THE PRAYER OF MOSES

Part I

This psalm is entitled, “A prayer of Moses the man of God,” and according to the ancient Jewish commentators, was written at the period, when God sware in His wrath, that the generation which had rebelled should perish in the wilderness, and not enter into His rest. The psalm contains much internal evidence in favour of this tradition; for although it must ever be applicable to the people of God in this world, it is peculiarly appropriate to the situation of Moses, and of all who feared God in Israel, on that awful occasion.

Abraham, in obedience to the divine commandment, left his father’s house, and dwelt in the land of Canaan, which he was assured should be given to his posterity. After the lapse of four hundred years, this promise was about to be fulfilled. The children of Israel had arrived at the borders of the land, and were commanded immediately to occupy it; but, discouraged by the report of the spies, respecting the warlike appearance of the inhabitants, they bewailed their hard fate, affirming that they would rather have died in the wilderness, and resolved to elect a captain and return to Egypt.

Moses and Aaron, Caleb and Joshua, in vain forbade the madness of the people. These distinguished characters would inevitably have fallen a sacrifice to their fury, had not the sudden appearance of the Divine glory overawed the enraged multitude. The intercession of Moses prevented the congregation from being immediately consumed; but He, who “is not a man that He should lie, nor the son of man that He should repent,” declared that their impious wish should be gratified, and that their carcases should fall in the desert.

Job, in reference to those judgments in which the righteous and wicked are indiscriminately involved, observes, “If the scourge slay suddenly, he will laugh at the trial of the innocent.” This was exemplified on the present occasion. Not only were the children of the rebels doomed to bear their iniquities during forty years in the wilderness; but Moses, and those who had withstood them, were included in the same punishment.

This must have been very mortifying to him, who in the strength of his God, and on behalf of his nation, had braved all the fury of the Egyptian monarch, and finally led Israel forth in triumph—to him who had gone before them through the midst of the sea—who had delivered to them those laws, which God Himself had been pleased to dictate for their government— and had now conducted them to the borders of the land promised to their fathers. Moses was at this time eighty years of age, and had the certain prospect—if he should live so long—of remaining, during the next forty years, in “that great and terrible wilderness, wherein were fiery serpents, and scorpions, and drought, where there was not water.” Here then was every earthly prospect completely blasted; and if in this life only he had hope in God, he was “of all men most miserable.” But “he had respect to the recompense of the reward.” Many years before, he had “refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter; choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt.” Such had been his deliberate resolution in the fervour of youth, when surrounded by every temptation; and he was not “of them who draw back unto perdition, but of them who believe to the saving of the soul.”

We know, however, with what intense desire Moses looked forward to the enjoyment of the “good land,” which God had promised to Israel; but being disappointed in this, he cried to the Lord—like David, on another occasion—”Thou art my refuge and my portion in the land of the living.” He was “perplexed, but not in despair; cast down, but not destroyed.” When excluded from the habitation which God had promised to Israel, he exclaims, “Lord, Thou has been our dwelling-place in all generations. Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever Thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting Thou art God.”

In the time of prosperity, the people of God are in danger of losing sight of the transient nature of earthly happiness. While Providence smiles upon them; while the Lord seems to “set a hedge about them and about their house, and about all that they have on every side;” although they do not forget Him, they are apt to forget that they are strangers and pilgrims here, and that they hold every worldly comfort by a very precarious tenure. “In my prosperity I said, I shall never be moved. Lord, by Thy favour, Thou hast made my mountain to stand strong.” But God, who does not intend to give His people their portion in this life, often deprives them of what they chiefly value, and, by drying up the springs of earthly joy, compels them to seek their happiness more simply in Himself. He chastens them, in order that they may be “partakers of His holiness.”

