A prayer of Moses, the man of God

Lord, through all the generations you have been our home! Before the mountains were born, before you gave birth to the earth and the world, from beginning to end, you are God. You turn people back to dust, saying, “Return to dust, you mortals!” For you, a thousand years are as a passing day, as brief as a few night hours. You sweep people away like dreams that disappear. They are like grass that springs up in the morning. In the morning it blooms and flourishes, but by evening it is dry and withered. We wither beneath your anger; we are overwhelmed by your fury. You spread out our sins before you— our secret sins—and you see them all. We live our lives beneath your wrath, ending our years with a groan. Seventy years are given to us! Some even live to eighty. But even the best years are filled with pain and trouble; soon they disappear, and we fly away. Who can comprehend the power of your anger? Your wrath is as awesome as the fear you deserve. Teach us to realize the brevity of life, so that we may grow in wisdom. O Lord, come back to us! How long will you delay? Take pity on your servants! Satisfy us each morning with your unfailing love, so we may sing for joy to the end of our lives. Give us gladness in proportion to our former misery! Replace the evil years with good. Let us, your servants, see you work again; let our children see your glory. And may the Lord our God show us his approval and make our efforts successful. Yes, make our efforts successful!
Psalm 90

Dear God, we are not as strong as we think we are. Those are the words that come to mind as I read this prayer from Moses. We are so small. There is so much we do not understand. You must chuckle at the “smartest” among us. Almost like we cheer on a child who just learned how to phonetically read. That is what our greatest wisdom must look like to you.

It’s also kind of cool that this is from Moses. One of the things he asks is that you will teach us the brevity of life. And why? So we can grow in wisdom. I think the wisdom is to truly understand just how small we are. The earth is billions of our years old, but even before then, you were there. You exist in a realm beyond our time. You work in ways I cannot understand. I am small—so small. You are big—so big. I am foolish—so foolish. You are wise and all-knowing. That’s just the way it is, and that’s okay.

Father, help me to carry my humility and your greatness with me throughout this day. With the knowledge of my foolishness, ignorance, and smallness comes peace. If I can accept it then it will bring me peace to lean into you and away from myself. And help me to believe and live up to everything I just said.

In Jesus’s name I pray,

Amen