Psalm 90: Wandering in the Wilderness with Moses

Psalm 90:17 "Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands upon us; yes, establish the work of our hands!

Have you ever felt like you were wandering in a wilderness? Well, if you haven't, Moses certainly did [because he actually did wander in a wilderness], and he penned a psalm for us to tell us of his experience! Quick quiz: how many of you knew that Moses wrote a psalm? I'll be honest with you: I sure didn't until this morning! Nevertheless, let us look at it this morning and find out how we can wander in the wilderness with Moses as we look to God as our only hope.

In the first two verses of Moses' psalm, he praises God for his eternality. He begins of how the Lord has been man's "dwelling place in all generations" (1) and how he existed "before the mountains were brought forth" (2). He then utters the popular phrase "from everlasting to everlasting you are God" (2). God is truly God, and he is truly eternal. However, Moses does not stop there. He then takes the next eight verses to tell of the brevity of man in comarison to God's eternality. Although a thousand years in the Lord's sight is like yesterday (4), man are swept away like a flood, and they wither like grass that fades in the night and is yet again renewed in the morning (5-6). Moses further tells of the brevity of men in the light of God's anger, pointing to the fact that men perish under the curse of sin (7-11).* In summary, Moses is trying to show in the first eleven verses of this psalm that God is everlasting and that man is momentary. In comparison to God's eternality, man will perish in the blink of an eye.

So what does this lead Moses to ask of the Lord? Many things, actaully,** but today we are just going to look at the main one that Moses concludes with: "Establish the work of our hands!" (17). In light of God's everlastingness and man's mortality, Moses asks of the Lord to establish that which man does. In other words, he asks that the Lord bless the things in which he and the Israelites attempt to do. He asks God to give meaning, success, and prosperity to the things that his people do for the glory of his name. Moses petitions to the Lord to help the Israelites bring him glory even though they are frail. The question before us this morning is this: Is this our focus in the midst of our wilderness?

We must remember the context here. Moses is most likely writing this psalm wandering around in the wilderness. The brevity of man is directly before his eyes, as they are literally wandering around in the wilderness for the purpose of waiting forty years that they might die due to their sin and the punishment that the Lord put upon them for it. Moses is no stranger to the quick death of man, for everyone is dying all around him. This is the context in which he writes this psalm. Instead of giving up on the Lord, Moses realizes the Lord's greatness and eternality, and calls upon him to make his and the Israelites' lives worthwhile while they are wandering around in a desert.

So, when's the last time you were wandering in a wilderness? Perhaps it was a time of great physical or emotional turmoil. Here's the question for you: did you use that time as a mirror to reflect you back to God, or back to yourself? Did you do what Moses did and ask that the Lord give you strength for his glory in the establishing of the work of your hands, even under trial? Or did you try to persevere in your own stength? I encourage you today to do what Moses did, and plea to the Lord that he might establish your works for his glory. Amen.

*There is much more that could exposed from these verses of which I am not knowledgable about to speak of, but I believe that what I said is the main point that Moses is attempting to get across.

**Moses asks the Lord to teach him the number of his days that he might have wisdom, return to him, satisfy him, make him glad, and let his favor be upon him. Also, all of these prayers are communal, that is, to the people of Israel in a whole, not just Moses.