The Keeping Prayer

“It was now about noon, and darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon, while the sun’s light failed....Then Jesus, crying with a loud voice, said, ‘Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.’ Having said this, he breathed his last.” Luke 23:44-46 

As we approach the final week of Lent and enter into Holy Week, we sit with Jesus’ final words—“Father, into your hands I commend my spirit,” or as some translations say, “…I commit my spirit…” to God. The original Greek word defines “commend” as follows: To deposit as a trust for protection, to commit the keeping of something. As I ponder these words I realize that commending our spirit to God is something we can do in living as well as in dying. In fact, living a life commended to God’s safe-keeping in our ordinary days naturally will bring us to the truth that God also holds our spirit in our final hours, whether we are able to speak such words or not.  

Asking God to “keep me” is a prayer I prayed in years past as I worked through challenging seasons and transitions. When life felt like it was falling apart, I penned these words in my journal: “Lord, keep me grounded in you, turned toward the cross, open to your truth, hungry for your touch, resting in your will, speaking through your grace. Lord, tender my life today.” Even as I wrote that “keeping prayer,” I immediately realized that our culture doesn’t encourage us to turn over our lives to be kept by anyone else. Independence and self-determination laugh at the notion of giving ourselves to another and truly trusting that in this keeping we are safe.  

The blessing of “keeping” is rooted in the ancient Jewish priestly blessing that permeated the lives and religious tradition in that time, "The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you, the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace.” (Numbers 6:24-26). God offers us this intimate face-to-face connection that results in mutual delight and peace, regardless of the surrounding challenges or even the impending death that Jesus faced. The Hebrew word “keep” alludes to a narrow view, with a focus solely on a particular point, and that point is you and me, just as a parent gazes intently upon a new-born baby. 

I am a bit undone by God’s unabashed gaze, not because I’m afraid of what he might see in me, but because I’m unaccustomed to such attention. He treasures every moment of my life. My every breath is Divine gift. Along my journey God carries my burdens, relieves my worries, keeps attentive company with me every step of the way. And this reality doesn’t escape me: That in Jesus’s dying, I find new ways of living. That in his released spirit, I find my spirit kept and commended into the Father’s hands as well.  

The daily releasing of our pain, of our demands, of our self-comforting habits, and our self-imposed agendas is a way to crucify all that attempts to wedge its way between me and the cross of Jesus. The work of the cross releases all the burdens and proclaims it “finished.” Commending our spirits into the faithful hands of God is the final word, and, paradoxically, it is the first word filling us with mercies new every morning. 

This is God’s blessing as we daily commend our spirit into his hands as he “keeps is as the apple of his eye”…“keeps us in perfect peace”… “keeps us from falling.” In this blessing, we are faithfully held in the gaze of God, who assures us that we are always held, always loved, and always beginning again. 

For Reflection: 

• In what ways are you aware of God’s safe-keeping of your life? 
• What might a daily practice of “commending your life to God” look like or feel like?
• Are there areas of your life that you would like to specifically commend to God’s safe-keeping today, allowing you to release a burden or worry you’re carrying? 
• What grace or gift do you seek from God to allow you to experience his safe-keeping?