While, by this disappointment, the mind of Moses was directed immediately to God for relief, he exults in the contemplation of the divine eternity and unchangeableness. In all generations the Lord had been the dwelling-place of His people: from everlasting to everlasting He is God. Before the land of Canaan had been promised to the seed of Abraham, He had been the refuge of His people. He had preserved Noah and his family amidst the universal desolation occasioned by the Flood. Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, to whom Canaan had been given as an inheritance, had cheerfully dwelt in it as strangers and pilgrims, although they obtained no other possession than a burying place; thus proving, that they viewed it only as an emblem of the “heavenly country,” where they desired to dwell with God. And now that Moses and those who feared God in Israel, were excluded from the earthly Canaan, they could view Him as their “strong habitation, whereunto they could continually resort,” and look for happiness beyond death and the grave.

It was true that God had pronounced sentence of death upon man, but He had also secured the recovery of His people. “Thou turnest man to destruction, and sayest, Return, ye children of men. For a thousand years in Thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night.” Turning man to destruction, evidently refers to the sentence pronounced in consequence of Adam’s transgression; but God was not, on this account, less the object of the confidence of His fallen creatures; for while He turned man to destruction, with the same breath, as it were, He said, “Return ye children of men.” Immediately after the fall, He promised a Saviour, who should vanquish the great adversary of mankind; and thus, while He shut up every prospect of happiness in this world,—declaring that in sorrow man should “eat his bread all the days of his life,”—He opened to the human race the view of eternal happiness beyond the grave. This promise was illustrated both by the preaching of Enoch, the seventh from Adam, and by his translation without seeing death.

It might indeed be objected, that we see no appearance of the resurrection of the dead. We commit the bodies of our friends to the grave, and in a few years they are reduced to dust. Thousands of years have elapsed since the death of Adam and Abraham and the prophets, yet their bodies still remain under the power of death. This affords a handle to scoffers, who treat the doctrine of the resurrection with contempt, and inquire, “Where is the promise of His coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation.” The apostle repels their objection, by reminding believers, that “one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.” In the psalm before us, from which the words of the apostle are a quotation, the very same argument is employed; and hence we conclude, that when God is represented as saying, “Return, ye children of men,” it does not, as is very often supposed, refer to His appointment that they should return to the dust, but to His promise of recovering them from that destruction to which they had been turned by His righteous appointment. In consequence of this promise, the sentence of condemnation, passed on fallen man, is no argument against sinners viewing God as their friend and dwelling-place.

In the subsequent verses, the frailty and mortality of mankind are described. One generation after another is swept away, as by a resistless torrent; human life is but a dream; all flesh is grass, which flourishes in the morning, and at evening falls before the mower’s scythe; thus is guilty man consumed by the anger of God, and troubled by His wrath; and thus, by the vengeance which He inflicts on transgressors, does He plainly demonstrate His abhorrence of iniquity. “Thou hast set our iniquities before thee, our secret sins in the light of Thy countenance. For all our days are passed away in Thy wrath; we spend our years as a tale that is told.” “Thine own wickedness,” it is elsewhere said “shall correct thee, and thy backslidings shall reprove thee; know therefore, and see, that it is an evil thing, and bitter, that thou hast forsaken the Lord Thy God, and that my fear is not in thee, said the Lord God of hosts.”

Whether human life was at that time shortened to its present date, we know not; but it is certain, that the tenth verse contains an accurate description of the measure of our days. “The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength, they be fourscore years: yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.”

The contemplation of the dreadful consequences of sin deeply affected the mind of Moses. “Who,” he exclaims, “knoweth the power of Thine anger?” And although the question did not admit a direct answer, he observes, that our fear of God should bear some proportion to the displeasure which He has expressed at man’s apostasy, and the resistless power with which He punishes sin. “Even according to Thy fear, so is Thy wrath.”

But, aware of the hardness of the human heart, he adds, “So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.” The wisdom here spoken of, is, both in the Old and New Testaments, opposed to the wisdom of this world. It consists in resisting the allurements of earthly objects, and in seeking “those things which are above, where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God.” In the book of Job, we have a striking description of the extent of human ingenuity, which enables man to surmount difficulties apparently insuperable, and to make himself master of the riches buried in the bowels of the earth. “But where,” it is added, “shall wisdom be found? and where is the place of understanding?” This inestimable treasure is described as the exclusive property of God, in whose works it shines conspicuous. In His word he has also revealed it to the human race. Unto man He said, “Behold the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding.”

