Psalm 90, a psalm attributed to Moses, focuses on the frailty and brevity of human life here on earth in contrast with God's eternity. It is both a prayer – a plea to God to have compassion on his people who are simply dust, and a teaching to a community about the wisdom in recognising the number of our days.
Verse 17 is the final line in the psalm. The writer has made his case for the shortness and struggles that this life brings and then in the last three verses changes to asking that God will fill their short days with his unfailing love. He also asks that God grant them a spirit of gratitude and then it comes to this request that God's favour will rest with his people and establish the works of their hands.
The word for 'favour' can also be translated as 'beauty'. We encounter this same word in Psalm 27:4, a well-known verse reading: "One thing I ask of the Lord, this is what I seek … to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple." And while favour is a better fit in this context, it simply brings a picture of the beauty or the magnificence of God's favour that rests on us.
When someone does something incredibly generous or kind towards another, it can be said that they have done a beautiful thing. So too, God's favour or his kindness or his generosity towards us is truly beautiful.
In simpler translations, the line: "establish the work of our hands" is written as, "make our efforts successful". Here the psalmist after belabouring the point that life is frail and full of pain and heartache – asks God to make it into something more. Make it worthwhile. He asks for a change not in the length of our days, but rather in the nature of our days – that days that are lived under God's wrath are exchanged for days lived under his favour. That our time on earth will be a time of satisfaction and joy instead of toil and trouble. To 'establish' then is also asking that we can be involved in something that lasts, something eternal rather than something temporary.
The incredible news is that we are living in the answered prayer of this psalmist. Through the coming of Christ we now live under God's favour. The grace afforded us by the cross allows us to live a different kind of life. A life lived in communion with God and in the experience of his everlasting love for us. A life lived in the freedom of forgiveness and without fear of God's wrath. A life where the work the Lord calls us to (and all forms of work can be a calling) can be lived to his glory and for the building of his kingdom - a kingdom which lasts forever.
Life is no longer futile and final. The greatest enemy – that of death – has been swallowed up in victory. We live under God's favour and in relationship with him and he establishes the work of our hands. How incredibly blessed we are!!
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