“Establish the work of our hands…”
Allow me one final word on Moses’ one and only Psalm (90). It’s all about our aging and dying versus God’s eternal agelessness. While our beauty wanes, his retains and maybe even increases in glory. Moses seems to have written the poem just before he hiked up Nebo and died, a ripe 120 years old. He ends it with a request to God to “establish the work of our hands for us—yes, establish the work of our hands.” He’d lived a long, momentous life (wouldn’t you say?) and simply wanted what he’d done to last long after he’d be gone.
Isn’t that what all of us want? To know that what little good we’ve done (way little compared to Moses) to have permanence. We want to make a difference not only in this life, but beyond our brief lifetimes. But let’s not limit the effect of our good works to just as many years as we can imagine. If he planned them in eternity (Ephesians 2:10) then might we suppose their value would outlive all humankind and into the fusion of the new heavens and new earth?
You’d think that at the end of his amazing life, Moses wouldn’t worry about the long-lasting effects of his work. But don’t forget, he didn’t get to experience the result of it as he was kept from leading them all the way into the promised land. He only saw it from a distance, which, if you think about it, that’s what we have now. We have an oblique vision of the kingdom in its final form in the words of Jesus, John, Daniel, Isaiah and the rest from a distance. Therefore, our prayer is the same as the great Moses, “establish the work of our hands,” which is the same as our request for his kingdom to come, and his will to be done on earth as it is in heaven!
Whatever external beauty we might once have had in our youth isn’t important now. What our hands were once able to do, to build, is now in decline. So, we want to know if our works actually meant anything in the grand scheme of things. Will they somehow last beyond us and into eternity?
Like Moses, we’re living now on the precipice of a land of promise. We observe it in the distance. It inspires hope and massages patience into our souls as we put our hands to the work of the kingdom. We will, as did Moses, eventually enter the perfected land. But for now, we experience many of its benefits, while the rest is left to our collective imagination.
What did Moses do? Only just liberated the nation from 400 years of back-breaking slavery, for 40 years led their trek through the wilderness, and gave them the God’s Law. All of which was preserved in the nation for the next 1300 years. But don’t you know that his efforts last longer than that, all the way through to this very day and on into the new heavens and earth? His prayer and ours is that what we do now will have eternal value and build for the kingdom.
I confess that I’ve only recently given up on the idea of leaving a “legacy” here in this world. I used to think that maybe people would remember my name a hundred years from now if I wrote a book that they would read long after I’m dead. Maybe I could start a church that would last till Jesus comes again or lead someone to Jesus that would be the next Billy Graham. All that would be fine, but if it’s not an eternal vision, it’s short-sighted. My idea of leaving a legacy has been taken over by something I can only see in my sanctified imagination of heaven and earth renewed and rejoined.
It’s the new world that is in my sights now. What matters to me know is not a name for myself but knowing that my name is written in the log of the new world. Now I pray that he will give permanence to the work of my hands, more permanent than what may last to the next generation or two. I want, and I want you, to plant seeds that will eventually become the tree of life on each side of the river, bearing fruit that heals nations.
I fear that with all the things we now have at our finger tips, we’ve lost the long view. We don’t see far enough. We want the work of our hands to bear fruit before we get the seeds covered with soil, let alone waiting for it to come to fruition after human history has run its course and the knowledge of God fills the earth as the waters cover the sea.
Let us lean into the day when heaven meets earth and God’s beauty is unconcealable and unavoidable. Then we’ll see that he did “establish the work of our hands,” and he’s brought all we’ve done into his eternal kingdom.
In John’s vision, the names of the apostles were written on the 12 foundations of the walls of the New Jerusalem. Maybe as we explore the great garden city, we’ll run across small plaques with our names on them that represent what we’ve contributed to it!
In the meantime, whether you’re old(er) or young(er), there’s no telling how near you are to your personal finish line. So, what are you doing with what you’ve been given in this place that will inevitably affect what you will experience in the better place? Is there even a tiny part of this world that is better for your having been here for as long as you have? Have you gained any wisdom all these many years (or few)? Have you lived or merely survived?
May God establish the work of your hands––yes, establish the work of your hands.
