"It is time to work for the Lord" is the first half of a verse in Psalms that has served as a dramatic slogan at several junctures in rabbinic Judaism.
Psalm 119:126 states: "It is time for the Lord to act, for your law has been broken" (New Oxford Annotated Bible ad loc.
(See Urbach, 836n.93) In the Talmudic period, the verse is thus called upon to justify the radical shift in rabbinic belief after the destruction of the Temple.
Due to the conditions of exilic Jewry, the rabbinic leadership decided to permit the Oral Torah to be transcribed in writing and disseminated.
In Enlightenment period Germany, both the Reform rabbis and their Orthodox opponents cite the verse to justify the urgent nature of their actions ("It is time to act for the Lord").