"And I besought - the term 'besought' [in place of prayed to'] everywhere denotes an act of grace. Even though the righteous could base their requests on the merits of their good deeds, they beg of the Omnipresent only an act of grace." (Rashi)

"Rabbi Simlai interpreted: Why was Moses so eager to enter the Land of Israel? Was it to eat from the land's fruit or to fill himself of its goodness? Rather, so said Moses: 'Many of the mitzvot the Children of Israel were commanded cannot be fulfilled except in the Land of Israel. I will enter the land so that I may fulfill them all." (Sota 14a)

Moses was a man immersed in good deeds, a man of whom the Almighty said: "In all of my house, he is the most faithful." He is the man who led the Children of Israel through the desert. He transformed a nation contaminated by "forty nine gates of impurity," into a nation independent in body and spirit. Such a man could easily request of the Almighty permission to enter the Land of Israel on the merits of his actions, yet he asks only for an act of grace. Why?

The Ba'al Kli Yakar explains: "How is it conceivable that we base [our requests of God] on our past good deeds. Man has no credit with the Almighty, since all of the mitzvot that he may keep are not sufficient to repay all of the favors that God has done for him since the day he was born... And the answer to all this is that "the righteous could base their requests on the merits of their good deeds," does not refer to the good deeds they did in the past, but rather to the good deeds they are destined to do in the future.

A righteous man requests physical benefits only to the extent that they enable him to fulfill a mitzvah... Because of his extreme humility, Moses did not want to base his request on the [future] good deeds that he would be able to do if he were granted permission to enter the land - for what if he were to enter and not fulfill the mitzvot and only have physical benefit. Therefore he besought [the Almighty] for an act of grace."

And so, we learn a great lesson regarding our relationship with the Creator. Our past deeds earn us nothing, for they are insufficient to repay God for the multitude of favors He grants us. Further, it is undesirable to make a request of the Almighty on the merit of the mitzvot we intend to fulfill in the future, for if for some reason we do not fulfill these, we will have been credited in vain.

All of God's favors to us, all of life's wonders and miracles, are no less than acts of grace. It is our duty to be worthy, if only in some small portion, through our actions, of God's gifts to us.