Revive us Again
Psalm 85:1-8
Rev. Brian Bill
October 28-29, 2023
In the Massachusetts village of Northampton, a Congregational pastor knelt in prayer. He was burdened for the 1,100 souls of his little town who were in bondage to sin. In a few minutes he would be walking into the pulpit. Should he tell people all was well with their souls? Or should he tell them what he really believed – that unless they experienced the new birth through faith in Jesus Christ, they were headed straight for Hell?
The decision was made. The tall, thin-faced man arose, adjusted his periwig, and entered the sanctuary. That day in 1734 marked the birth of the most notable revival America has ever experienced. Nothing like it had happened before. Nothing quite like it has happened since.
The dark conditions pressed Jonathan Edwards to his knees that Sunday. Gone was the God-fearing generation which settled the land of America. The new generation had forgotten God. Immorality, debauchery, and self-interest ruled. Few cared about the next world. Even those who held to the externals of traditional religion had lost the heart of it. [adapted from America’s Great Revivals]
Several years later, Edwards preached his famous sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” in which he declared, “Mankind’s own attempts to avoid falling into the ‘bottomless gulf’ due to the overwhelming ‘weight and pressure towards Hell’ are insufficient as ‘a spider’s web would have to stop a falling rock.’”
One individual, who was in attendance that Sunday remarked, “Before the sermon was done there was a great moaning and crying out through the whole house – ‘What shall I do to be saved?’”
Our title today is “Revive us Again” and our text is Psalm 85:1-8. Let’s stand and proclaim it together:
“LORD, you were favorable to your land; you restored the fortunes of Jacob. 2 You forgave the iniquity of your people; you covered all their sin. Selah. 3 You withdrew all your wrath; you turned from your hot anger. 4 Restore us again, O God of our salvation, and put away your indignation toward us! 5 Will you be angry with us forever? Will you prolong your anger to all generations? 6 Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you? 7 Show us your steadfast love, O LORD, and grant us your salvation. 8 Let me hear what God the LORD will speak, for he will speak peace to his people, to his saints; but let them not turn back to folly.”
Prayer
Let’s begin with a definition. To “revive” means, “to re-life, to live again, to flourish anew.” Synonyms include “renewing, repairing, restoring, and refreshing.” Ray Pritchard says you revive something when you bring it back to life. Revival awakens the saved from a state of spiritual slumber. Here’s a more formal definition, “Revival is the sovereign act of God, whereby He calls His backsliding people to repentance, faith, and new obedience to Him.”
I like how another pastor puts it: “We need an old-fashioned, heaven-sent, soul-saving, sin-erasing, devil-chasing, banner-waving, Christian-flaming, Holy Ghost-revival…from the pulpit to the pew…let’s have revival that starts with me and you!”
According to multiple sources, scores of students at Auburn University surrendered to Christ recently. This put a smile on my face because I came to Christ when I was in college. In February, when accounts of revival at Asbury circulated, I started praying this prayer, “Do it here, Lord!”
While it’s possible to manipulate a movement or focus on emotional excesses, I never want to be skeptical of what the Holy Spirit might be doing. Jesus said it like this in John 3:8: “The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” In two weeks, we’ll launch our series on the Holy Spirit called, “Our Holy Helper.”
During the first weekend of our “Unshaken and Unashamed” series, the Holy Spirit seemed to be blowing through our worship services and in the lives of His people for His glory as hundreds of us stood in response to a call to surrender our bodies as living sacrifices to the Lord (see Romans 12:1-2). We shouldn’t be surprised because we’ve been praying Psalm 85:6 during our Everyone emphasis this past year: “Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you?” Could it be happening right now? Lord, make it so. Do it here, Lord. Bring revival now.
Let’s turn to Psalm 85 and make some initial observations.
1. This psalm is addressed, “to the Choirmaster,” meaning it was intended to be sung in worship. It was written by “the sons of Korah.” While Korah led a rebellion and was swallowed up by the earth, his sons were chosen to be worship leaders. This shows how God does a new work in each generation.
