THE people of God are those of our sinful and ruined race who have been brought alive in their souls from the power and effects of spiritual death by God the Holy Ghost: as the Apostle asserts of the Ephesian believers, “And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins” (Ephesians, chap. ii. v. 1). And one most precious fruit arising from the implantation of the life of grace in the soul is a life of prayer. Down through the records of the life and history of the Church of God, prayer has always been outstanding, inasmuch as the people of God have been called into fellowship and communion with God by the Spirit and in and through the Mediator of the new covenant, the Lord Jesus Christ; and in the exercise of believing and humble prayer, this soul and spiritual communion has been enjoyed. “He forgetteth not the cry of the humble” (Ps. ix. v. 12). Now Moses, the eminent servant of God, possessed among other spiritual graces in large measure, the spirit of prayer, for who had more occasion and need to have recourse to God in prayer than Moses with all the responsibility that lay upon him as Israel’s leader, under God, as they journeyed through the wilderness. One of his prayers left on record is the ninetieth Psalm, the title of which is “A Prayer of Moses the Man of God.” This psalm is the oldest in the Book of Psalms and reveals the prayerful and solemn exercise of the Man of God in drawing nigh to God.
At the commencement of his approach to the Lord, he acknowledges the blessed and comforting fact that the Lord has been the dwelling-place of His people in all generations (ver. 1); that such as Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and others, including himself, found their refuge from sin and also the consolations of salvation, and rest, satisfaction and protection, all in the glorious name of the Lord. For “the name of the Lord is a strong tower, the righteous runneth into it and is safe” (Proverbs xviii. v. 10).
Then the Man of God, so divinely and deeply illuminated in the knowledge of God, reveals in his prayer the exercise of his soul upon the glory of the eternity of God; and in so honouring God, Moses goes back in his mind and in the exercise of a living faith to eternity thus: “Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God” (ver. 2). The salvation of Moses had its spring in the everlasting purpose and eternal and sovereign love of the one living and true God, who is from everlasting to everlasting, and thus he could also look forward with hope to an everlasting inheritance in God. And herein also in this part of his prayer, Moses evidences that faith of which we read in the epistle to the Hebrews, chapter xii. v. 3: “Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the Word of God,” for Moses says in his prayer to God, “… or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world.” And so it has been that the living Church of God always seeks to honour and worship their God as the almighty and glorious Creator of all things, blessed for ever, as well as being the God of their salvation.
As is obvious, the mind of the man of God, as he proceeds in his communing with the Lord, is much exercised upon the frailty of men and the brevity of their sojourn on the earth. As he reminds the Lord, “In the morning it flourisheth and groweth up; in the evening it is cut down and withereth” (ver. 6); and as he further prays, “We spend our years as a tale that is told” (v. 9). So Moses prays in this frame from the solemn experience of having seen many of his fellow creatures die in the wilderness, indeed, multitudes of them from time to time, “carried away as with a flood.” What a worm of the dust man is in the light of the revelation of the glory of his Creator! Moses undoubtedly takes a low place in his own soul in the exercise of prayer here before the Lord. Intimate though he was with the Lord, he was keenly sensible of the fact that he himself was a dying man, and but a sojourner on this earth. And this is truly an incentive to prayer in the case of the exercised believer.
As one might expect, we find confession of sin in this prayer of the Man of God. Some there are who affect to pray, yet sin has no place in their exercise at all, such as the Pharisee in the Temple, who prayed thanking God for how good and righteous a man he was; and many to-day are following in the miserable steps of the Pharisee within the professed visible Church of God. Moses was no Pharisee, but a deeply taught child of God, who knew the reality and evil of his own sins and the sins of others by bitter experience and observation. So no wonder he declares in his prayer, “Thou hast set our iniquities before Thee, our secret sins in the light of Thy countenance” (ver. 8). He acknowledges to the Lord open violations of the divine law, and those sins of the heart and darkness, which men may delude themselves are secret and hidden from the eyes of God. Moses recognises them as well known to Him who searches the heart and trieth the reins of the children of men. It is with a heavy heart and grieved mind, no doubt, that he mentions his own sins and the sins of those whom he includes in his prayer, for he says, “Our iniquities” and “our secret sins.” Well did he know that genuine confession under the influence of the Spirit of God was a step toward God as the One who forgiveth iniquity, transgression and sin.
But well did he know that sin exposes impenitent men to the divine anger and wrath, for time and again he was a witness to the manifestations of God’s wrath against Israel for their varied and repeated sins in the wilderness; and so he sadly acknowledges before God in his prayer, “For we are consumed by thine anger, and by thy wrath are we troubled” (ver. 7). The God to whom he prayed is a righteous and a just God, jealous of His glory and He who is, as such, a sin punishing God. Moses knew and believed this, and in the exercise of prayer, reverently and in godly fear bows before this inexpressibly solemn revelation of the divine glory. Moses’ God, to whom he prayed, was not the false god of many professing Christians in these present times, who banish the thought that there can possibly be wrath in the God in whom they profess to believe. This is derived from an unbelieving attitude to the Word of God, trifling views of their own and others’ sins, and ignorance of the teaching of the Holy Spirit. “Ye do greatly err, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God” (Matt. xxii. v. 29). But Moses had understanding of the Majesty and greatness of God as the Holy One of Israel.
