A number of years ago I set aside a morning to ask God to give me a faith vision for my writing. How should I pray for my writing? Where should I focus? I felt the Lord directed my attention to Psalm 90. So over the next weeks I memorized this psalm, and I have meditated (reflected) on it through the years in the process of reviewing and reciting it.
Right away I noticed that it ended with this benediction: “May the favor of the Lord our God rest upon us; establish the work of our hands for us, yes, establish the work of our hands.” That was what I wanted. I wanted the work of my hands – the articles and books I scribbled and typed – to have staying power, to be a positive influence to people not only today but in the future.
Then I found out that the man who wrote these words was an astonishingly famous writer: Moses, one of most widely read, most widely translated, best selling authors of all time. This man wrote or dictated the first five books of the Bible. These books, and this psalm, have been translated into thousands of languages.
Lastly it dawned on me that this remarkable prayer by this remarkable man was answered over and over again. People have been reading Moses’ works for over 3000 years in every corner of this planet. Entire civilizations have been built upon his writings. Truly the favor of the Lord rested on him. Truly God established the work of his hands.
So I began to call Psalm 90 “The Writer’s Psalm.” It’s a great psalm for writers from one of the greatest writers of all time. But it could also be called “The Parent’s Psalm,” because don’t we parents want the love and labor we expend on our kids to endure through generations? It could also be called “The Builder’s Psalm” or “The Artist’s Psalm” or the “The Scientist’s Psalm.” Really it is a psalm for anyone who wants to leave behind a positive legacy.
The psalm is a model. Its form is similar to The Lord’s Prayer, a form designed to help us rethink the priorities of my requests. We tend to rush into God’s presence with our most pressing needs “Give us this day our daily bread!” But Jesus started His prayer differently. He taught that asking God to meet pressing needs belongs within a certain context, a heart attitude of “Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
Likewise, as a writer my tendency is to begin my prayer by asking God to establish the work of my hands. Moses, however, establishes a context for that request with all the comments and prayers that come before it.
What is that context? What truths do writers/parents/builders/legacy-leavers need to understand and weave into their lives before they can confidently ask God to establish the work of their hands?
Moses begins this psalm by meditating on the nature of God. From the beginning, before the mountains were born, God was there. And from the day our primal parent Adam took his first breath, He made Himself available to be our dwelling place. He created all things. His life is eternal, while our lives are so fragile, so fleeting that by the time only one day – or just a part of one night – have passed for God, a thousand years will have passed for humans. And by that time, the work of any one person’s hands will have turned to dust.
Besides that, God is holy. Moses places his request within the context of a subdued awareness of his sin: “We are consumed by Your anger and terrified of Your indignation. You have set our iniquities before You, our secret sins in the light of Your presence.’’ Perhaps Moses is remembering here what happened when he attempted to do the work of God his own way, in the flesh, when he murdered the Egyptian overseer. The discipline was tough – a 40-year exile in the wilderness. And yet the discipline was necessary for Moses to let God be God, to do the task God’s way and only God’s way. This discipline was necessary, in fact, for the work of Moses’ hands to be established.
So all this context, all this understanding, must come first. Before we ask for blessing on the work of our hands, we need to be functioning with a clear, daily awareness of:
- God’s loving, welcoming presence (You have been our dwelling place throughout all generations.)
- God’s eternal nature in contrast to the fragility and fleetingness of our lives (“Before the mountains were born or You brought forth the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting, You are God. You turn men back to dust, saying, “Return to dust, O sons of men.’’ For a thousand years in Your sight are like a day that has just gone by or like a watch in the night. You sweep men away in the sleep of death; they are like the new grass of the morning– though in the morning it springs up new, by evening it is dry and withered.’’)
- God’s holiness in contrast to our sinfulness (. You have set our iniquities before You, our secret sins in the light of Your presence.’’)
- The terrifying power of God’s refusal to countenance sin (“Who knows the power of Your anger? For Your wrath is as great as the fear that is due You.)
As we are becoming aware of these realities, we need to be asking for:
- Teaching (“Teach us to number our days aright…’’)
- Wisdom (“…that we may gain a heart of wisdom.’’)
- The Lord’s compassion (“Relent, O Lord! How long will it be? Have compassion on Your servants!’’)
- A daily sense of God’s love (“Satisfy us in the morning with Your unfailing love, that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days.’’)
- God’s intervention in our daily lives (“Make us glad for as many days as You have afflicted us, for as many years as we have seen trouble.’’)
- God’s revelation of what He has done and is doing (“May Your deeds be shown to Your servants, Your splendor to their children.’’).
When we have laid that foundation, then we can ask for God’s blessings on our work. (“May the favor of the LORD our God rest upon us; establish the work of our hands for us, yes, establish the work of our hands.’’)