2. This psalm contains a community lament and captures a longing for revival.
3. The setting took place sometime after God’s people returned from exile in Babylon. When they came back to the land, they were initially fired up spiritually, but then stagnation set in. One pastor remarked that this can happen in churches as well when they move from being a ministry, to a movement, to a museum, to a mausoleum.
4. The psalm begins by addressing the “Lord” in verse 1. In the first three verses, the words “you” or “your” are used 10 times to refer to Yahweh. This tells us we must seek an encounter with the Lord, not an emotional experience. Notice we’re to begin with praise, not petition.
5. In verses 1-3, we see an emphasis on six things God did in the past:
• You were favorable to your land.
• You restored the fortunes.
• You forgave the iniquity.
• You covered all their sin.
• You withdrew all your wrath.
• You turned from your hot anger.
6. The first three verses focus on the past while the next three center on the present. We move from, “You did it before” to “Do it again right now.” Look at verses 4-7:
• Restore us.
• Revive us.
• Show us.
• Grant us.
7. There’s a progression that starts with “You,” referring to the Lord, and then a focus on “their sin,” to “us” to “me” in verse 8: “Let me hear what God the Lord will speak…” Ultimately, revival must begin with me.
We can pull all this together into a summary statement: Lord, since you revived others in the past, do it again right now, and let it begin with me.
I want you to see the word “Selah” after verse 2. This word appears 74 times in the Bible and is most likely a musical rest, in which the singers stopped singing and only the instruments were heard. According to one Bible dictionary, this phrase can also signify a musical crescendo that is then followed by silent reflection. It also carries with it the idea of “meditation.” The Septuagint, which is the earliest Greek translation of the Old Testament, translates “Selah” as “intermission.” The idea is to get us to take a breath in order to reflect and remember. I like how the Amplified Version renders it: “Pause and calmly think about that.” As we walk through the passage, I’m going to call us to pause and pray several times.
Let’s look more closely at verse 6: “Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you?”
1. Only God can send revival. We must first cry out to Yahweh because we want His way in our life. Psalm 69:32 says, “You who seek God, let your hearts revive.” Psalm 71:20 declares, “You who have made me see many troubles and calamities will revive me again.” Revival is not “worked up” by us; it is “sent down” by God. In his classic book, Why Revival Tarries, Leonard Ravenhill writes, “Revival is when God gets so sick and tired of being misrepresented that He shows up Himself.”
While you can’t schedule a revival by putting it on the church calendar, you can prepare yourself for it. G. Campbell Morgan said it well: “We cannot organize revival, but we can set our sails to catch the wind from Heaven when God chooses to blow upon His people again.” Hosea 6:1-2 says, “Come, let us return to the Lord…after two days He will revive us.”
Let’s pause and seek God right now.
2. We must repent before seeking revival. Too many of us are OK with where we are because we’re comfortable with our pet sins. Also, it can be threatening to ask for revival because it invariably means we need to repent. One pastor nailed it when he said, “The flesh will fight against revival, for to have revival we must admit that we have a need…and that goes against our fleshly nature!”
I don’t know much about counseling but when someone is in a mess and they’re wanting help, I’ll often ask this question, “How badly do you want to get better?” If you only sort-of want to get better, you won’t get better. A.W. Tozer writes: “Revival will come to us and within us when we really want it, when we pay the price.” Perhaps revival has not come because we don’t want it badly enough.
We live in a sin-soaked society dripping with downright depravity. On top of that, many Christians are cold, carnal, complacent, comfortable, complaining, caustic, and cantankerous. We live in terrible times, but actually these conditions are perfect for revival! Adrian Rogers put it like this: “Study the history of revival. God has always sent revival in the darkest days. Oh, for a mighty, sweeping revival today!”
We see this in 2 Chronicles 7:14: “If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” Two of the four conditions for God to forgive and heal His people have to do with being humble and turning from our wicked ways.
The first condition is to “humble ourselves.” The root of the word humility comes from “humus,” meaning dirt or soil. It has the idea of “bending the knee and neck in deference to another.” James 4:10 says, “Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.” Listen to Isaiah 57:15: “…to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite.” I heard someone put it like this: “Humble yourself before the Lord…or He’ll do it for you.”
