John Calvin Commentary Psalms 31:15

"My times are in thy hand: Deliver me from the hand of mine enemies, and from them that persecute me." — Psalms 31:15 (ASV)

My times are in Your hand. So that he might more cheerfully commit his own preservation to God, he assures us that, trusting in His divine guardianship, he did not trouble himself about those chance and unforeseen events that people commonly dread. The meaning of his language is: Lord, it is Your prerogative, and You alone have the power, to dispose of both my life and my death.

Nor does he use the plural number, in my opinion, without reason; but rather to mark the variety of misfortunes by which human life is usually troubled. It is an inadequate interpretation to restrict the phrase my times, to the time he had to live, as if David meant no more than that his time or his days on earth were in God's hand.

On the contrary, I believe that while he reflected on the various changes and manifold dangers that continually hang over us, and the manifold unexpected events that happen from time to time, he nevertheless confidently relied upon the providence of God, which he believed, according to the common saying, to be the arbiter of both good and bad fortune.

In the first clause, we see that he not only calls God the governor of the world in general but also affirms that his life is in His hand. Moreover, he indicates that regardless of any agitations to which his life might be subjected, or any trials and vicissitudes that might befall him, he was safe under His protection.

On this conviction, he bases his prayer that God would preserve and deliver him from the hand of his enemies.