It is a prayer to God from Moses (a tradition, not specified in the text, but let us assume it).
Some point of the Psalm are:
- Life is short.
- 5 We are merely tender grass 6 that sprouts and grows in the morning but dries up by evening. 10 We can expect seventy years, or maybe eighty, if we are healthy, but even our best years bring trouble and sorrow. Suddenly our time is up and we disappear.
- Life is not easy.
- 9 Your anger is a burden each day we live, then life ends like a sigh.
- God is somehow behind our suffering.
- 7 Your furious anger frightens and destroys us, 8 and you know all of our sins even those we do in secret.
- God is the All Might.
- 2 You have always been God long before the birth of the mountains, even before you created the earth and the world. 3 At your command we die and turn back to dust, 4 but a thousand years mean nothing to you! They are merely a day gone by or a few hours in the night.
- We fear God.
- 11 No one knows the full power of your furious anger, but it is as great as the fear that we owe to you.
- We ask Him to make our lives easier, happier,
- 15 Make us happy for as long as you caused us trouble and sorrow. 16 Do wonderful things for us, your servants, and show your mighty power to our children.
- 13 Help us, Lord! Don’t wait! Pity your servants. 14 When morning comes, let your love satisfy all our needs. Then we can celebrate and be glad for what time we have left.
- We ask Him not to waste our lives.
- 12 Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom. 17 May the favor of the Lord our God rest on us; establish the work of our hands for us— yes, establish the work of our hands.
It is very interesting how the psalmist prays in a much more different way than we pray in our churches today. He is certainly much more sincere than we commonly are. The Lord is the All Mighty. I suffer. Thus, the anger of the Lord is a burden each day I live. In our churches, we are always talking about his love, his compassion; but it is very rare to mention his anger. Is it possible to fear a Lord that is said to love us, but seems impotent to deal with our suffering? For Moses, the Lord is really in charge of everything, our sufferings included; so he fears him.
Moses was an example of a well succeeded life. How then did he write: "establish the work of our hands for us"? Certainly, the deeds of the Lord through Moses will be remembered to the last day of our times; so his work was established by the Lord.
I really want that the Lord establishes the work of my hands.
It is so easy to waste the life, and I certainly have wasted so much time...
Establish the work of my hands for me, Lord, -- yes, establish the work of my hands, please.