Another condition is to “turn from our wicked ways.” The word “turn” is used over 1,000 times in the Bible! The order here is significant. As we humble ourselves and pray and seek God with all that we have, our hunger will be satisfied by the sight of God’s face, and we will no longer want to hold on to those things that grieve God.
The idea is to change the direction in which our heart is inclined. King Josiah is a good model of this in 2 Kings 23:25: “Josiah turned to the Lord with all his heart and soul and might!” After rediscovering Scripture, God brought revival. We won’t take the time to consider Josiah’s revival, but I encourage you to read 2 Chronicles 34-35 on your own and trace how repentance led to revival which resulted in rejoicing.
Psalm 66:18 is a powerful verse: “If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened.” There’s really no way to soften the command to turn from our wicked ways. God accepts only one response to sin, not rationalizing, not excusing, not “sin management,” and not comparing ourselves to others. He demands that “we turn from our wicked ways.” Proverbs 28:13: “Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will find mercy.”
Write this down: The depth of our repentance will determine the depth of our revival.
Have you been playing around with sin? Repent right now. Have you been withholding forgiveness from someone? Stop acting as their judge and free them from ever having to pay you back. Do you have some dark secrets you’ve been trying to hide from God and your loved ones? Bring them into the light. Joshua 24:14: “Throw away the gods your forefathers worshiped…and serve the Lord.” Admit your sin and then abandon it.
Leonard Ravenhill once said: “The world has lost its power to blush over its vice; the church has lost her power to weep over it.” This week, I was challenged by a quote from Lori Frank: “We can look at our culture the way Jonah looked at Nineveh or the way Jesus looked at Jerusalem.”
Lord, since you revived others in the past, do it again right now, and let it begin with me.
Let’s pause now to confess our sins and repent from them.
3. We need to be revived on a regular basis. We see this in the phrase, “revive us again.” In preparation for this message, I read a very helpful book called, America’s Greatest Revivals. Here are some of the notes I took.
• Revivals are Holy Spirit-inspired, unpredictable, and extraordinary.
• God uses various methods, but most revivals can be traced to strong preaching and protracted times of prayer.
• God uses different personalities. Jonathan Edwards was studious and reserved, while George Whitefield was expressive and passionate.
• Revivals often happened when things were at their darkest in culture and in churches.
• Many reported an “intense sensation of the presence of God.”
• Some revivals came about because of preaching about judgement and Hell (Edwards), while others can be traced to an overwhelming emphasis upon the love of God (Moody).
• Many revivals broke out among students and young adults. BTW, there were 84 in the Student Center Wednesday night!
• There’s always an emphasis upon personal salvation and sanctification.
• Waves of conviction caused people to repent of their sins. Often sinners would wander into meetings and immediately drop to their knees at the front of the church. W. Graham Scroggie writes: “There never has been a spiritual revival which did not begin with an acute sense of sin.”
• Christians often felt an urgency to share Christ with everyone because of the reality of Hell and judgment.
• Preachers from various denominations often partnered together in gospel proclamation.
• Some revivals had a sense of “holy stillness” while others were more spectacular.
• Many revivals had emotional excesses and strange occurrences.
• When revivals were going on, it was common for Christians to oppose, resist, and mock them.
• Many revivals led to God raising up missionaries and missions.
• Some revivals led to a theological and doctrinal resurgence.
• Revivals affected society and culture. In fact, you can’t understand the history of America apart from the influence of revivals.
• Revivals eventually end, but the results can last a long time. A lady once asked Billy Sunday: “Why do you keep having revivals when it doesn’t last?” He smiled and asked her, “Why do you keep taking baths?”
• Revivals often came about through the commitment and influence of just one individual.
Vance Havner said, “A revival is the church falling in love with Jesus Christ all over again.”
Pause now and ask God to revive you.
