Establish Our Work
Psalm 90:16-17
Jesus Christ said in John 15:16, "You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you." God calls all of us to invest our lives in service and work that brings honor and glory to Him and makes a lasting impact on others. When we look at our lives some of us may feel like we are spinning our wheels without making any permanent contribution to the kingdom of God, that God is no longer blessing as He once had done, and that He has distanced Himself from us. Moses, the author of Psalm 90, deals with these feelings in this prayer asking God to establish the work of His children.
The Psalm has three divisions. First, in verses 1-6, there is a recognition of God's eternality and sovereignty. In verse two we read, "Even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God." Then in verses seven through twelve there is a recognition and an acknowledgement of man's frailty and brevity. In verse twelve we are encouraged to realize the brevity of life and to focus on gaining wisdom from God. Finally in verses thirteen through seventeen the Psalmist pleas that the Lord would manifest Himself to His people and bless them with renewed prosperity.
I. The Psalmist cried for God's grace and mercy
A. Psalm 90:1 "Lord, You have been our dwelling place (refuge) in all generations."
B. The Psalmist remembers a time when things were sweet in their relationship with God. A time when God was seen working in them and blessing them, and sheltering them from defeat. But things had changed.
C. Psalm 90:7-8 "We have been consumed by Your anger, and by Your wrath we are terrified. You have set our iniquities before You, our secret sins in the light of Your countenance.
D. Because they failed to maintain a separated walk and live consistent lives God had withdraw His blessing and allowed them to stagnate.
E. When we harbor unconfessed sin in our lives or fail to maintain our separation we invite the withdrawal of God's power in our individual lives, in the body of Church and in the work of the church.
F. We have seen in the life of Achan how one man's secret sin brought defeat to the nation of Israel. God's power is restrained when there is sin in the camp and we lose our strength, our joy, our peace and damage any influence we might have on those without Christ.
G. God has called all true believers to pursue perfect conformity to the absolute, holy standard of His Word.
H. 1 Peter 1:14-16 (NASB), "As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance, but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; because it is written, 'You shall be holy, for I am holy.'"
I. The reason why men do not look to the church today is that she has destroyed her own influence by compromise. - G Campbell Morgan
J. In their journeying Israel had frequently taken their focus off of God and forgot the admonition of Deuteronomy 5:32-33 "Therefore you shall be careful to do as the LORD your God has commanded you; you shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left. You shall walk in all the ways which the LORD your God has commanded you, that you may live and that it may be well with you, and that you may prolong your days in the land which you shall possess."
K. It is the fear of the Lord that keeps us from sin while sin keeps us from intimacy with God. If God seems to be distant and you can't see Him working in your life it isn't because He has moved, you did.
L. In recognizing their sin Moses cries out in Psalm 90:17b "have compassion on Your servants."
M. 1 John 1:9 "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."
II. The psalmist had a hunger to see God work again in their midst.
A. Psalm 90:13a, 16 "Return O Lord... Let Your work appear to Your servants, and Your glory to their children."
B. The psalmist had a deep desire for God to manifest Himself to His children. They wanted to see God actively at work in their lives again.
C. This was a plea for restoration. Perhaps that is the longing of your heart to have the walk with Christ that you once had.
D. Psalm 51:12 "Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit."
E. A W Tozer wrote, "Revivals come only to those who want them badly enough. The problem is not to persuade God to fill us, but to want God sufficiently to permit him to do so. The average Christian is so cold and so contented with his wretched condition that there is no vacuum of desire into which the blessed Spirit can rush in satisfying fullness." - Born After Midnight
F. Psalm 63:1 (TEV) "O God, you are my God, and I long for you. My whole being desires you; like a dry, worn-out, and waterless land, my soul is thirsty for you."
G. The story is told of a young student who went to his spiritual teacher and asked the question, "Master, how can I truly find God?" The teacher asked the student to accompany him to the river which ran by the village and invited him to go into the water. When they got to the middle of the stream, the teacher said, "Please immerse yourself in the water." The student did as he was instructed, whereupon the teacher put his hands on the young man's head and held him under the water. Presently the student began to struggle. The master held him under still. A moment passed and the student was thrashing and beating the water and air with his arms. Still, the master held him under the water. Finally, the student was released and shot up from the water, lungs aching and gasping for air. The teacher waited for a few moments and then said, "When you desire God as truly as you desired to breathe the air you just breathed -- then you shall find God." - copied
H. Before we can really have a close relationship with God and see Him working in us, we've got to thirst for God. We have a thirst for God like the thirst of the psalmist who said, "As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God"(Psalm 42:1-2a)
I. Matthew 5:6 " Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled."
III. The psalmist prayed that God would enable them to be successful in the daily undertakings of life and in doing God's will.
A. The Psalmist is asking God to establish the work of our lives, to make it strong and durable and lasting. We are supposed to work, we are supposed to have goals, we are supposed to have a healthy ambition that our lives will count for the glory of God, will make a lasting difference. - copied
B. Psalm 90:17 "And let the beauty of the LORD our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands for us; yes, establish the work of our hands."
C. It is important to note that the psalmist first addressed God's Work before asking God's blessing on "the work of our hands".
D. Psalm 127:1a "Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain."
E. Establish the work of our hands - a prayer that God would enable them to fulfill God's plan for their lives on a daily basis and that they would be approved of God.
F. Proverbs 16:3 "Commit your work to the LORD, and your plans will be established."
G. God will graciously grant His favor, and accomplish the purposes and fulfill the longings of the person who, in everything that he does, seeks with humility to obey God, to acknowledge Him and seek His blessing.
H. Colossians 3:23 "And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men"
I. One day we will give an account for the work of our hands.
J. 2 Corinthians 5:10 "For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad."
K. Only one life twill soon be past. Only what's done in partnership with Christ will last.
L. Jeremiah 17:5-8 declares "Thus says the LORD:"Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the LORD. He is like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see any good come. He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness, in an uninhabited salt land. Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose trust is the LORD. He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit."
