Bread on the Waters: Cast thy bread upon the waters

Written by Pastor John Hayward


Let thy work appear unto thy servants, and thy glory unto their children. And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us: and establish thou the work of our hands upon us; yea, the work of our hands establish thou it.
Psalm 90:16-17


This Psalm opens up
by informing the reader that Moses was the author of this song, and then
describes him as ‘the man of God.’ The above verses are the climax to his song,
and they reveal the way we come into true spiritual service. Remember that King
David said, ‘He made known His ways to Moses, His acts to the children of
Israel‘ (Psalm 103:7). The children of Israel indeed saw the acts of God, but
the LORD revealed His ways to Moses. Therefore, we can learn something of
the way of effective service through the revelation we find in this portion of
God’s Word.

First of all, notice that Moses prays concerning the work of the Lord. He
doesn’t say, ‘Lord I’m going to work for You.’ He prays to the LORD, ‘Let Thy
work appear unto Thy servants.‘ This shows us that true service is born out of
prayer and intimacy with the LORD. Moses was a man who sought the LORD. Here he
is, praying, calling on the LORD. The quality of our service is dependent on
the quality of our fellowship with Christ. Sometimes in Christian life we can
throw ourselves into the work of the LORD, but accomplish little, because the
service has not come out of seeking the LORD, and so there is little quality.

Consider for a moment the illustration we have in Mary and her sister
Martha.  Luke records in his gospel that Martha received Jesus into her
house. Both Martha and Mary would sit at the feet of Jesus. However, on this
occasion, Martha was cumbered about with service. She was distracted. One
alternative rendering describes her as being, ‘drawn different ways.’ The
moment your service draws you away from the Lord, it is not going to be
effective. Martha gets stirred up over her load, and questions the Lord, asking
Him whether He cares about the fact that Mary has not moved to help her, but remained
at the feet of her Master. Jesus quiets Martha by saying, ‘Martha, Martha, you
are careful and troubled about many things: but one thing is needful: and Mary
has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her.‘ (Luke
10:38-41). Martha’s service did not come out of her sitting. We cannot be
fruitful in service unless we are firstly learning to dwell and listen to the
One who knows what we need to hear. True service comes out of union with God in
the Messiah.

The second thing I want us to notice concerning the prayer of Moses is that he
is calling on the LORD to cause His work to appear to His servants. The word
appear here means, ‘to see.’ True service comes out of seeing. It comes out of
the LORD unveiling His purpose. So often we use the word vision as meaning a
brilliant idea. We say, ‘what is your vision for our Church?’ Dear friends,
Moses sought the LORD for HIS purpose. All our service needs to come out of
seeing. We need eye salve in these days. The way we become relevant to man is
by becoming relevant to God! Moses was not going to do his own thing, or carry
his own vision. He looked to the LORD to bring His work to appear to His
servants. When Jesus was on the earth, He lived the same way.

In John 5:19 Jesus says, ‘Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do
nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do: for what things soever he
doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise.‘ Even the Lord Jesus Himself, while
He was on the Earth did nothing out from Himself. All His service came out of
Him seeing what the Father was doing. If Jesus broke bread and fed thousands,
it was because He was seeing the Father was doing it. When Jesus healed the
sick, cast out demons or drove out the money changers in the Temple, He only
did so because He saw His Father so working. Jesus never acted independently of
the Father. This shows us that true service always begins in heaven! Just as
Jesus could do nothing of Himself apart from the Father, neither can we apart
from Him. Jesus says this in John 15. Our fruitfulness in service is dependant
on our abiding in the vine, and as we look to Him, He will show us His work. So
the second lesson we see in service is that it must come out of seeing; out of
seeing what the Lord is doing. Let us keep our eyes on Him.

Moses goes onto say, ‘And Thy glory unto their children.‘ The work of the LORD
is linked to His glory. If we see the work of the LORD unfurled in our
meetings, our children will see His glory. Dear reader, this is something we
need to call on the LORD for in our day. We need to plead with the LORD that
our children will see His glory! I believe in apologetics and equipping our
children with how to answer difficult questions, this is only wise and right.
Yet there is a higher level of influence that is even more sure, and that is
when the LORD visits His people in power and our children see His Majesty in
our meetings and behold His power. If the Lord so visited us, just a glimpse of
Him would be enough to mark out our young for staying the course of the race of
faith for life.

Moses then prays, ‘And let the beauty of the LORD our God be upon us.‘ The word
‘beauty’ here means ‘grace’ in this context. If we are going to serve the LORD
effectively, we need His grace. The grace of the LORD speaks of His enabling
and strength. There is no true service unless we have Divine grace. Spiritual
service can never be accomplished by the flesh. God’s grace is there for His
work, but He will not pour His Spirit upon anything that did not initiate with
Him.

Finally Moses prays, ‘And establish Thou the work of our hands upon us; Yea the
work of our hands establish Thou it.‘ We cannot pray this prayer before we have
prayed, ‘Let Thy works appear unto Thy servants.‘ The LORD will not establish
that which does not begin with Him. Psalm 127 says, ‘Except the LORD build the
house, They labour in vain that build it.‘ This does not mean there is no
labour, it simply means all our service must begin with the LORD if it is to be
real and fruitful.

Dear brethren, may the LORD grant us His work and eye salve to see it! If we
function according to His leading we need never burn out or lose heart. Praise
the Lord His grace is enough, and He will not call us to any service that He
will not furnish us for. Praise His Name!