Songs of the Soul: A Lent DevotionalSample

Psalm 90 is a prayer of Moses and it offers important insights for us regarding how brief, precarious, and God-dependent human life is. As Moses prays in verses 13-17, he commits himself and the Israelites to God, and pleads for three things:

First, Moses asks for reconciliation with God. Why? Because in spite of everything God had done for His people, the Israelites, they constantly displayed discontentment against God and continued to worship other gods. Moses was fully aware of God’s anger towards them, to the extent that the entire first generation who had experienced the Exodus would be refused entry into the Promised Land. Moses pleads for God to turn away His anger from His people, saying “Have pity on Your servants!” (verse.13)

Moses next asks for comfort and gladness in return for God’s Favor to his people. He accepts that their punishment of death in the desert is self-inflicted, so he cries out for God to remove His wrath since only God’s Unfailing Love for them can restore a state of rejoicing, not only temporarily but for “all our days” (verse 14).

Finally, Moses asks God for success in their endeavors for Him. Moses knows the people are unworthy of God's Assistance and yet they are incapable of succeeding without it. We as God’s servants cannot work for Him unless He first works on and through us, to “establish the work of our hands” (verse 17).

In praying for God’s Grace and Mercy, like Moses, we must be focused on God’s Glory as our end. Then, we too can rejoice in our personal experience of God’s Mercy and Grace. Paraphrasing D.L. Moody’s description of Moses, I can say that I also spent my younger years thinking I was a somebody, my middle years learning I was a nobody, and my later years learning what God can do with a nobody. Working with people on the margins in prisons (Thailand), with refugees (Myanmar), with migrant workers and disabled children (China), and now with the underprivileged (Hong Kong), I see God’s Grace at work every day.

God’s Steadfast Love satisfies me every morning as I see Him “establish the work of my hands”. Without God, our works amount to nothing, but through His Grace, even the smallest things we do for Him can demonstrate His Glorious Power to those around us.

Nelson Yau
Hope of the City

Prayer:
Dear God, satisfy me in the morning with Your Steadfast Love. Let Your favor be upon me and establish the work of my hands for Your Glory.