preparing to breathe their last breath. Into your hand, I commit my spirit. It's a human prayer, what we have before us. Jesus Christ is completely human. And as a theologian observed, for once, we had better omit the capital letter and write with a lowercase letter, Son of Man. Because in the last analysis, this statement means nothing more than man. Jesus' prayer from the cross is an anthropological prayer. But Jesus, as he prays, as a man, as the common man, as a child of Israel, prays focusing his heart and his mind on God. So, this anthropological prayer becomes a theological prayer, a prayer centered on God himself. We consider that the words of Psalm 31, 5 were taught to little kids and they repeated those words every evening before going to bed. So, the Lord of life is before the evening of his humiliation in the days of his flesh. And he prays as a little son of Israel, using the usual words of common men, as he is approaching the darkness of death. But we must be careful. We must be careful, and that's why we read the whole of Psalm 31. We must be careful because Jesus' prayer, Jesus' cry, is not a cry of frustration or resignation before death, But rather it is the fervent cry of the man who looks in faith to God and to his promises. It is not the reality of death to have central stage in the sin, both in Psalm 31 and in Luke 23. It is not death to be at the center, but it is God who is at the center, both in the Psalm and here in Luke 23. That's why in quoting these words from Psalm 31, Jesus addresses God calling him Father. Father, into your hands I commit my spirit. Now, even though in the Old Testament the bond between father and son is an analogy that describes the relationship between God and his people, it seems that never in the Jewish Bible and in Jewish prayers or liturgies, it seems that never the Israelites address God, calling him Father. But Jesus, the only Son who is in the bosom of the Father, Jesus, the Son who knows the Father and who is one with him, prays absolutely in theocentric terms. Jesus' prayer is a theological prayer. In fact, as we read in Psalm 31, the suffering and righteous one does not concentrate on his enemies nor on his circumstances not even on his own fears but he looks to God because he knows that God is the overflowing fountain of all good and because he prays in this theological manner Jesus commits himself completely into the hands of God. Jesus commits himself into the hands of God because he knows that God's hands created the universe. He knows that God's hands rule history and guide the steps of man. We heard that also in the pastoral prayer a while ago. All our times are in the hands of God. He knows that God's hands restrain the power of darkness. The righteous one knows that God's hands are more powerful than the hands of his own enemies. Jesus knows that God's hands take care of those who fear his name. So that all things must work for their spiritual and eternal blessing. Now, at times, because of our little faith, we tend to forget God and the work of his hands. And we make a great mistake taking things into our own hands. And the result is that we make a mess. How many times in our life we made a mess? Because we took things into our own hands. And we forgot about God. We forgot about his promises. We forgot about the work of God's hands. But tonight, as we look to our suffering and righteous Savior for pardon and justification, let us learn from him to hide ourselves in God. Praying as a small Israelite, committing our spirit into the hands of God. Because God is the master of the universe. And he cares for us. So Jesus prays as a man in anthropological terms, concentrating his mind on God. And concentrating his mind especially on God's promises. And therefore, this prayer of Jesus is also an eschatological prayer. Now that his hour is passed, is gone. Now that his work is finished. Now, as we read in Luke 23, Now that the darkness of God's desertion are lifted up, our Redeemer looks at the promise of life. And we have a hint of this hope, of this faith in the promise of life in this quotation of Psalm 31. Jesus knows that the new creation is coming to life. And as the prince of life, Jesus with these very words prepares himself to become the firstborn of those who have fallen asleep. Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit. Jesus is looking at his own resurrection. And therefore, his prayer is an eschatological prayer. In the Gospel of Luke, we have previously a number of occasions in which Jesus spoke or speaks openly about his own resurrection. For instance, Luke 9.22, Luke 18.33, 22.69, it is not the first time that Jesus is thinking about his own death but looking to his own resurrection. The two are always connected together. Death that brings about life. So now, at the very end of the work the Father gave him to do, Jesus dies with a loud cry of faith. And we must notice carefully that this cry of faith is not expressed by Jesus because he is in the face of death. Jesus' faith in God doesn't relate only to his own death. But it relates especially to his own resurrection. It is a faith in God as he is looking to God's promise of life, of deliverance, as we read in Psalm 31. And I use the words of a commentator who explains, as he faces death Jesus expresses his trust that God will take care of him in fact this is a call to God to resurrect him Jesus is not only trusting in God as he faces death but he is praying an eschatological prayer calling God to resurrect him. In this passage here in Luke 23, 47, it is as if Jesus is expressing the same idea when he prayed in John 17 after the farewell discourse with his disciples when he said, And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed. This is what Jesus is thinking about. To the glory he had with the Father before the world existed. And using the prayer of the common man concentrating his thinking on God and on his promises he prays in the light of the promise of life as the firstborn of the new creation of God. So Jesus is not simply praying, quoting Psalm 31.5, as a man who is exhaling his last breath. He is praying as the Son of God, as the firstborn of the dead. looking at the promise of life, looking to the inauguration of the new heavens and of the new earth. So, brothers and sisters, let us listen carefully at the last word of Jesus from the cross. And let us learn to pray as a little Israelite, Trusting in God as we live in time in the life of eternity to the day of our own death, the day in which we will fully, completely, perfectly live the life of the resurrection because of the resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.