REVIVALS OF THE BIBLE SERIES:
PSALMS 85: (1-7)
REVIVE US AGAIN!
[Numbers 16]
The passage that we have just read is a heartfelt prayer for revival. The Psalmist is thinking back upon the spiritual history of Israel. He is remembering how, after Israel had given into sin time after time, God had always provided a plan to bring them back to Himself. And with this thought in mind, his heart cries out to God, “Wilt Thou Thyself not revive us again?”
Looking at our own nation, and its present situation, one can easily see the desperate need for revival. Our nation is dying (dead) in trespasses and sins and too many churches are spiritually asleep, therefore our land and our life is rapidly losing its Christian essence. The people of God seem spiritually impotent, the fires of devotion are burning low, and the joy of the Lord is all but gone. The consistent lack of obedience to the will of God among Christians is the problem underlying the need for revival. The followers of Christ have ceased to function as salt and light (Mt. 5:13-16) consequently there is minimal check on the ungodliness that is flooding our once noble land. Wickedness therefore grows like weeds and no unifying voice is raised in protest or warning about the frightening judgment of God that unchecked evil authorizes.
Is it all over then? One cannot be sure. God’s people and the world have fallen into dark decadence before, but God answered His faithful remnant’s cry with revival. Will He do it again? He will if we fervently desire Him to do so. It does not matter the severity of judgment we deserve. If mourning over and cleansing from sin would occur along with a new willingness to be obedient to His will, revival most certainly could come down upon us.
Note in the sub-heading for the Psalm. It says a Psalm of the sons of Korah meaning this beautiful prayer, probably set to music, was composed by the sons of Korah. “Now the name of Korah is connected with infamy in Numbers 16. There Korah, along with certain persons from the tribe of Reuben-Dathan, Abiram, and On– became insolent when they declared that it was time for a change in leadership. Moses and Aaron had to go! They argued that all the congregation was ‘Holy,’ so why should Aaron and Moses set themselves up as leaders over the Lord’s assembly? (Num. 16:3).
Moses and Aaron were instructed by God to tell the congregation of Israel to move away from the tents of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram (Num.16:23, 26). Suddenly the earth opened up, and they went down to their graves alive (Num. 16:33).
One would think that all the natural descendants of Korah would forever be cut off from the mercy and grace of God, but the title to this psalm indicates that” they found favor with God. The same Mosaic law that taught that God would punish the sins of “Fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me” (Exod. 20:4) also taught that “fathers shall not be put to death for their children, nor children put to death for their fathers; each is to die for his [or her] own sin” (Deut. 24:16). Thus the marvelous grace of God did not hold against the lineal descendants of Korah the faults that overtook their forefather, but instead raised them to even greater heights by allowing them to be the authors of Scripture, including Psalms 42-49; 84-85; and 87-88. In 2 Chronicles 20:19 the Korahites stood along with the Levities and the Kohahites to praise the Lord as they marched toward the enemy army.
How appropriate, then, that the family that had experienced so generously the grace of God should be used by God to call their generation and ours back to that same God of Grace! They did this in Psalm 85, with four strophes that laid out before the Lord four requests:” [Walter Kaiser, Jr. Revives Us Again. Broadman & Holman Publ. Nashville, TN. 1999. p. 20.]
I. GOD’S PAST FAITHFULNESS, 1-3.
II. OUR PRESENT DISTRESS, 4-7.
III. PEACE AND GLORY IN THE LAND, 8-9.
IV. THE PREPARED PATH OF DELIVERANCE, 10-13.
This beautiful prayer for revival should teach us how we ought to pray as we earnestly storm the gates of heaven and cry out to God to revive His church, our sin laden culture, and the nations.
I. PAST RESTORATIONS, 1-3.
A victorious Christian life will be one that has many beginning again experiences with God. A good way to find restoration or a fresh start with God is to praise God for His past faithfulness. In spite of their present suffering the faithful remnant who had returned to the promised land from the captivity of Babylon does just that as the Psalm begins in verse one. “O Lord, You showed favor to Your land; You restored the captivity of Jacob.”
Do you realize that past revivals have been responsible for bringing to us the benefits and blessings we now enjoy? And that is indeed the basis on which the psalm begins. God has been favorable to His people in the past. In fact, that is the very essence of our definition of revival. “A revival is a time when believers witness an extraordinary work of God enlivening, strengthening, and elevating the spiritual life and vitality already possessed, but which is now in a state of decline and is feeble, mediocre, and dull in its out- workings. Revivals come as “times of refreshing from the Lord” (Acts 3:19) or, in the case of Israel, it was a time when God restored” their fortunes. [Ibid. Kaiser p. 21]
For modern evidences of such EXTRAORDINARY MOVEMENTS of God among His saints, one need only look to South Korea’s history in the last fifty years, or to what has gone on in Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union, and the People’s republic of China in even more recent days. In each case, a cleansed and revived church has led to fantastic enlargement of the believing family of God. For example, with less than a million believers in China prior to 1950, the Spirit of God has added, mainly since 1979, another 80 to 100 million believers in that nation that contains one-fourth of the earth’s population!
