Psalms 90:12 - Meaning and Application

These are the requests of this prayer, built on the thoughts and confessions that came before. If anyone is suffering, let him learn to pray this way. Here they are directed to ask for four things.

First, they ask for a holy use of the sad trouble they are under. Since their days have been cut short, they pray, “Lord, teach us to number our days” (Psalm 90:12). In other words, “Help us see clearly how few our days are, and how little time we have in this world.” It is a wise thing to number our days rightly, so we do not misjudge them, like the man who planned for many years ahead when his soul was demanded that very night. We must live with a steady sense that life is short, uncertain, and close to death and eternity.

To number our days well means to compare our work with the time we have, and to give it due attention. We need double diligence, because we do not have time to waste. Those who want to learn this way of thinking must pray for God’s help. They must go to him and ask his Spirit to teach them, stir them to think, and give them understanding. We number our days rightly when that thought leads our hearts to true wisdom, that is, to serious godliness. To be religious is to be wise. This calls for close attention, and thoughts about life’s shortness and our coming departure help greatly.

Second, they pray that God would turn away his anger from them. Even if the sentence had gone out and could not be reversed, and they must die in the wilderness, they still pray, “Yet return, Lord. Be reconciled to us, and show that you have changed your mind concerning your servants” (Psalm 90:13). They ask for news of peace after such heavy news. “How long will we stay under your anger, and when will we see some sign that we are restored to your favor? We are your servants, your people” (Isaiah 64:9). “When will you change your way toward us?”

God answered this prayer, and he did so after their repentance (Numbers 14:39-40). In the next chapter, he gave laws about sacrifices (Numbers 15:1 and following), which showed that he had turned from his wrath toward his servants. For if the Lord had meant to destroy them completely, he would not have given them such things.

Third, they pray for comfort and joy in the return of God’s favor, in Psalm 90:14-15. They ask for God’s mercy, since they do not claim any merit of their own. “Have mercy on us, O God” is a prayer we should all be ready to say amen to. Let us ask for early mercy, for timely gifts of divine kindness, so that God’s tender mercies may come to us quickly, even in the morning of life, when we are young and strong (Psalm 90:6). Let us ask for the true satisfaction and happiness found only in God’s favor and mercy (Psalm 4:6-7). A gracious soul, if it may only know God’s lovingkindness, will be fully satisfied with it.

Two things are pleaded to support this request for mercy. First, God’s mercy would be a lasting source of future joy. “Satisfy us with your mercy,” they pray, “so that we may not only be at peace within ourselves, which we cannot be while under your anger, but so that we may rejoice and be glad all our days, even if we must spend those days in the wilderness.” Those who make God their chief joy may have full joy (1 John 1:4), and that joy can remain steady even in this life of tears. It is their own fault if they are not glad all their days, because God’s mercy can give them joy in trouble, and nothing can take that joy away.

Second, God’s mercy would make up for their former griefs. “Make us glad according to the days you have afflicted us,” they pray. “Let our days of joy in your favor be as many as the days of pain we had under your displeasure, and let them be as pleasant as those days were dark.” The Lord often sets one thing against another (Ecclesiastes 7:14). “Do that for us too. We have drunk the cup of trembling long enough. Now put the cup of salvation in our hands.” God’s people count the return of his lovingkindness as enough reward for all their troubles.

Fourth, they pray that God would carry on his work among them, even so. They ask, first, that he would make that work visible. “Let your work appear to your servants,” they say. “Let it be seen that you have worked on us, to bring us back to yourself and fit us for yourself.” God’s servants cannot work for him unless he first works on them and in them, giving them both the desire and the power to do his will. Then we may hope that the actions of his providence will appear for us, when the work of his grace is seen upon us. “Let your work appear, and let your glory appear in it to us and to those who come after us.”

When we pray for God’s grace, his glory must be our goal. We should also look to our children, so that they too may experience God’s glory at work in them, changing them little by little into his likeness. In this prayer, they may also be distinguishing between themselves and their children, as God had recently done in his message to them: “Your bodies shall fall in this wilderness, but I will bring your little ones into Canaan” (Numbers 14:31). So they may mean, “Lord, let your work appear on us, to reform us and bring us to a better spirit, and then let your glory appear to our children, by keeping the promise to them that we have lost the benefit of.”

Second, they pray that God would support them and strengthen them in doing their part. “Let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us,” they say. Let it be clear that God favors us. Some understand this as a prayer that God would keep his ordinances among them and show the signs of his presence with them. We may apply it to both holiness and comfort. Holiness is the beauty of the Lord our God. Let that beauty be seen in all we say and do. Let God’s grace in us, and the light of our good works, make our faces shine. That is the beauty he places on us, and those are truly beautiful who are adorned that way.

Then let divine comfort fill our hearts with gladness and put brightness on our faces. That too will be the beauty of the Lord upon us, as our God. “Establish the work of our hands upon us.” God’s work in us (Psalm 90:16) does not free us from using our best effort in his service and in working out our salvation. But after we have done all, we must wait on God for success and ask him to bless our work, so that we may accomplish what we aim at for his glory.

We are so unworthy of God’s help, and yet so unable to do anything lasting without it, that we need to ask for it earnestly and keep asking. “Yes, establish the work of our hands,” and, in order to do that, “establish us in it.” In other words, God must steady our hearts and strengthen our efforts if our work is to stand.