Psalm 30 v 6 - Into your hands, O Lord

The final verse of Psalm 30 is the rationale for its inclusion at Compline, providing us with a model of how to approach our own deaths:

In manus tuas comméndo spíritum meum: redemísti me, Dómine, Deus veritátis.

Into your hands I commend my spirit: you have redeemed me, O Lord, the God of truth.

Key vocabularly:

manus, us, f, the hand

commendo are avi atum to commit for protection, intrust, confide, deposit with

redimo ere emi emptum 3 to redeem, buy back, ransom, rescue, set free, save

veritas, atis, truth, grace, kindness ,goodness, fidelity to promises, faithfulness 

Christ the redeemer

Christ used the first phrase of this verse on the cross; the second half though, clearly pertains not to him, but to us, as St Alphonsus Liguori makes clear: 

Some think that these words, and indeed the whole psalm, are to be understood of Jesus Christ, because before expiring he said on the cross: Pater, in manus tuas commendo spiritum meum. Bellarmine, however, justly observes that our Lord, in dying, might well use these words, but not the following : Redemisti me, Domine, Deus veritatis &hast redeemed me, O Lord God of truth ; for Jesus Christ was himself the Redeemer, and not the redeemed.

Yet there is a sense in which the whole verse can be applied to Christ, as St Augustine suggested:

To Your power I commend My Spirit, soon to receive It back. You have redeemed Me, O Lord God of truth. Let the people too, redeemed by the Passion of their Lord, and joyful in the glorifying of their Head, say, You have redeemed me, O Lord God of truth.

May we too make this prayer our own as we celebrate the mystery of the Passion and Resurrection of Christ this Easter.

Vulgate	Douay-Rheims
In finem. Psalmus David, pro extasi	Unto the end, a psalm for David, in an ecstasy
1 In te, Dómine, sperávi non confúndar in ætérnum: * in justítia tua líbera me.	In you, O Lord, have I hoped, let me never be confounded: deliver me in your justice.
2  Inclína ad me aurem tuam, * accélera ut éruas me.	3 Bow down your ear to me: make haste to deliver me.
3  Esto mihi in Deum protectórem, et in domum   refúgii: * ut salvum me fácias.	Be unto me a God, a protector, and a house of refuge, to save me.
4  Quóniam fortitúdo mea, et refúgium meum es   tu: * et propter nomen tuum dedúces me, et enútries me.	4 For you are my strength and my refuge; and for your name's sake you will lead me, and nourish me.
5  Edúces me de láqueo hoc, quem abscondérunt mihi: * quóniam tu es protéctor meus.	5 You will bring me out of this snare, which they have hidden for me: for you are my protector.
6  In manus tuas comméndo spíritum meum: * redemísti me, Dómine, Deus veritátis.	6 Into your hands I commend my spirit: you have redeemed me, O Lord, the God of truth.