And who can forget the 15 to 20 million believers in South Korea in a nation of just over 45 million citizens? Most of that growth in South Korea has come since the Korean War in the 1950’s. Yes, the Lord has shown favor to the lands that rightfully acknowledge Him. But let Korea or any other nation forget what God has done, and the results are tragic; markets tumble, economies collapse, and prestige vanishes, until the believing community remembers where its strength and glory came from. [Kaiser, Ibid. 22].
Yes, it is our land that is being devastated by sin and its effects, but it is also YAHWEH’s land, dedicated to Him for His glory by our forefather, the pilgrims and puritans. For not only has God showed favor to the promised land, He has shown favor to our land, the USA, in thousands of ways. And God’s past doings are prophetic of what He wants to do again, for He does not change. He has been favorable in the past therefore the plea to be gracious again is appropriate. Many times foes have been baffled, plaques stopped, famine averted and deliverance sent.
Yes, He has restored the captivity of Jacob. When down-trodden and oppressed because of their sins, the ever-Merciful One heard their pleas changed their situations and chased away the oppressor and again gave peace and prosperity to His people. God has done this not a few times but multiplied beyond number times. Many times His people have fallen into sin’s captivity by their backsliding but we have not been left there. God has brought us back and restored us to fellowship. Will He not do so again? Let our church remember the times in her history when Christ has stepped in and restored her from sinfulness to purity, from lethargy to vibrant faithfulness.
In verse 2 the people remind God of past forgiveness and cleansing. “You forgave the iniquity of Your people; You covered all their sin. Selah.”
Who forgives like God? Slow to anger as He in kindness and mercy solicits repentance. Every believer in Jesus can enjoy the restoration of pardoned iniquity and should regard it as the priceless blessing as well as a pledge of future mercies and restorations. He who has given us the greatest, our eternal salvation, will He not give us the lesser restoration and revival? We should then plea for it on that bases before God also. Let not our enemy destroy the outworking of Your salvation O Lord.
Listen to the second part of verse 2, “You covered all their sin.” The Lord covered all our past sin, every foul spot and imperfection hid by the sacrificial covering of the shed blood of Jesus. The Lord has atoned for it so completely that even His omniscient eye sees it no more. What a miracle this is! To cover up the sun would be an easier work than covering our sin. Only the blood atonement of our Lord Jesus is sufficient by one act to cover it. Oh, bless the applied blood of Jesus! For without the shedding of blood theri is no atoning for sin.
Verse 3 describes a dramatic turning point. “You withdrew all You fury, You turned away from Your burning anger.”
So often God has been moved to pardon even as His fearful sword was unsheathed and ready to strike. Having covered their sin the fury it justly invoked is set aside also. How often did the loving-kindness of God hold back the punishments Jacob deserved. How often God’s chastising hand held back when our waywardness call for weightier strokes.
God also turned away (shuv) or “called back His burning anger.” The offended holiness of God is like a consuming or kindled fire. Even when our discipline seemed most severe the Lord in mercy held back His hand. When the lightening of His sword started to descend and destroy He averted the sword of judgment from its direct blow. He restrained His burning anger so that we experienced only His thunder
When we open our ears to hear His thunder word and we repent and turn back to God by confessing our sins, He not only turns away His anger, He turns back to us and restores us. If we would but return to God, He would return to us.
II. OUR PRESENT DISTRESS, 4-7.
The central or focal point of the Psalm is found in verse 4. “Restore (or revive) us, O God of Our Salvation (deliverance), and cause Your indignation toward us to cease.”
After confession and repentance come restoration and revival. Spiritual growth cannot exist where there is unconfessed sin. The argument is, in prior days You wondrously saved us and forgave our sins when we acknowledged and turned from them. We therefore are encouraged to ask You to bring us out of our present distress by leading us to forsake our sins once again.
The word translated restore (shuv) us could be rendered return us or revive us. The Psalmist is praying this and leading the congregation to prayerfully sing for God to lead the people to repent and become willing to forsake their evil ways. He asks God to lead the people to forsake their sins and return to Him. They desperately need and want God’s life at work within them.
“The indignation” of the Lord was fierce toward them, thus they begged that it might cease. The word cease or put away means “to declare void, annual or abolish.” The only way for Christians, churches or nations to escape God’s chastisement because of their sins is to repent and return to Him. When we cease to rebel, the Lord ceases to be indignant toward us. When we heed His correcting chastisements and return to Him, He will return to us. O that we would return and cause our rebellion come to an end.
Whenever God’s people are experiencing disaster, heartache, or disappointment, they can raise their voices to God and ask Him to intervene as is done in verse 5. “Will You be angry with us forever? Will You prolong Your anger to all generations?”
The Psalmist continues His plea for God’s displeasure to cease. He asks God to relent of His “anger” because it is not yet the time or place of eternal punishment. He ask God to remember that His anger is with us, meaning God’s covenant people.
The Psalmist knew that the cause and effect cycle of their sin must be broken and that God alone was capable of over-ruling their deserved chastisement. The plea is based on God’s history of relenting and on His revealed character as a God of Mercy to those who live in time and flesh. When we are under such distress we may beg in like manner that the days of tribulation be shorten for we are His and our frail being cannot hold-up under such anguish.
