Psalm 119:153-160
Psa. 119:153 Consider my affliction and deliver me,
For I do not forget Your law.
Psa. 119:154 Plead my cause and redeem me;
Revive me according to Your Word.
Psa. 119:155 Salvation is far from the wicked,
For they do not seek Your statutes.
Psa. 119:156 Great are Your tender mercies, O LORD;
Revive me according to Your judgments.
Psa. 119:157 Many are my persecutors and my enemies,
Yet I do not turn from Your testimonies.
Psa. 119:158 I see the treacherous, and am disgusted,
Because they do not keep Your Word.
Psa. 119:159 Consider how I love Your precepts;
Revive me, O LORD, according to Your lovingkindness.
Psa. 119:160 The entirety of Your Word is truth,
And every one of Your righteous judgments endures forever.
This week I want to look at the verses together and talk about one thing that stands out for me. Three times in these verses, David asks to be revived.
- Revive me according to Your Word.
- Revive me according to your judgments.
- Revive me according to Your lovingkindness.
It might shock you, but I am not a huge fan of past revivals because it mainly started with a move of God but ended up focusing on a person. The very phrase stirs up a lot of questions for me. Studying revivals in church history, I came to the conclusion that none of them lasted. We had the Brownsville revival, the Azusa Street revival, and many more. Their impact on people was significant and good, but the question remains: Why does the Church need revival when we are supposed to live as a people with power and authority? When did we lose the life God gave us when we got born again? Why are cathedrals in Europe built to God’s glory in the past places where people today have yoga classes and antique stores?
You only try to revive something that is dead. The Church is not supposed to be dead but pulsating with the life of Christ. The Church is not supposed to be an organization or a religious affiliation but a body of whom He is the head, and we are the body – Eph 1:22-23, 3:19, 4:15.
Why does the Church look like the world in so many ways? You can find all these symptoms in Church today!
2Tim. 3:1-5 But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come:
For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good,
traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away!
Is it possible that Churches are preaching a dead theology, void of the life of the Gospel? Preaching messages that soothe the ears of people instead of calling them to repentance – We have encamped around a doctrine or a theological viewpoint and excluded those that are searching for the truth, the truth we think we only have. We have made it our responsibility to convict people with our judgment of their behavior and think we can do a better job than the Holy Spirit. We have accommodated the things that break the heart of God, all in the name of love. We have excused sin and facilitated a mixture of humanism and spirituality.
We have become inward-focused and need-oriented. We worship our experience more than we worship God for who He is. Worship songs elevate our struggle instead of singing about His glory. Instead of evangelism conferences for the lost, we get caught up in dream interpretation and prophetic conferences for the saved. While we facilitate our own needs, we run from one meeting to the next to get a quick spiritual fix. In the meantime, the world is lost, and we don’t give one thought that they are the ones on God’s heart – 2 Pet 3:9.
Do we need revival?
Yes, we do, but one that will change people, not just satisfy their flesh. God promised that He would pour out His Spirit on all flesh, and I pray He does it again. So what will this revival look like? Read the book of Acts, and you will understand.
Revival happens when we do what the Word tells us to do.
The command is to go and make disciples. Go and tell what great things God has done for you. Teach them to uphold all the things Jesus taught about the kingdom. Love people the way God loves them. An unconditional love that is not afraid to demand repentance. Lay down your life for the Gospel instead of fighting for your survival. Serve the ones that persecute you and pray for your enemies. Live holy and be separate from the world. Shun the very appearance of sin and do what is righteous. Pray without ceasing and give to the poor. Remember the widows and the fatherless and visit the people in jail. Stop trying to find the splint in your brother’s eye when you have a beam in your eye. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. Be kind to one another and restore the ones that have fallen into sin. Repent from dead works and bless, don’t curse.
Revive us, O Lord, not for us but for the world that you love, and that needs you!
