Moses' 5 Prayers That Will Change Your Life

From palace to desert to mountaintop—one man's extraordinary journey reveals timeless truths about greatness, humanity, and the prayers that can transform our lives.

The Man Who Had Everything and Lost It All
Picture this: a Hebrew baby, condemned to death by Pharaoh's decree, floating down the Nile River in a basket waterproofed with pitch. Against all odds, he's rescued by Pharaoh's own daughter and raised in the palace as Egyptian royalty. His name? Moses—literally meaning "drawn out."

For forty years, Moses lived the life of the 1%. Palace education, multiple languages, military strategy, philosophy—he had access to the finest Egypt could offer. But when he witnessed an Egyptian beating a Hebrew slave, something stirred within him. In a moment of rage, he killed the Egyptian and fled to the desert, becoming a refugee overnight.

From riches to rags. From prince to shepherd.
For the next forty years, Moses tended sheep in the wilderness of Midian. The man who once walked marble halls now walked dusty desert paths. But sometimes, our greatest setbacks become the setup for our greatest comebacks.

The Burning Bush Moment
At age 80, when most people are thinking about retirement, Moses encountered a bush that burned but wasn't consumed. God had a message: "Go back to Egypt. Tell Pharaoh to let my people go."
Moses wasn't enthusiastic. He knew this new Pharaoh. He understood that asking a ruler to release 2 million slaves was essentially asking him to destroy his entire economic system. But God promised, "I'll go with you."
What followed were the ten plagues, the Exodus, and forty more years leading a nation through the wilderness—years filled with daily miracles, constant complaints, and the enormous task of nation-building.

The Song That Changed Everything
After 120 years of life—40 in a palace, 40 in exile, and 40 leading a nation—Moses penned what many consider the archetypal psalm. Psalm 90 isn't just poetry; it's the distilled wisdom of a man who had seen it all: wealth and poverty, power and powerlessness, the heights of human achievement and the depths of human failure.
This wasn't written from an ivory tower by someone speculating about life's meaning. This came from a man who had lived with upper-class Egyptians, working-class Midianites, and lower-class former slaves. He had observed humanity across every social stratum and reached a profound conclusion.

The Great Revelation: God Is Great, We Are Not
Moses' central thesis is beautifully simple yet revolutionarily humble: God is great, and we are not.

This isn't meant as an insult—it's a diagnosis of reality. In a world where social media constantly tells us we're amazing, where self-help gurus promise we can become anything, Moses offers a different perspective. We are:

Frail: Like grass that grows in the morning and withers by evening
Fallen: Our secret sins are laid bare before God's presence
Finite: Even our longest lives are "like yesterday that passes by"

Meanwhile, God is our eternal refuge, the Creator who existed before mountains were born, unchanging from eternity to eternity.

The Wisdom of Numbering Our Days
"Teach us to number our days carefully so that we may develop wisdom in our hearts," Moses writes. This isn't about morbid obsession with mortality—it's about perspective. When we truly grasp both God's greatness and our own limitations, something remarkable happens: we gain wisdom.

We stop wasting time on petty grievances. We invest in what matters eternally. We ask for help instead of pretending we have it all together.

Five Prayers That Can Transform Your Life
In the final verses of Psalm 90, Moses doesn't ask for small things. He prays five bold, go-big-or-go-home prayers that we can pray today:

1. "Turn and have compassion on me" (v. 13)
This is the foundation prayer—asking for God's forgiveness. Moses understood that the more important the person you offend, the bigger your offense. Since God is the most important Person in the universe, our wrongs against Him require His divine compassion.

2. "Satisfy us with your faithful love and joy" (v. 14)
Instead of asking for temporary happiness from new possessions or achievements, Moses prays for hesed—God's unfailing, covenant love that brings lasting joy. This is love with jelly on top.

3. "Make up for the pain of my past" (v. 15)
Moses asks God to balance the scales—to give as many days of joy as there were days of suffering. Imagine praying, "God, if I've endured 18 months of pandemic hardship, give me 18 months of pure joy to balance it out!"

4. "Let me see You at work" (v. 16)
When we can see God working in our circumstances, even painful ones become bearable. Moses prays for divine perspective—the ability to recognize God's hand in his daily life.

5. "Make something significant from my life" (v. 17)
This is perhaps the biggest prayer of all. Moses asks God to establish the work of their hands—to make their lives count for something eternal. In a world where everything physical will eventually burn up, only people and God's Word last forever.

The Eternal Investment
Thirty years ago, a pastor asked someone a life-changing question: "What are you going to do with your one and only life that will last for eternity?" That question led to the founding of a church dedicated to helping people find God—because people are the only eternal objects in this world.
What about you? What are you building that will outlast your 70-80 years on this planet? What legacy are you creating that extends beyond material success or personal achievement?

Your Moses Moment
Moses wrote Psalm 90 after observing human nature across a century of life. His conclusion wasn't cynical—it was liberating. When we stop pretending we're gods and start acknowledging the true God, we gain access to His unlimited power and love.
God is great, and we are not. But here's the beautiful paradox: when we embrace our smallness, we can ask the great God for really big things. And He delights in answering those prayers.

What big thing do you need to ask Him for today?
The Song of Moses reminds us that true wisdom begins with proper perspective. In a culture obsessed with self-promotion and personal greatness, perhaps the most radical thing we can do is embrace our humanity, acknowledge God's supremacy, and then boldly ask Him to do what only He can do in our lives.