“Lord, You have been our dwelling place in all generations. 2 Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever You had formed the earth and the world, Even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God. 3 You turn man to destruction, And say, “Return, O children of men.” 4 For a thousand years in Your sight are like yesterday when it is past, and like a watch in the night. 5 You carry them away like a flood; They are like a sleep. In the morning they are like grass which grows up: 6 In the morning it flourishes and grows up; In the evening it is cut down and withers.
7 For we have been consumed by Your anger, and by Your wrath we are terrified. 8 You have set our iniquities before You, our secret sins in the light of Your countenance. 9 For all our days have passed away in Your wrath; we finish our years like a sigh. 10 The days of our lives are seventy years; and if by reason of strength they are eighty years, Yet their boast is only labor and sorrow;
For it is soon cut off, and we fly away. 11 Who knows the power of Your anger? For as the fear of You, so is Your wrath. 12 So teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.
13 Return, O Lord! How long? And have compassion on Your servants. 14 Oh, satisfy us early with Your mercy, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days! 15 Make us glad according to the days in which You have afflicted us, the years in which we have seen evil. 16 Let Your work appear to Your servants, and Your glory to their children. 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.” Psalm 90 NKJV
Father and Our God and Lord,
This Psalm is attributed to Moses though I am not sure how they can date these Psalms for sure. But it certainly seems to fit with Moses. It acknowledges You as God and Your unchangeable judgement balanced with mercy. It sounds like it was written on a tough day when he was carrying the weight of all the problems the children of Israel were moaning about.
But like Moses, the writer remembers that You have compassion and mercy and calls upon You to change the day and ley Your beauty be upon them.
What a wonderful way to change the day from under the circumstances to working away at the day, by asking for Your beauty to be upon us and the day’s work being established as valuable. That Moses could still see the Your beauty God after 40 years of moaning multitudes in the dessert is a miracle. Help us to not just see Your Beauty but have it rest upon us and in us and with us as the Psalmist prays.
In Jesus name we pray, Amen.
Worship Tuesday 3rd March 2026
An old chorus with new verses and new tune. And I could grow to like this for those quieter moments.
Let the beauty of Jesus be seen in me
All His wondrous compassion and purity;
O Thou Spirit divine, all my nature refine
‘Till the beauty of Jesus be seen in me.
Lyrics: Albert Osborn