Moses prays that, by our experience of the shortness of human life, we may be directed to this wisdom. He proceeds—”Return, O Lord, how long? and let it repent Thee concerning Thy servants.” This does not refer to his expectation of any change of purpose respecting Israel. The sentence of exclusion from Canaan was confirmed by the oath of God. This verse contains a request for the mercy of God unto eternal life. It is an acknowledgment of the wretchedness and misery to which man has reduced himself, and a prayer that “God may not cast His people off for ever, that His anger may not smoke against the sheep of His pasture.” “The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy. He will not always chide; neither will He keep His anger for ever.” In the faith of this, Moses entreats, that although all our days are passed away in His wrath, God may hereafter view His people with an eye of favour.

This interpretation is clearly established by what follows. “O satisfy us early with Thy mercy, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. Make us glad according to the days wherein Thou hast afflicted us, and the years wherein we have seen evil.” Moses, it has been formerly observed, was at this time eighty years of age. Like his ancestor Jacob, he felt that his days had been few and evil, and prays, that himself, and the rest of the people of God, might be made glad, according to the days wherein they had been afflicted; that they might be early satisfied with the mercy of God, and might rejoice and be glad in Him all their days. Certainly this does not refer to a present world. He had already passed the limit of human life, and knew that, during forty years, he must accompany Israel in their wanderings, unless previously released by death. Could he then expect much enjoyment in the land which flowed with milk and honey? No; like his great progenitor, he looked for a city which hath foundation, whose builder and maker is God. By faith he beheld that land, the inhabitant of which “shall not say, I am sick; the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity.” —he anticipated the period when death shall be swallowed up in victory; —when the Lord God shall wipe away tears from all faces, and take away the rebuke of His people,—when the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs, and everlasting joy upon their heads;—when they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

In the book of Job, there is a prayer which resembles and seems to illustrate the petition of Moses—”Return, O Lord, how long? and let it repent Thee concerning Thy servants.” When contemplating the misery of human life, Job exclaims, “Oh that Thou wouldest hide me in the grave; that Thou wouldest keep me secret until Thy wrath be past; that Thou wouldest appoint me a set time, and remember me.” Here the patriarch anticipates a period, when the wrath of God against His people shall cease; when He shall remember those whom He has doomed to return to the dust. But reflecting on the improbability of the dead being raised, he inquires, “If a man die, shall he live again?” Yes;—as surely as God giveth a body to the seed which is cast into the ground and dies, so surely will He raise up the bodies of His people, and, in the faith of this, Job answers his own question, “All the days of my appointed time will I wait till my change come. Thou shalt call, and I will answer Thee: Thou wilt have a desire to the work of Thine hands.”

Death is not the change for which Job was to wait; he refers to the renovation, which fallen man must necessarily undergo, before entering on the enjoyment of that happiness which God has prepared for His people. On this subject the language of the apostle is explicit. “Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, neither doth corruption inherit in-corruption. Behold I shew you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.”

At the “appointed time,” Job was confident that God would call, and that he should answer him. How exactly does this correspond with the language of the New Testament! “The hour is coming when all that are in their graves shall hear His voice, and shall come forth.” “The Lord Himself shall descend with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first.” God turns man to destruction; He reduces to dust the human body, so “fearfully and wonderfully made:” but, in that day, He will “repent concerning his servants;” He will “remember” them, and once more have a desire to the work of His hands. “His loving kindness shall be declared in the grave, and His faithfulness in destruction.”

