And let the beauty of Jehovah our God be upon us; and establish thou the work of our hands upon us yea, the work of our hands, establish thou it.
Psalm 90 has spent sixteen verses on how short and frail human life is, and it ends not in despair but in a request. Moses asks for two things. He asks that God's favor rest on His people — older translations, the ones the writers quoted here use, read "the beauty of the LORD." And he asks that the work of their hands should last.
A prayer that turns away from man
The closing requests all look one way. After describing what man is, Moses asks nothing from him.
All four of his requests are centred in God. Man being what he is, there is no hope in him and nothing to be expected from him. God's mercy, God's work, God's glory, God's beauty were his desire.
What "beauty" means here
The word behind "beauty" also lies behind the name Naomi, a woman in the book of Ruth. One writer traces its sense from her name to the psalms.
Her name appears to mean "pleasantness" or "sweetness," especially the gracious manner that goes with spiritual beauty. The psalmist uses the word when he writes about seeing the "beauty (pleasantness, graciousness) of the LORD" (Ps. 27:4), and again, of his desire that this "beauty" may be upon His people (Ps. 90:17).
A daring request
There is a large step between admiring God's beauty in His house and asking to be dressed in it. One writer asks how Moses dared to ask for such a thing, and where the prayer came from.
There is but one answer to such questions. It was by inspiration of the Spirit of God. God had a design as great as that in mind for His saints. In due time, when His mercy, His work and His glory had appeared, He laid the basis for it and brought it to light... Being accepted in the Beloved means this: we stand before God in all His favour, and the beauty of the Beloved is upon us. No greater beauty than that could possibly be ours. Moses' request was a bold one, but not too bold. It has had an abundant answer.
No one makes this beauty for himself.
The beauty is in Him, not in Israel, though Israel will reflect that beauty as jewels reflect the light. Psalm 90:17 confirms this: "Let the beauty of the LORD our God be upon us." It was His beauty that David longed to see in the house of the LORD (Ps. 27:4).
Israel's future, the believer's present
Commentators apply the verse both ways. Israel still waits for it. Believers already stand in it.
Though the nation has never before known the preciousness of verse 17, at that time they will be invested with "the beauty of the LORD," just as believers today are seen by God to be "in Christ," for His beauty is put upon us in place of the ugliness of sin.
Then the work is established
The order in the verse matters. The beauty comes first; the establishing of our work follows it, and depends on it.
In the end the beauty of the LORD will be upon us. The Christian can say it another way: "Conformed to the image of His Son." Then, once grace has secured the blessing, we shall find that the work of our hands is established. The works of self-righteousness will pass, but the works that flow from grace will be established. Not a cup of cold water given for Christ's sake will be forgotten.
Set that against what the man of the world builds.
Work of this sort is outside the range of the man of the world. He cannot touch it. He applies his hands to work of many varieties, yet it all decays. His empires, his pyramids, his skyscrapers, his giant businesses, his grand scientific theories — all of them, and much more besides, add up to exactly nothing.
Even the strength to work is a gift
The prayer asks God to establish our work because the ability to do it was never ours to begin with.
Everything comes from Him, from the power of His Holy Spirit, from the virtue of His death. He is the one who directs the work. He gives the means to do it. He fills the hearts of His own with a sense of their own inability. He establishes the work of their hands (Ps. 90:17).
Summary
- Source. Every request in the closing verses looks away from man and rests on God — His mercy, His work, His glory, His beauty.
- Gift. The "beauty" is God's own graciousness, the same beauty David longed to gaze at, now asked to rest on His people.
- Answer. Commentators see the bold request answered in Christ: we stand accepted in the Beloved, with His beauty upon us.
- Reach. The beauty stays God's own. Israel will reflect it as jewels reflect light.
- Result. Then the work stands. Self-righteous effort decays along with the world's empires. But not one cup of cold water given for Christ's sake is forgotten.