Verse 6 embodies what is usually thought of as the principle and promise of revival. In these relatively brief words, we find a most vivid definition of revival. You may have heard them over and over throughout your life; but they are no less true today than the day you first heard them. Listen as the psalmist directly asks God to revive, to bring them into spiritual life in verse 6. “Will You not Yourself revive us again, that Your people may rejoice in You?”
The Psalmist pours out his heart before God and request revival for himself and his people, the people of God. The word in Hebrew translated “revive” consists of two words. The first word, already used several times, means to turn or return. The second term comes from a word that means to live, to be or become strong, vigorous, or to be restored. This word is so forceful that again is added. The call was for God to raise up His people from their state of spiritual death or deadness and restore them. The image is that of spring’s return or restoration after the winter’s death or of the grass that revives when, after a long drought, rain comes.
Notice that revival is God’s work. “You, Yourself” revive us (vv. 4,6), they prayed. We are dead or dying, faint and feeble. God alone can revive our spirituality. Revival comes from God, it cannot be imitated or self-induced. Revival is God’s gift. He has sent times of refreshing in the past to His repentant people, He will refresh them again, will He not?
What we don’t need is a series of services and label it revival. But rather what is needed is an old fashioned, old time, Holy Ghost anointed, sin killing, devil stomping, sinner praying, saint praising, fire kindling, power packing, life changing, reconciling, soul saving, God breathed heaven sent Revival.
What is a reason we can plead so for a time of refreshing from the Spirit of the Lord? We plea for revival that “His people may rejoice in God.” The Lord does not desire to punish His people but wants them to rejoice in Him. The Psalmist grew in hope and confidence in His plea because he knew that God wants His people to rejoice in Him. That is also the result of revival, God’s people rejoicing in Him. This happy condition of our soul is brought about because of its uplifting focus on God, on Jesus Christ and on our relationship with Him. Our degree of possession of this joy is an indication of our spiritual condition. Joy in the Lord is the gauge of our inward spiritual life. A genuine revival without joy in the Lord is as impossible as a spring without flowers or a dawn without light. Nothing else brings such gladness as a proper relationship with God. And only God’s power and grace could make them joyful, could make their dry bones live again. God does not just want to get us into heaven, He also wants to get heaven into us. But why would He bring about such renewed life? Verse 7 says revival is a gift of God’s love.
Verse 7 calls on God to pour out His love on His people, His church, that our love for Him might be renewed and be further sanctified. “Show us Your loving-kindness, O Lord, and grant us Your salvation.”
The Hebrew word used for love or loving-kindness is hesed, one of the most beautiful and most difficult words to translated in the O.T. It denotes God’s rich and abundant compassion. It includes the ideas that God is gracious, loving, and faithfully loyal to all that He has promised to do and more. Thus the same love that chastens us to cause us to see and hear is willing to revive us by bringing us back to the forgiving Savior. The plea is that God would show us, make known, or make plain, His loving-kindness to us. They had experienced His displeasure, now they want to experience His loving-kindness.
The continued request is that the Lord would grant His salvation or deliverance. This is not a request to be saved or brought into the family of God for the first time. It is a request that we be delivered from the just consequences of our sin. For too long the body has suffered powerlessness, unhappiness, affliction, conflict, scattering, and a cultural captivity that has made the church the laughing stock of the heathen.
Some of the sins we need to be delivered from should be mentioned. One is the sin of non-attendance in the house of God. Hebrews 10:25 warns, “Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing.” Another is unreliability and unfaithfulness in Christian service. 1 Corinthians 4:2 likewise warns, “Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful.” Where the fires of revival burned dimly, [if at all,] there are scores of positions for service in God’s vineyard and His house that go begging for faithful and dedicated workers.
After ROBERT RAIKES had experienced a personal revival with God saw a group of little children in the street while walking through a community where many people lived who were employed in manufacturing pins. He expressed his concern for their Christian welfare to one of the people there. He was told that if he were to pass down that street on a Sunday, he would be shocked to see the crowds of children milling about. Raikes said that, immediately, he determined to make some effort to remedy the situation. His effort resulted in the first Sunday School. From this came a movement which has encircled the globe. God sends His revivals in many ways, but they always are related to human need and implemented by those who have compassionate hearts.
Third, the sin of unholiness in everyday affairs could be mentioned. First Thessalonians 4:7 boldly affirms, “For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life.” Hence, all that offends the holiness of God is one more reason why we ought to cry out to God in repentance for His reviving power in our lives again.
CONCLUSION
Rejoicing is not optional for the Christian, it is essential to the Christian life. People who have little inner joy are probably in desperate need of God’s reviving work. Without the reviving power and presence of God there can be no spiritual life or vitality. If we are to have life, real life, we must ask the source of that life, and fulfill His conditions to receive it by His grace.
God has brought revival in the past. Will you come together and seek God’s face for His special working in our midst? We need a divine visitation that God’s people might rejoice in Him.
Ask God to give you, to give us, a fresh touch of His love.
