Sunday 16th 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 psalm finishes with three pleas. The first is that the days and years that the psalm asks us to number, those days and years ground down in self-inflicted turmoil and strife, would be returned. A plea that the ‘eye for an eye’ of the covenant would be returned equally in blessing. Incidentally, Paul picks up this prayer when speaking of his own suffering and turmoil… “Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.” (2 Corinthians 4:16-17) (NIVUK).
The second plea is that even if our days are short and frustrating, we would know the greatness of God. A greatness that is splendid and beautiful in itself, that is long-lasting and visible from generation to generation. Which leads directly to the third plea. If all our work is perishable and fragile, our very lives like grass that withers in the hot breath of the Lord, then the plea of the psalmist is for grace. Grace that transforms us from perishable to imperishable. Grace that gives our fragile works solidity, that establishes them.
As we leave the Easter season and ponder the resurrection – we see that perhaps Paul is reflecting on this psalm also. Consider his words to the Corinthian church.
“I declare to you, brothers and sisters, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. 51 Listen, I tell you a mystery: we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed – 52 in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed… 58 Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labour in the Lord is not in vain.” (1 Corinthians 15:50-52, 58) (NIVUK).
The curse of Genesis 3, that we will toil and work until we die, perishable because of sin, is reversed with the resurrection. The grace of the Lord rests on us and ‘he will establish the work of our hands’! What an amazing psalm indeed…
