Tag: Psalm 90:16-17
Establish the Work of our Hands!
Scripture reading for September 16: Psalm 90: 10-12; 16-17 “The years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty; yet their span is but toil and trouble; they are soon gone, and we fly away. Who considers the power of Your anger, and Your wrath according to the fear of You? So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.” . . .Let Your work be shown to Your servants, and Your glorious power to their children. 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.”
Ephesians 2:10 “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”
According to ancient sources, Moses wrote Psalm 90. Moses was called by God as the deliverer of God’s people and he led them under God’s direction out of bondage in Egypt, through the Red Sea, and received the tablets of God’s Law. He lived to be 120 years old and was strong and vigorous to the last. We don’t know in what period Moses wrote this psalm, but he would have been around 80 years old at Mt. Sinai.
Psalm 90 is a worship song that considered the shortness of human life on earth and our need to make the most of our time. Moses asked God to reveal His glorious power and works to His servants and to their children. His twice-repeated request was that God would establish the works of their hands. In other words, God would lead them to do His will and that through faith they would walk in the fullness God had promised. Moses understood their struggle with unbelief and the stubborn nature of God’s people. Even he would become angry and dishonor God, forfeiting his entrance into the promised land after 40 years.
The New Testament states that we are God’s ‘workmanship’. God has crafted each person and equipped them to do specific tasks to accomplish His will. If we are looking to establish the works of our hands, the best way is to walk in the works He has prepared for us by faith. God didn’t make a mistake. His workmanship is an eternal masterpiece!
Prayer: Father God, thank You for the new creation of my heart. Lead me to do Your will with a generous heart. Amen.
Eyes like a flame of fire
Scripture reading for December 1st: Revelation 2, Psalm 90, Proverbs 23
Revelation 2: 18-23 “And to the angel of the church in Thyatira write: “The Words of the Son of God, Who has eyes like a flame of fire, and whose feet are like burnished bronze. “‘I know your works, your love and faith and service and patient endurance, and that your later works exceed the first. But I have this against you, that you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols. I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality. Behold, I will throw her onto a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her I will throw into great tribulation, unless they repent of her works, and I will strike her children dead. And all the churches will know that I am he who searches mind and heart, and I will give to each of you according to your works.”
Thyatira was one of the churches John oversaw. He relayed the message of Jesus to them some 65 years after Jesus’ resurrection. Jesus described Himself as “the Son of God, Who has eyes like a flame of fire.” Jesus saw everything and knew everything about His people and His Church. He loved them and faithfully warned the church of what He saw that would cause trouble. In this church, there was a woman named ‘Jezebel’, who called herself a ‘prophetess’. Beware of self-proclaimed ministers or prophets! Test them by their teaching and living. Jezebel, like the Old Testament wife of Ahab, was immoral and lacked a reverent fear of God. God was merciful, but she refused to repent. Judgment was coming to her and those following her teaching and example! The flaming Eyes see and know and will decisively act!
Psalm 90:16-17 “Let Your work be shown to Your servants, and Your glorious power to their children. 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!”
Prayer: Father God, thank You for Your Son, and His ministry of overseeing His Church through appointed overseers like John the Apostle. Thank You for warning Your Church. May each person have discernment and wisdom to walk in Your way and obey Your Word. Use me in whatever way You desire to live out an example of integrity and honor of You and Your Word. Establish the work of our hands, Lord Jesus!
Proverbs 23:19-21 “Hear, my son, and be wise, and direct your heart in the way. Be not among drunkards or among gluttonous eaters of meat, for the drunkard and the glutton will come to poverty, and slumber will clothe them with rags.”