The Goodness of God when We Feel Exhausted
Psalm 90
So teach us to number our days
that we may get a heart of wisdom (Psalm 90:12, ESV).
We are exhausted.
As a culture, we have forgotten how to rest and be still. We fill our vacations with activities, needing a break to recover from the vacation. We take on projects that we think cannot be done without us, spending hours focused on computer screens and spreadsheets. We strive for accomplishment, success, and value in the eyes of those around us. We hustle for our children's futures, hoping to set them up for stability and prosperity. We tend to extremes: all the fitness activities, all the healthy habits, all the Bible studies, and all the good things we can cram into the hours of a week. We do too much--even good works. Then we get frustrated with God in our fatigue: "I'm doing so much for you, why am I so tired?"
Moses felt that exhaustion. Called out of Midian to rescue God's people, he faced Pharaoh and his court magicians through ten plagues before finally leading the Israelites across the Red Sea (Exodus 7-12). Then, leading the people toward the Promised Land, he found himself busy from day to night, listening to their complaints against God and each other, mediating quarrels between them and interceding to God on their behalf. Even after his father-in-law counseled him to delegate his responsibilities (Exodus 18), Moses carried the burden of leading the Israelites for 40 years as they cycled between rebellion and repentance. He saw the best and worst of human nature during those years, and in Psalm 90, it's easy to sense his utter fatigue at the end of himself,
"You return man to dust," he wrote, "All our days pass away under your wrath; we bring our years to an end like a sigh" (Psalm 90:3a,9).
The weight of everything he did--the good and righteous things (most of the time)--lay heavy on his shoulders, and for what? Don't we ask that same question sometimes? We participate in so many good and worthy activities, one after another. We feel guilty when we aren't actively building the kingdom, but our bodies and minds can't keep up with what we think we are supposed to be doing.
And yet, Moses also wrote: "Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God" (Psalm 90:2). The work we do is for our benefit, not God's. He doesn't need us to do all the things; He knows we are finite, fallen, and fragile. The Father knows our limitations better than we do. That's why Jesus said, "Abide in my love" (John 15:9). He didn't command, "Work yourself to exhaustion in my name." He calls us to abide so that our joy may be full (John 15:11).
Charles Spurgeon preached,
"God was, when nothing else was. He was God when the earth was not a world but a chaos, when mountains were not upheaved, and the generation of the heavens and the earth had not commenced. In this Eternal One there is a safe abode for the successive generations of men" (from The Treasury of David, Psalm 90, para.2).
God exists outside time; we are locked within it. Whether we live a short time or 100 years, it's a blink in God's forever. Our busyness, even in doing good, does not change our mortality. We can spend our lives worried about our legacies for God until we drop, but that is not what the Father has for us; we put that on ourselves. Our work doesn't sustain God; He sustains us in the work He prepared for us to do (Ephesians 2:10). God longs to satisfy us with his "steadfast love that we may rejoice and be glad all our days (v 14 of ??). Joy does not look like utter fatigue.
When Moses prayed that the Lord would "teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom" (Psalm 90:12), he asked for understanding in the middle of his exhaustion. Wisdom allows us to see the importance of perspective on work and rest. In wisdom and humility, we can ask God to "establish the work of our hands" (Psalm 90:17). Not “increase our productivity.” Not “reward our hustle.” Just establish—make meaningful what we can do within the boundaries of our short lives and draw us to the Father's heart. Moses added, "Let your work be shown…and your glorious power..." (v 16). Paul put it this way, "He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion" (Philippians 1:6). He does the work in and through us; we work out our salvation, not by our busyness, but by His grace (Philippians 2).
Remembering that God is the one who sets our work before us and empowers us to do it is a call to reliance and rest when we are weary. Psalm 46 calls us to "Be still, and know that I am God" (10). Moses opened his prayer, "Lord, you have been our dwelling place" (Psalm 90:1), not just in the present moment, but for all generations. If God is the safe refuge for the Israelites of old, in all their rebellion, how much more is His presence a place for us to sit still and listen to His heartbeat?
God does have work for us to do, but God did not create us for the work; in His goodness, He made us for fellowship with Him, in our working and in our resting. Whatever we do, the joy of the Lord is our strength (Nehemiah 8:10). God's goodness is not based on what we do; it is His character. We can abide, numbering our days, not for accomplishments, but for wisdom. He will establish the work of our hands while we rest in his everlasting arms.
This prompt came from a conversation with my pastor, Jason Cook. I’ve begun asking pastors to tell me something about the goodness of God—putting them on the spot so they can’t prepare a “right” answer. Look for these in the coming weeks!
Resources:
The ESV Bible. English Standard Version, Crossway, 2001.
Spurgeon, Charles H. The Treasury of David: Psalm 90. www.romans45.org/spurgeon/treasury/ps090.htm.
Amen!