A Word in Season: The Work Established (Psalm 90:17)

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Psalm 90 opens with that stunning declaration about what God is like.

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Moses, a man who knew and spoke with God intimately, is able to tell us that God has no beginning and no end, he always was, he now is, and he always will be.

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He is the eternal and unchangeable God. And in stark contrast to that, and Moses would have seen this in the wilderness most grippingly, man is a feeble and frail creature.

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He is easily turned to destruction, he is consumed by the anger of God on account of sin, the

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Lord sees us through and through, our lives pass so swiftly, we need to number our days that we may gain a heart of wisdom.

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What then can we say about the work of God's kingdom in a world like this? What can we say about the efforts and the investments that we make under such circumstances?

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How do we pray in the light of these things? Well, Moses wanted the

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Lord God to make his people rejoice. He desired nothing more than the compassion of God to be shown to his people.

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He pleads at the end of the psalm, let your work appear to your servants and your glory to their children and let the beauty of the

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Lord our God be upon us and establish the work of our hands for us, yes establish the work of our hands.

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Now to whom else will a passing creature in a passing world turn in order to do anything of enduring usefulness if not to the

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God who is from everlasting to everlasting. It is his work which

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Moses wants to appear to his servants, his glory to their children, the beauty of the

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Lord to be upon us. When we pray then that God would establish the work of our hands, we can't be praying that he would establish pettiness, that he would establish wickedness.

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No, we want to see God's glory and see God's beauty to us and in succeeding generations and it's that work that above all we want to see established.

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Now I'm not saying that we can't ask the Lord to bless, if you will, our customary labours week by week and day by day but even that needs to flow out from our

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Christian identity. It is primarily I think here the establishment of God's kingdom that Moses has in mind and that you and I should have in mind if we are to pray that God would establish the work of our hands.

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You see what foolishness, what vanity it would be for a preacher to stand up and preach the word of God without asking the

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Lord to establish the work of his hands. What foolishness, what sinfulness, what pride for a parent to go about instructing their children to have family worship, to try and teach them in the way that they should go without also praying to the

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God of heaven establish the work of our hands. And yet so often it's our wisdom, our efforts.

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Will the Sunday school teacher who's pleading with the children to come to Jesus Christ and then follow him in the path of righteousness accomplish anything of lasting value unless he pleads also establish the work of our hands for us?

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Yes, establish the work of our hands. You tell your friends and your family members about the

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Lord Jesus in all his loveliness and beauty. Where is the blessing? Will God establish the work of our hands?

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You go onto the streets perhaps and spread the good news of Jesus Christ. You knock on the doors of your neighbors and you tell them that the kingdom has come in the person of his son and you tell them that there is a wrath to come and that you need to flee from it to the

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Lord Jesus Christ. Will there be any blessing? Only if God establishes the work of our hands.

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We could go on and on and multiply such examples, but surely we need to understand this, that if there is to be any lasting blessing from our labors, if there is to be any sustained glory of God in the place where we serve, if we are to see the kingdom of God coming and the truth of God rolling on once we have passed, it can only be when we pray,

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O Lord establish the work of our hands for us. Yes, establish the work of our hands.