4. Revival and rejoicing are connected. The word “rejoice” means, “to be joyful, to gloat in God.” David knew unconfessed sin was sapping his joy. That’s why he prayed these words in Psalm 51:12: “Restore to me the joy of my salvation.” Have you ever considered that your sour spirit may be connected to sin in your life?
It's hard to be happy when you’re living an unholy life because guilt will gut your joy and the shame that comes from sinning will rupture your rejoicing. We see this in Psalm 32:3 when David chose not to confess his sins: “For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long.”
Repentance brings refreshment according to Acts 3:19-20: “Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord…” The idea behind “refreshing” is “cooling, relief and rest from difficult, distressful or burdensome circumstances.” One commentator puts it precisely: “No repentance, no refreshing.” When God revives us, we can’t help but rejoice!
Lord, since you revived others in the past, do it again right now, and let it begin with me.
Let’s pause and ask God to restore to us the joy of our salvation.
5. Revival is for those who have been reborn. We see this in the phrase, “your people.” There are 16 revivals recorded in Scripture and 5 of the 7 churches listed in Revelation 2-3 are challenged to repent and return to the Lord. Here’s one example from Revelation 3:2-4: “Wake up, and strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your works complete in the sight of my God. Remember, then, what you received and heard. Keep it, and repent. If you will not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come against you.”
God knows His people can lose their first love. He knows we can get soft in our spirituality and disengage from what He deems most important. In Habakkuk 3:2, the prophet prays, “O Lord, I have heard the report of you; and your work, O Lord, do I fear. In the midst of the years revive it…”
I like what the evangelist Billy Sunday once said, “When is revival needed? When carelessness and unconcern keep the people asleep. A revival does two things. First, it returns the Church from her backsliding and second, it causes the conversion of men and women; and it always includes the conviction of sin on the part of the Church.”
Charles Finney said, “A revival is nothing else than a new beginning of obedience to God.”
Biblical revival comes to God’s people who determine to follow God’s plan so that they can receive God’s promises. Once we are revived and awakened, the overflow will spill into the lives of others.
Let’s pause here. If you’re not yet saved, ask Jesus to save you right now.
6. We must pray for revival. Notice this is a request in the form of a question: “Will you not revive us again?” Rick Joyner writes: “Every revival in history seems to be the result of a few people becoming so hungry for God that they wanted Him more than oxygen.”
I’m going to lead us in prayer. But before that, listen to these convicting words from Leonard Ravenhill: “No man is greater than his prayer life. The pastor who is not praying is playing; the people who are not praying are straying. We have many organizers, but few agonizers; many players and payers, but few pray-ers… many fears, few tears; much fashion, little passion; many interferers, few intercessors; many writers, but few fighters...the only reason we don’t have revival is because we are willing to live without it.”
Lord, since you revived others in the past, do it again right now, and let it begin with me.
Revival must begin with me…and with you. Psalm 85:8 says, “Let me hear what God the Lord will speak, for He will speak peace to His people, to His saints; but let them not turn back to folly.”
It’s always easier to confess someone else’s sins, isn’t it? Revival begins with the person you see when you look in the mirror.
Gypsy Smith, an English evangelist, was once asked what the secret of revival is. He answered, “Go home. Take a piece of chalk. Draw a circle around yourself. Then pray, ‘O Lord, revive everything inside this circle.’”
[Demonstrate]
We’re going to close with the song, Revive us Again. Please remain seated as the song begins and then I want you to stand if you’re ready for God to send revival to your soul. If you’re in need of prayer, feel free to come up front during the song.
Pastoral Prayer
Closing Song: Revive us Again
Revive us again,
Fill each heart with Thy love.
May each soul be rekindled,
With fire from above.
Challenge
You received a piece of chalk when you came in today. If you missed it, we have some up front and more in the lobby. Sometime this week, take this chalk and draw a circle around yourself in your driveway, on your front porch, on a sidewalk, or if you can’t wait, do it out in the parking lot before you go home today! As you stand in the circle, pray something like this: “Lord, since you revived others in the past, do it again right now, and let it begin with me. O Lord, revive everything inside this circle.”
“Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you?”
