REVIVE US AGAIN

"Will You not revive us again that Your people may rejoice in You?" (Psalm 85:6)

You can't read through the Psalms without hearing God's call to return to the Lord and be revived through His Word. Lately, as I've read this precious book, I've heard that invitation over and over again. And I've discovered that revival permeates the Psalms and even the Old Testament. The word itself is used 27 times in the Bible, but only once in the New Testament.

Paul describes how sin 'revived' in our lives; that is, it pointed out the filthy condition of our hearts, as we've examined ourselves in light of God's Law (Romans 7:9). But in the Psalms, revival is reserved for experiencing new life in Christ and walking in His ways.

In Psalm 80, we pray for revival so we may call upon the name of the Lord (vs. 18). In the longest psalm, we plead for God to revive us according to His Word (Psalm 119:25, 107, 154). We need it so we can turn from worthless things and be revived in following Jesus (vs. 37).

A similar word to revival or being revived is the word 'restore.' In Psalm 60, King David prayed for God to "restore us again" (vs. 1). It's almost a parallel prayer to Psalm 85:6--"Will You not revive us again?"

Why would David and the other psalmists pray this prayer? I believe it's because salvation depends on a restored or right relationship with God. We are helpless and hopeless without Him. We are dead through the unceasing cycle of falling, sinning, and running from the Lord (Ephesians 2:1). We end up being blind to our greatest need, thinking everything is okay. We may say, "I'm a good person. I'm a child of God." But are we? Are we really? Through the deceitfulness of sin, we may not realize how far we've wandered from our Father's house.

One of my favorite Christian authors put it this way--"The Lord has not closed heaven to us, but our own course of continual backsliding has separated us from God. Pride, covetous-ness, and love of the world have lived in the heart without fear of banishment or condemna-tion. Grievous and presumptuous sins have dwelt among us. And yet the general opinion is that the church is flourishing, and that peace and spiritual prosperity are in all her borders. The church has turned back from following Christ, her leader, and is steadily retreating toward Egypt. Yet few are alarmed or astonished at their want of spiritual power. Doubt and even unbelief of the testimonies of the Spirit of God is leavening our churches everywhere” (Christian Service, pg. 39).

Those are hard words to swallow, aren't they? And we might be tempted to shake our heads, thinking I'm not included in this diagnosis. I'm not a Christian like that! But only God can open our eyes so we can see what God sees. And only God has the remedy for this blindness, in seeing our heart's true condition. And salvation depends on knowing the true state of our heart. Without this knowledge, we're in the greatest spiritual danger, for sins unacknowledged become sins unrepented of. They become cherished sins that silence the voice of God in our souls.

But "the closer you come to Christ, the more faulty you will appear in your own eyes; for your vision will be clearer, and your imperfections will be seen in broad and distinct contrast to His perfect nature. This is evidence that Satan’s delusions have lost their power; that the vivifying influence of the Spirit of God is arousing you.

No deep-seated love for Jesus can dwell in the heart that does not realize its own sinfulness. The soul that is transformed by the grace of Christ will admire His divine character; but if we do not see our own moral deformity, it is unmistakable evidence that we have not had a view of the beauty and excellence of Christ” (Steps to Christ, pp. 64-65).

Jesus points out our sins that we may cry out for a Savior. He reveals our impurity that we might crave His cleansing power. “A view of our sinfulness drives us to Him who can pardon” (ibid). And when we reach out to Christ, He will reveal Himself to us as our Redeemer and Deliverer. He will unlock the shackles of our sins and give us new hearts, so we will be born “not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:13).

Victory will no longer be beyond our reach. We shall know by experience that MY God is able to keep me from falling and to present me faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy (Jude 24). We will know firsthand that the gospel is the power of God in our lives. For Jesus is formed within us, the hope and reality of the gospel.

Nothing will shut our lips or keep us sitting in the pew when this is our experience. We will want nothing more than to be God’s witness—in our home, our neighborhood and everywhere else we go. We will want to tell the world what a wonderful Savior we have! We will want to be His demonstration of a loving and faithful Christian, who lives by God’s Word—even His Law and commandments. We will want our lives to testify that “I no longer live but Christ lives in me” (Galatians 2:20).

Christ will do all this and much more when we seek Him with the whole heart. “A revival of true godliness among us is the greatest and most urgent of all our needs. To seek this should be our first work” (Christian Service, pg. 41). May we pray along with David that God will revive His people so we may rejoice in the Lord and in His saving grace.