Adon Olam — The Eternal Lord
The Psalm of God's eternal sovereignty and intimate care — asserting that the same God who ruled before creation is the personal God who accompanies each individual through life and death.
Adon Olam (Lord of the Universe) is one of the most widely sung synagogue hymns, combining God's cosmic transcendence with intimate personal relationship. The first stanzas describe the God who was, is, and will be — before time and beyond it; the creator who will reign alone when all else dissolves. The final stanza makes the radical shift to the personal: 'Into His hand I entrust my spirit, when I sleep and when I wake; and with my spirit, my body too — the Lord is mine; I shall not fear.' The God who created the universe is also the God in whose hand I entrust my soul at sleep and at death. This combination — the cosmic God who is simultaneously the intimate companion — is distinctive to Jewish (and monotheistic) theology. The prayer is traditionally said both at bedtime and at death, making it the companion of the soul across all thresholds.
Into His hand I entrust my spirit, when I sleep and when I wake; and with my spirit, my body too — the Lord is mine, I shall not fear.
Philosopher Martin Buber's distinction between the I-It relationship (treating others as objects) and the I-Thou relationship (treating others as subjects who address us) captures the theological move of Adon Olam: the cosmic God (I-It — Creator, Ruler, Absolute) is simultaneously the intimate Thou who accompanies the soul through all transitions.
Jewish liturgy