Saturday 15th April
Read Psalm 90:12-17
“Teach us to number our days,
that we may gain a heart of wisdom.
13 Relent, Lord! How long will it be?
Have compassion on your servants.
14 Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love,
that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days.
15 Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us,
for as many years as we have seen trouble.
16 May your deeds be shown to your servants,
your splendour to their children.
17 May the favour of the Lord our God rest on us;
establish the work of our hands for us –
yes, establish the work of our hands.” (NIVUK)
The psalmist finishes with six prayers – the first of which perhaps he has gone some way to answering himself! He provides the substance to the Teacher in Ecclesiastes’ wisdom to…
“Remember your Creator
in the days of your youth,
before the days of trouble come
and the years approach when you will say,
‘I find no pleasure in them’..” (Ecclesiastes 12:1) (NIVUK).
The next two prayers are prayers of faith and repentance. In them the psalmist pleads for the God who turns people back (v3) to turn and relent and act graciously towards his people (v13-14). He prays this in the hope that God will renew them ‘in the morning’ and call forth joy in his people. A contrast with the oppression of God’s wrath that withers the morning grass by day’s end (v6).
Are these not simple prayers we pray each morning, prayers that God would renew us in compassion?
“Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed,
for his compassions never fail.
23 They are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
24 I say to myself, ‘The Lord is my portion;
therefore I will wait for him.’” (Lamentations 3:22-24) (NIVUK)
