A New Song

Something remarkable is happening in a little town called Wilmore, Ky., right now.

For the past 11 days, a revival has been taking place on and around the campus of Asbury University.

Now, understand that the school itself is not calling this a revival. School officials are calling it an “outpouring,” as in an outpouring of the Holy Spirit. And I think they’re wise in being careful about using the term “revival,” and I’ll tell you why in a bit.

Nonetheless, what is happening there is being called a revival by the media, by church pastors from a wide array of denominations, by many of those who have attended the event, by bloggers and TikTokkers and by many others.

It all started with a solid, if otherwise unremarkable chapel message by one of the Asbury professors during the mandatory campus chapel service the Wednesday before last. He preached about loving one another with the love of Jesus — a love that’s unselfish and even sacrificial.

When he was finished and the small worship team had finished the last refrain of their closing song, some students hung back and joined one another in prayer.

The professor invited them to remain in the chapel as long as they wanted. Soon, they had been joined by scores, and then hundreds of other students.

The worship team came back, along with prayer teams and counselors. And the worship continued throughout the night. And then throughout the next day and night.

Asbury University has been the site of several other marathon revival services, including one in February of 1970 that continued for 144 hours without stopping.

After the 1970 outpouring, some 2,000 witness teams were sent out from Asbury to churches and to more than 130 college campuses throughout the nation.

That particular revival is credited with stoking the fires of the so-called Jesus Movement that pushed back against the hedonism of the late ‘60s and launched some of the West-coast churches that helped give birth to the praise music genre of contemporary Christian music.

I was watching videos posted by folks who have been at Asbury during the past week, and what I saw was beautiful.

The 1,500-seat chapel has been full, with students and others coming and going throughout the days and into the nights. Music has been led by a piano and guitar — or even sung a capella — with musicians and singers spelling one another to give each other rest.

In one row of seats, hands are lifted in praise, while in another row, heads are bowed in prayer. Folks kneel or lie prostrate at the steps of the platform, turning it into an altar of prayer, while others kneel around them and lay hands on them in love and support.

There have been periods of confession and testimony interspersed among the times of prayer and worship, along with brief Gospel messages.

Perhaps even more amazing than what’s going on inside the chapel is what’s been happening outside.

Four overflow locations have been set up for worship. Yesterday, someone who had just arrived on the campus described a line of people more than a mile long waiting for a seat to open up in the Asbury chapel.

Their video showed thousands of others on the school’s lawns singing “How Great Is Our God” as they watched a video stream from inside the chapel.

And what is happening at Asbury University seems to have spawned similar outpourings at other colleges and universities around the nation. At least 15 other institutions across the nation have reported similar events.

Is this a revival? Well, hearts are being changed. People are coming to Jesus in faith. Confession and repentance are taking place. People are reporting the palpable presence of the Holy Spirit in the midst of the assembly at Asbury University.

All of these things would be expected from a Holy Spirit -inspired and -directed revival. And all of these are things for which we should be praying, both for Asbury and for ourselves.

But there’s something we will have to wait to see before we can label this “outpouring” a true revival. Before we can truly label it a revival, we’re going to have to see where it leads, what new thing comes from it.

Back in 1970, that university followed the 144 days of continuous worship with two weeks of nightly services. And then, it sent 2,000 teams of people who had been part of those services out into the world to spread the Good News of a Savior who loves us.

As I mentioned earlier, a whole new genre of praise music was one of the results. One of the West Coast churches that was formed in the wake of that revival began raising people up to plant other churches; to date, they have planted more than 1,400 other churches.

In other words, the Holy Spirit didn’t just show up at Asbury University in 1970 to make a bunch of people feel good about their relationship with God for a few weeks.

Instead, He was poured out upon those folks so that they would go and make disciples. So they’d go and tell.

That’s what we see in the first New Testament revival, the one on the Day of Pentecost that resulted in the formation of the Acts 2 church.

Remember that the crucified Jesus had ascended back into heaven 40 days after His resurrection. Nine days later, 120 of His followers were gathered in Jerusalem for the Feast of Weeks, and Luke writes that they were all gathered together “with one mind, continually devoting themselves to prayer.”

