‘O Lord God, you have only begun to show your servant your greatness and your mighty hand.
– Deuteronomy 3:24
Oh, this verse is so profound. So Moses is looking out over the promised land and the place that God is about to take his people, knowing that he’s not going to be able to go with them in it because of sin in his life. And he is looking back and you think about all that Moses has seen and experienced with God. I mean, just list it out, all the plagues where Moses was on the front lines, just seeing the power of God at work. And this after encountering God, speaking with him in a burning bush.
Then Moses leading God’s people out of slavery in Egypt through the middle of a sea with the walls of water on either side, leading them to experience bread from heaven and water from rocks. And Moses was the one who got to go up on the mountain and meet with God and receive his law, where everybody else had to stay away from the mountain. This consuming fire.
Then Moses has been the one who has in the tent of meeting with God, God’s speaking with Moses face-to-face as a man, speaks with his friend. I mean, over and over and over again, Moses has seen so much glory in God.
Deuteronomy 3:24 teaches us that God’s greatness is endless.
And then he gets to this point in Deuteronomy 3 and says, “Oh Lord God, you have only begun to show your servant your greatness and your mighty hand.” Moses said, “All I’ve gotten is a little taste and I want to see more.” And this is the reality for everyone who knows God, the more you experience of God, the more you experience with God, the more you realize your just beginning to explore and experience and see and enjoy his greatness and his might and his wonder.
This is the beauty after all that Moses had seen up to Exodus 33, he says, “Now, please show me your glory.” He had seen so much glory, but once you taste the glory of God, truly, you have an insatiable desire for more and more and more and more. And that is what is reflected here in Deuteronomy 3. So let’s pray accordingly.
Oh God, your glory is infinite, never-ending, inexhaustible. Your attributes are perfect and beyond our comprehension in such a way that we say to you in prayer right now, we praise you for your greatness and your mighty hand that we have seen and experienced, and witnessed in our lives.
Deuteronomy 3:24 challenges us to live in awe of God’s worth.
God, we praise you. I just think of all the ways you have shown me your greatness, different ones of us, your greatness in all kinds of different ways, your love, your mercy, your faithfulness, your goodness, your trustworthiness, your worth. Oh, God. And at the same time, we say we’ve only begun to see all that we know is in you. And we praise you for inviting us, for welcoming us into a journey that will last for all of eternity, where we will never exhaust your greatness. We will never get to a point where we are tired or bored because there will always be more and more and more and more glory to be experienced and enjoyed in you.
We exalt you as the infinitely glorious God. And we pray, as long as you leave us here on this earth, we pray, show us more glory. We want to see, we want to experience more and more glory. We want to show others more and more glory. Oh God, please, may it be so that our desires for your glory would only increase with every passing day and month and year that we walk with you. And God, we pray that others would see your glory through us. Help us in a Matthew 5 kind of way to let our light shine before man, that they might see our lives and give glory to you in heaven.
Prayer for the Tamajaq Tuareg People
We pray for that, for the people around us. We pray for that, for people’s around the world. God, we pray specifically for the Tamajaq Tuareg people of West Africa, Mali, other countries. Lord, we pray that the 1.7 million people who make up the Tamajaq Tuareg that they would see your glory in the face of Jesus. God, please may it be so. We pray all this according to your word in Deuteronomy 3:24. We pray in Jesus’ name, amen.
David Platt serves as a Lead Pastor for McLean Bible Church. He is also the Founder of Radical, an organization that makes Jesus known among the nations.
David received his B.A. from the University of Georgia and M.Div., Th.M., and Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. Some of his published works include Radical, Radical Together, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Don’t Hold Back, and How to Read the Bible.
He lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area with his wife and children.
