I Was Just Thinking … About the Works of God’s Hands

The authors of Scripture insist that God works with a “mighty hand and an out stretched arm,” and that it is to our advantage to let our awareness of this truth affect how we live. For example, before imparting the behavioral code we know as the Ten Commandments, Yahweh reminds Israel that he is the one who delivered them from their slavery in Egypt (Exodus 20:1). Not only should our knowledge of God’s actions affect how we relate to one another, it should affect how we approach God in prayer.

The author of Psalm 143 demonstrated that he prayed enthusiastically for the future because he had carefully considered what God had done in the past—not just for him but for all of God’s people:

I remember the old days;
I muse on all of your deeds,
On the works of your hands I meditate. (143:5)

Thoughtfully remembering God’s activity generated an attitude that pleased God. When Israel failed to approach God this way, he chastised them because they did “not pay attention to Yahweh’s deeds, nor consider the work of his hands” (Isaiah 5:12). So if we desire God’s approval and attention when we pray, we must carefully consider “the works of his hands” so that our hearts understand him better and trust him more. Here are four examples of God’s direct activity that his spokesmen considered worthy of our contemplation:

The phrase “the works of his hands”—and sometimes “the work of your hands”—occurs in other psalms. There it indicates the creation which God has assigned us to rule (Psalm 8:6; 102:25). Indeed, one psalmist is so enthralled by what he sees of the glory of God in the night sky, it’s as if “the heavens declare they are the work of his hands” (19:1).

God also works directly in the lives of his people. After all, as Isaiah boasts, “There is no God like our God, who works for those who hope in him” (64:4). Thus, “For you, Yahweh, have made me glad by your work; so I sing for joy at the works of your hands. How great are your works!” (92:4–5). In another song, after celebrating Yahweh’s work to fulfill his promises, the psalmist implores him not to neglect to continue to accomplish “the works of your hands” (138:8).

According to Job, he himself is “the work of your hands” (14:15). And Job’s young friend, Elihu, declares that when God evaluates us, neither our ethnic parentage nor our economic plight matters to him because we “are all the work of his hands” (Job 34:19). As a result of contemplating this truth, David declares: “Certainly you made my mind and heart; you wove me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works!” (Psalm 139:13–14).

More amazing than God’s work in creation is his work in the re-creation of fallen human beings. According to Isaiah, Yahweh declares that the redeemed people of Israel are “the work of my hands (29:22). The future restored nation of Israel will be “the work of my hands” (45:11); when he returns a righteous Israel, their being firmly planted in the land will be “the work of my hands” (60:12). The penitent in Israel will then confess that Yahweh is their father, the one who shapes them like a potter so they are “the work of your hand” (64:8). And, he says, even the conversion of Israel’s former enemies, Egypt and Assyria, are “the work of my hands” (19:25).

This thought seems to be deeply rooted in Paul’s mind as well. In his summary of God’s activity in Jesus’ ministry, he concludes, “We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:10). He made us—Jews and Non-Jews—alive together in Christ, so that in the ages to come he might display the surpassing riches of his grace in useful kindness toward us in Christ Jesus (2:5–7). These displays are the “good works” that God has prepared for us to experience in fellowship with him from before he began to create (2:10; cf. 1:3–4). In other words, as human beings we are “the works of his hands,” but even more, as followers of Christ, we are “the vessels of mercy which [the Potter] has prepared beforehand for glory” (Romans 9:24), that is, to be recipients of the gracious works he designed to manifest his manifold perfections (cf. 1 Peter 4:10).

With a proper appreciation of these magnificent examples of God’s handiwork in, we can “stretch out our hands” to him, expecting to experience his extravagant kindness every morning (Psalm 143:6–8).