What does Psalm 90:17 mean?
Moses implores the Lord to place His favor upon him and the Israelites. He also asks the Lord to prosper all that they did. Moses often used the praise, "the work of our hands." In Deuteronomy, for example, when he instructed Israel about God's laws, he explained, "that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hands that you do" (Deuteronomy 14:29; 16:15; 24:19; 28:12; 30:9).Anything we do without the Lord's help and blessing amounts to nothing. Psalm 127:1 assures us, "Unless the LORD builds the house, those who build it labor in vain." When Nehemiah contemplated rebuilding Jerusalem's walls, he prayed for success (Nehemiah 1:4, 11), and when neighboring tribes conspired to fight against Nehemiah and the builders of the walls, Nehemiah and the workers prayed to God and set a guard as a protection against them day and night (Nehemiah 4:7–9).
Before the apostles bore witness to Jesus in Jerusalem they grouped together and prayed (Acts 1:12–14). And before commissioning Paul and Barnabas to serve as missionaries, the believers at Antioch fasted and prayed (Acts 13:2–3). Today, too, believers ought to pray for the Lord's blessing on any work He assigns. We can do more than pray, but we cannot do anything eternally significant until we pray.