The latter part of his prayer is wholly taken up with particular petitions, craving the divine favour for himself and those for whom he intercedes at the throne of grace.
He asks for teaching: “So teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom” (ver. 12). The man Moses was spiritually a child and a scholar before the Lord, and recognised the need his fellow sinners had also of the instruction which none but God could give. He sought that the Lord would bring home upon himself and others the reality of man’s brief and uncertain sojourn on earth, to the end that there would be living and serious seeking after spiritual and saving wisdom in relation to the knowledge of God’s way of redemption from sin, having regard to Eternity.
Then there is an urgent cry to the Lord to return to Israel: “Return, O Lord, how long?” (ver. 13). Sinners in general from the Fall of Man downwards, have sinned away the favour and presence of God from themselves. And in the history of the world nations as such have provoked God by their wickedness and in many cases by their backslidings, to forsake and abandon them in His displeasure. Moses is here in the very element of prayer, under a keen sense of the withholding of the divine favour and presence, and he thus longs for the Lord to return to himself and the many thousands of Israel in His gracious favour. The living soul sees no expectation of spiritual or temporal peace or prosperity without the favour and presence of the Lord. The individual needs the Lord, and the nation needs the Lord.
The difficulties, trials, sins, backslidings, murmurings, and discontent which Moses witnessed among the Israelites would most assuredly emphasise to him time and again in the wilderness how that foolish, vain, and sinful man needs what will satisfy him in his heart and mind in the spiritual and highest sense. And so he beseeches the Lord in these words, “O satisfy us early with thy mercy” (ver. 14). He thus turns in his prayer seeking the revelation of the divine compassion and pity towards his sinful and frail fellow creatures; for the forgiveness of sins and peace with God through the atoning blood of the promised Messiah and Saviour of the guilty, would certainly satisfy their guilty souls as with marrow and fatness, and all according to the abundant and sovereign mercy of the Most High. An answer to this petition in the experience of poor sinners provides a ground for rejoicing on their part all their days; although it does not follow that the sinner pardoned in the mercy of heaven derives joy from this ground when and as he ought. Many a time Moses prayed for God’s mercy besides in this prayer, for others; yea, and for himself also. So it will be in the experience of the child of God; their cry will be for mercy until the end of their sojourn in this world of sin and vanity.
Many a groan, many a tear, many a disappointment, and many a sore trial Moses had on account of his concern for the welfare of his people, in face of their sins and waywardness, and the hand of the Lord upon them afflicting them. Then, in consideration of this, it is no wonder that he cries, “Make us glad according to the days wherein thou hast afflicted us, and the years wherein we have seen evil” (ver. 15). He no doubt longs for a humble obedience to the Word of the Lord among the people, and that there would be a gracious walking in agreement with the mind of the Lord. That thus there would follow the removal of the rods of affliction, and the forthcoming of tokens for good in grace and providence as from the Lord. This is what will make glad the hearts of the children of Israel. Tastes of the love of God in Christ, evidences of the divine kindness and care in providence and answers to prayer, etc., have made glad the heart of God’s spiritual Israel many a time during and after periods of affliction and trial. And well does Moses realise that the Lord alone can bring gladness to His afflicted people, and so he prays for this.
In the concluding part of his prayer, he petitions the Lord to cause His work to appear unto His servants (ver. 16). He appears to desire that the Lord would work in such a manner spiritually and providentially so as to give memorials of the divine favour to His needy and tried servants, unto their encouragement in the service of their heavenly Master, and to revive and strengthen their faith in Him and love to Him. And, further, Moses has an affectionate and gracious regard for the coming generation—the children of the Lord’s servants; for he prays the Lord to let His glory appear unto them (ver. 16). Is this not a fundamental mark of the outlook and concern of the godly? They do indeed desire that the glory of God’s name as a just God and a Saviour be made manifest to their children, and that instead of the fathers shall be the children, fearing and serving the Lord; and by the help of divine strength carrying on the worship and service of God, so that the continuity of the Church and Cause of God is conserved in the world, when the godly fathers and mothers in Israel are away to heaven.
And finally, the Man of God, among other things, calls upon the Lord in the behalf of all for whom he prays, including himself, in these words: “And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us” (ver. 17). And how absolutely essential to all the beauty of the justifying righteousness of Christ and of holiness is, with a view to an abundant entrance into the realm of eternal glory and the presence of the Majesty of God as revealed there, in and through the now glorified Son of God, who is the Lamb in the midst of the Throne.
The prayers of Moses, the Man of God, are ended long ago. He is in the heavenly sanctuary where praise is the exercise of pure spirits before the Throne of God. But “he being dead yet speaketh,” in the Book of Psalms, as elsewhere throughout Scriptures. May we learn under the saving and sanctifying operations of the Holy Spirit to follow in the footsteps of the living Church of God, and thus be given much to prayer here, that we may praise pre-eminently hereafter.