Bible Commentaries
Psalms 90

Verse 16

A MESSAGE OF UNDYING HOPE

‘Shew Thy servants Thy work: and their children Thy glory.’

Psalms 90:16 (Prayer Book Version)

The Psalmist here is looking out over a scene of great disappointment and failure. He sees in his mind’s eye human life in its beginning, and in its end. And as he looks out over so much apparent failure his heart fails him. As he looks out and draws near to the end of his reflection on life, he utters the words which prevent despair, for as he looks out upon the failures he looks also beyond, and he knows that the work of God can never fail. He knows that though the work may seem to fail, though one man lives and dies and has apparently wrought but little, there are other hands to take up the work, other voices to deliver the message.

I. No work for God fails.—That is the secret of the saints’ hope. They have done their work in fear and yet in faith, and they have laid themselves down, conscious that their work cannot fail. We, who reap the fruits of their labours, know, at any rate, that their toil has not been in vain. In our hand we hold the martyr’s robes, red with the blood of the faithful, and stained with the tears of the penitent. We understand as the inspiration of their lives falls upon us that their work is eternal And so, as we see the glory, as we gather where they have sown, we understand why it is that in the Kingdom of God there is no such thing as failure.

II. The call to duty.—That is the message of the past; it is not a sentimental reflection on the days which are gone, nor is it a tearful meditation upon things which are gone—but it is rather the call to duty. For if the past is our inspiration we are the fulfilment of its hopes and desires. The elders in every age are able to resign their tasks because they know that they will not appeal to the younger generation in vain. What answer shall we give them? Shall we not tell those whose days are being numbered that their faith is not misplaced, and that their confidence is sure? Shall we not tell them that we will take their creeds and cry them with passionate conviction and undying faith? Shall we not tell them that we, too, wish to continue to build the Church of the Living God upon earth, and that we will carry on the work they laid down in fear and yet in faith?

III. A message of undying hope.—And therefore, if the thought of the Psalmist becomes for us our warning and our hope, we of the younger generation do grow impatient as we wait for the Day of the Lord. We want to see Him King. We would take Him by force, if need be, as men tried to take Him of old; we want to see Him King in street, in lane, in home, in workshop; we want to see Him King wherever the evil passions of men are rending them as the devil rent them of old; we long with a great longing to-day for the crowning of Christ. I would ask of those who are young: ‘Does your heart fail you sometimes?’ Is life after all not quite what you had expected it to be? have your dreams been not all you thought they would have been? Have your hopes as yet been unrealised, and are you tempted to say sometimes: ‘It is of no consequence, I will lay it aside; I have no task, I have no duty,’ in the loneliness and solitude of your existence? If so, remember that you are the link between the past and the future, that to you it is given to do just what nobody else can do, to complete the unfinished task of those who went before you, and to lay the foundations of the work for those who come after you. Do not lose heart; every one has his task, and it is vitally important in the eyes of Him who sets us our duties. If there is a message to youth, is there not a message also to the aged? Ah, my heart goes out to you on whom the sun of life is setting! Will you be afraid to intrust to us of the younger generation the tasks of your lives? It is God’s work; trust it to us who are younger, and who are speeding up the hill of life, struggling to get a foothold and to do our duty; trust your tasks to us and you will not be disappointed, for the work is eternal and Divine.

Rev. J. A. V. Magee.

Illustration

‘The pitiable thing is that the time is so short; we can do so little in the short span of our life. That was indeed a pathetic picture which some years ago took the world by storm. It was the picture of an artist who sat before his unfinished canvas with his brush slipping from his nerveless and dying fingers, conscious that he must pass away before his work was finished. The tragedy and pathos of it was that the time was short, that he would have given his right hand for another year of life, and it was not given to him. That is our feeling, and therefore the message of the Psalmist rings out to-day its cry of eternal and undying hope, because it tells us that our unfinished work shall be finished. It tells us that there is no task which He has set us that God will not complete hereafter; no message that He has bidden us deliver which shall not be uttered in time.’