Psalm 90:16-17

Psalm 90:16-17 16 Let Your work appear to Your servants, and Your glory to their children. 17 And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands for us; Yes, establish the work of our hands.

Work – we all have to do it. Some of us get paid to work and some do not. Some of us work with our hands and some with their minds. Meals need to be cooked, bills need to be paid, laundry needs to be done, grass needs to be cut, etc. How many of us enjoy work? Why even I myself have been accused of being afraid of work but that isn’t true, I’m not afraid of it at all. I can lie down right next to it and go to sleep (badumbum).

Is it the futility of work that we find so unpleasant? Bills keep coming, grass keeps growing, no matter what we do we will always have to work. But what if I were to tell you that your work could really count for something? Would you be interested? That’s what I want to talk about today. First we’ll talk about the work that God does and then we’ll talk about our work.

Moses says Let Your work appear to Your servants. Remember where we’re at in the Psalm. Moses understands that Israel is enduring God’s judgment because of their sin. He knows that it is right, good and just. In the midst of it he is calling for God to be merciful and restore their fellowship with Him. He asks God to work amongst His people again. But isn’t God appearing to them daily as both pillars of fire and smoke? Isn’t God still providing manna for them every day? Isn’t God still bringing water out of rocks? What is Moses asking for?

I think he’s asking for God to move mightily among them as He did when the nation was delivered from Israel. They need to be delivered but instead of a cruel Pharaoh they need to be delivered from their sin. He’s asking God to display His glory among His people in such a way that even the young ones would look around any say “That’s Jehovah working! Praise Him!” I believe that Moses wanted God’s people to be God’s people. He starts off this Psalm with the phrase “Lord you have been our dwelling place in all generations”, he wants nothing more than for Israel to realize that they are God’s and that they should live lives that are pleasing before Him. He wants Israel to get to a place where they are not living in judgment but instead living in a place of fellowship and that can only happen if God changes something inside of them.

Don’t we fall into that same category today? How often do we ask God to “work” in our lives? Don’t we realize that He is keeping us right at this very moment? Have we too forgotten that in Him we live and move and find our being (Acts 17:28)? Let us find time today to praise Him for the way that He is delivering us. When you go home today and pray with your family around the dinner table praise Him that He kept you from harm and from sinning worse than you did. Tell your children of how you saw God’s glory displayed in the sky or in a song or just in a bird sitting on a telephone wire. Let everything that has ears know that you serve the Holy One of Israel!

How about that promise that I made that your work could count for something? Look at what verse 17 says – did you catch it? The only work that is worth anything at all is the work that God establishes. If we truly want our work to endure than we must work for God.

Everything that we do should bring glory and honor to Him. Look at John 15:5:

“I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.

Do you catch what Jesus is saying there? When we are not in His will and working in our strength what can we accomplish? Nothing…. If that is true than the opposite must also be true, if we are in His will and working in His strength what can we accomplish? Everything! Has anything that God has ever done faded away? If we want our work to mean anything that we must work for God!

What do I mean when I say work for God? Would it surprise you if I said I don’t mean teach a Sunday School class? Everything that we do we should do for God. Go read Ephesians 5-6, we can serve God in our marriage, as parents, in the workplace, etc. Every aspect of our lives should be lived knowing that we live inside of God.

“And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us” Moses closes with. If you want to find meaning and purpose in this life – serve God. When He is in the front of our thoughts we are better husbands, wives, fathers, sons, employees, employers, etc.

We’ve covered a lot of ground in this Psalm. We started off with the thought of living inside of God and we end there too. I love how Moses closes this psalm with the double cry to God to establish the work of his hands.

I want to leave us with that thought as well. It is my prayer for all of us that we realize that we are with God every second of our lives and that we are to live those seconds serving Him. Serve Him today by living your life for Him and in that place allow Him to use you to draw others to Himself.

Blessings and peace to you all…