And it was in that place that the Spirit of Promise came to them. Look what Luke says in chapter 2. He came with a noise like a rushing wind,

Acts 2:4 NASB95

4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit was giving them utterance.

Much as with what’s been taking place at Asbury University, this gathering had been filled with worship and with prayer and with fellowship and love.

And though I haven’t seen anybody record such a physical manifestation of the Spirit’s presence at Asbury, it seems clear that He is surely present in what they’re experiencing there.

But what takes place next in the Book of Acts is the key to why I say that we’ll have to wait and see what happens before labeling this outpouring as a revival. Look at verse 14.

Acts 2:14 NASB95

14 But Peter, taking his stand with the eleven, raised his voice and declared to them: “Men of Judea and all you who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you and give heed to my words.

And then, Peter the fisherman launches into a wondrous, Holy Spirit-inspired sermon about how Jesus, who had been crucified in Jerusalem less than two months earlier, was the promised Messiah, Israel’s Lord and Savior, whom they had put to death on a cross.

And it wasn’t just Peter who was talking. What we’re meant to understand from verse 4 is that the 120 people who had been gathered in prayer and received the Holy Spirit in that upper room in Jerusalem were given the ability to speak languages they had not previously known, the languages of all the people who had come to Jerusalem for this great Jewish feast day. They were Peter’s interpreters to those around them.

The people who heard this sermon were pierced to the heart, Luke writes, and many repented of their sins and turned to Jesus in faith that only HIs sacrificial death and supernatural resurrection could provide a way for them to be reconciled to God.

“And that day, there were added about three thousand souls” to the new church.

The followers of Jesus had a nine-day prayer meeting, where they worshiped and sang and prayed for the coming of the Holy Spirit, whom Jesus had promised to send in His place.

And when the Spirit came, they certainly would have experienced great joy. They certainly would have experienced a closeness to God that they never before had imagined.

They certainly would have experienced the wonder and excitement that we are hearing from those who have been at Asbury University during the past 11 days.

But I’m afraid we have used the term “revival” a bit too loosely here in America in recent years.

In my own Baptist tradition, we scheduled revivals twice a year. Great speakers would come and talk about Jesus. Choirs from around the city would gather to lift their voices in praise. Prayer teams would gather before, during, and after the weeklong events.

And a few people would make professions of faith. And they’d be baptized. And then, everything would go back to normal. There was no great outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

We didn’t see people of God on their faces in confession and repentance. There was no renewed cry for justice and peace. We heard the speakers and the choirs. Maybe we came home with a bounce in our step that was missing earlier that day. But everything just sort of fizzled from there.

This isn’t how the church responded to revival in Acts, chapter 2. How did THEY respond? Look at verse 42.

Acts 2:42–47 NASB95

42 They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43 Everyone kept feeling a sense of awe; and many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles. 44 And all those who had believed were together and had all things in common; 45 and they began selling their property and possessions and were sharing them with all, as anyone might have need. 46 Day by day continuing with one mind in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart, 47 praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved.

They were DEVOTING themselves to the apostles’ teaching. They were DEVOTING themselves to fellowship, to community, and to prayer. They KEPT FEELING a sense of AWE. They were experiencing UNITY and were sincerely glad to be spending time together.

They were praising God in PUBLIC, and the lost community around this church took notice of what was going on. There was something altogether new happening in Jerusalem, and the world could not help but notice it.

Now, we’ve been talking the past few weeks about the new things we are promised as those who follow Jesus in faith. And this week, we were scheduled to talk about the new song that is on our lips as believers.

We see King David talk about this new song in the 40th Psalm. And, as it turns out, this psalm is about revival, even if the Hebrew word for revival isn’t used there.

I want to spend the remainder of our time this morning looking at a portion of this psalm and discovering what it tells us about revival. I’ll warn you that we’re going to jump around a bit. Let’s start by taking a look at the first two verses.

Psalm 40:1–2 NASB95

1 I waited patiently for the Lord; And He inclined to me and heard my cry. 2 He brought me up out of the pit of destruction, out of the miry clay, And He set my feet upon a rock making my footsteps firm.

We don’t know what the situation was that had David so despondent as to describe himself in a “pit of destruction” and stuck in “the miry clay,” but whatever it was, he clearly had been helpless.

And every one of us, whether we are followers of Christ or not, has probably been in some similar situation.

