Psalms 90:17

the beauty Or, pleasantness: the gracious kindliness of Jehovah. Cp. Psalms 27:4; Proverbs 3:17.

the work of our hands A phrase characteristic of Deuteronomy, where it occurs seven times. All the ordinary undertakings of daily life are meant, not necessarily any particular enterprise.

The Psalmist's prayer is for the restoration of Israel. In the renewed life of the nation (Lamentations 5:21) the servants of God will recover the gladness of their individual lives, now quenched and dead. The time had not yet come when the hope of personal immortality could be appealed to as the consolation of sorrow and the consecration of effort (1 Corinthians 15:58).