What Does Psalms 90:17 Mean?

Psalm 90's closing petition — divine favor and established work: "Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands upon us; yes, establish the work of our hands!" Let-the-favor-of-the-Lord-our-God-be-upon-us (vihi noam Adonai Eloheinu aleinu, and may the pleasantness/favor of the LORD our God be upon us — the noam/pleasantness-favor being the aesthetic warmth of the divine disposition: rather than functional mercy but the warm favorable-delight of a God who regards his servants with pleasure). And-establish-the-work-of-our-hands-upon-us (uma'aseh yadenu konenah aleinu, and the work of our hands establish upon/for us — the kun/establish of permanent-setting: the brief work of the brief hands of the brief humans should be given by God a durability that the humans themselves cannot provide). The final double-petition (establish the work of our hands — repeated twice) makes the closing prayer emphatic: let the brief human work be divinely established so that it outlasts the brevity of the workers.

The synthetic parallelism pairs the divine-favor-petition (let your noam/pleasantness be upon us — the relational warmth as the precondition for everything) with the work-establishing-petition (establish the work of our hands — the consequential act that flows from the divine favor). Together they give the closing prayer its structure: the relational precondition (divine favor) and the consequential request (work established). Both together resolve the entire psalm's meditation on mortality (verses 3-12) into a practical doxological petition: since life is brief, let the work be made permanent through divine favor.

1 Corinthians 15:58's "therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain" is verse 17's establish-the-work-of-our-hands given its NT resurrection-grounded form: the establishing of human work that verse 17 petitions becomes in 1 Corinthians 15 the assured-non-vanity of labor-in-the-Lord — the resurrection is God's answer to verse 17's establish-our-work petition. Philippians 1:6's "he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ is verse 17's yes-establish-the-work-of-our-hands given its NT divine-completion promise: the establishing that verse 17 petitions is promised in Philippians 1:6 as certain in Christ.