Moses, having prayed for the enjoyment of that rest, which “remaineth for the people of God,” makes intercession in behalf of future generations. “Let Thy work appear unto Thy servants, and Thy glory unto their children.” When the sentence of exclusion from Canaan was passed on Israel, God thus addressed them: “Your little ones whom ye said should be a prey, them will I bring in, and they shall know the land which ye have despised.” Moses entreats that this promise may be accomplished; that when he, and the present generation, had gone the way of all the earth, their children might serve God, and behold His glory in the promised land.—He concludes: “And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us; and establish Thou the work of our hands upon us; yea, the work of our hands establish Thou it.” Moses, and those who feared God, had been in part involved in the sentence passed upon Israel. They were suffering under the rebuke of God, and the work which they had undertaken had for the present miscarried. But a period was approaching, when “the beauty of the Lord their God should be upon them?”—when the triumph of Israel over the nations of Canaan should be complete, and thus the work of their hands should be established. Perhaps, also—enlightened by the Holy Spirit to look forward to the new dispensation—Moses beheld the glory of God appearing to their children, in that astonishing display of His character, which is made in the incarnation, sufferings, and death of His Son. Perhaps he foresaw, how the perverseness and rebellion of Israel in the wilderness, would afford a salutary lesson to believers in Jesus, while his own faith, and that of those who united with him in opposing the follow of the multitude, would be exhibited for the imitation of the people of God in after ages. Thus, in point of fact, has the beauty of the Lord been upon them, and thus has the work of their hands been established.

Such appears to be the scope of this beautiful psalm—such is assuredly the doctrine of the word of God. In this world, we must endure affliction; this is not our rest, “because it is polluted;” but those who have been taught by grace to apply their hearts to wisdom—who, in the language of the New Testament, have been made wise unto salvation, shall ever find, amidst the sorrows of life, a source of comfort and of joy, which the world can neither give nor take away.

The writings of Moses and the prophets are declared by our Lord, sufficient, to instruct men in regard to a future state, and to render those inexcusable who seek their portion in this life. But Jesus has “abolished death, and brought life and immortality to life through the gospel.” The certainty of the resurrection of the body is established by the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ; and, and as the “forerunner of His people,”—the “first-born among many brethren,”—He is gone to prepare a place for them in His Father’s house. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, according to His abundant mercy, hath begotten us again unto a lively hope, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God, through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time; wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations; that the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise, and honour, and glory, at the appearing of Jesus Christ.”

The dispensation under which we live, is very different from that under which Israel was placed. Moses indeed taught the same things to which our attention is directed by the apostles of Christ. But he taught with a veil upon his face. In his writings, spiritual and eternal things were exhibited in types and shadows; but “the darkness is past, and the true light now shineth.” The apostles “use great plainness of speech,” and, in reference to our superior privileges, thus address believers: “Ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire, nor unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest; and the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words; which voice they that heard entreated that it might not be spoken to them any more,—for they could not endure that which was commanded—and if so much as a beast touch the mountain it shall be stoned, or thrust through with a dart; and so terrible was the sight, that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake. But ye are come unto mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the first-born, which are written in heaven and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel. See that ye refuse not Him that speaketh; for if they escaped not who refused Him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from Him that speaketh from heaven.”

The curtain which overspread the invisible world is at length drawn aside, and we behold our great High Priest entered “into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us.” We hear the songs of the redeemed, expressive of their gratitude to Him, who loved them, and washed them from their sins in His own blood, and hath made them kings and priests unto God. We see our friends in Jesus, from time to time, joining the blessed assembly. We have the voice of their Saviour and our Saviour, encouraging us “not to sorrow as others who have no hope;” informing us, that the resurrection of Christ, attested as it is by the most infallible proofs, is not more certain, than the resurrection of those who have fallen asleep in Jesus.

We are assured, that the sickness which has deprived us of the society of our beloved Christian friends, “is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified thereby;” -that believers, when absent from the body, are present with the Lord,—that, when committing their remains to the dust, we are sowing the seed of a glorious harvest,—and that our sorrow shall ere long be turned into joy.

Such is the “strong consolation,” under all the sorrows of life, which God has given to those “who have fled for refuge to lay hold on the hope set before them.” “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.” To believers it shall be “a morning without clouds;” for “the Lord shall be their everlasting light, and the days of their mourning shall be ended.”(To be continued) Haldane

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