Perhaps you’re caught in the pit of sin, as David had been when he sinned with Bathsheba. He compounded that sin of adultery by instructing his soldiers to allow her husband to be killed in battle.

As with David, our sins hardly ever manifest themselves as individual acts of disobedience. Instead, we get into the slimy pit with them and start digging, and pretty soon, we’re up to our hips in mud, unable to free ourselves.

If you’re caught in the pit of sin, whether you are a believer or not, the answer to your problem is also the first step of revival — prayer.

"He inclined to me and heard my cry,” David writes here. Actually, the word means “scream.” So, David screamed out to the Lord for deliverance. The picture here is of someone so desperate for help that he’s screaming, calling for help from the only one who can help him.

When is the last time we prayed so fervently as this for revival? I wasn’t there for the beginning of the Asbury outpouring, but this is the picture I have in my mind when I think of those 20 students who stayed behind after the chapel service on Feb. 8.

I WAS there when I cried out to God for my own salvation. I know how it felt to be trapped in my sin and to finally realize that only Jesus could save me.

And in that moment of my own prayer, I remember feeling that I was finally on solid ground. He had lifted my from the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock.

David knew that, even as a believer, sin was still a problem in his life. But he also knew that God is good, that God is gracious, and that God is merciful. He understood that God looks with compassion upon a repentant heart. Jump ahead for a moment to verse 11.

Psalm 40:11–13 NASB95

11 You, O Lord, will not withhold Your compassion from me; Your lovingkindness and Your truth will continually preserve me. 12 For evils beyond number have surrounded me; My iniquities have overtaken me, so that I am not able to see; They are more numerous than the hairs of my head, And my heart has failed me. 13 Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me; Make haste, O Lord, to help me.

Whatever the circumstances that caused David to write this psalm, he makes it clear here that his own sins were part of the problem.

And so, he comes to God in confession and repentance, the next two steps toward revival.

What we are hearing from Asbury University are stories of people coming to the microphone and repenting publicly of their sins. Stories of people so completely undone by the depth of their rebellion against the God who loves them that they are sobbing in their seats. Stories of reconciliation on the heels of those confessions.

When is the last time you felt such guilt and shame about your sin that it brought you to tears? When is the last time the recognition of your own unrighteousness brought you to your knees in prayer?

The English word “revival” comes from a 15th century word that meant “to regain consciousness or recover health.”

The church can never recover its health if it holds onto sin, which brings death. YOU can never recover your full spiritual health as long as you hold onto your sin. To be revived is to live again. But to continue in sin is to cling to death itself.

And so, revival requires prayer. It requires confession and repentance. Now, look back at verse 4. Revival also requires faith.

Psalm 40:4 NASB95

4 How blessed is the man who has made the Lord his trust, And has not turned to the proud, nor to those who lapse into falsehood.

One of the problems with those old revivals I described earlier was that they were manufactured events. Church leaders set the time and place, and they even set out the expectations in “Pack the Pews” nights and the like.

But what David says here is that our trust — our faith — must be in God, not in the proud plans we make ourselves.

That’s one of the interesting distinctions about what’s happened at Asbury University. This outpouring began at the end of a regular chapel service on a regular day in February. And it has grown, by most accounts, through the leading of the Holy Spirit.

We can make ourselves READY for revival by prayer and repentance, but it will be the Spirit of LIFE who brings new life to this church or any other.

Our task is to wait patiently. Actually that phrase in the Hebrew reads something like “Waiting, I waited.” So the sense might be better translated as “I waited with great expectation.” We need to have faith that God will do His work through us if we let Him.

Revival requires prayer. It requires confession and repentance. It requires faith. And it requires thanksgiving. Look at verse 5.

Psalm 40:5 NASB95

5 Many, O Lord my God, are the wonders which You have done, And Your thoughts toward us; There is none to compare with You. If I would declare and speak of them, They would be too numerous to count.

Every once in a while, as I lay in bed saying my prayers, I try to count my blessings. And what I’ve learned is that counting my blessings this way is a lot like counting sheep. I never come to the end of the list before falling asleep.

That’s what David is saying here. God is so good to us that we couldn’t conceivably count all the ways He shows us His goodness.

If you’ve never done this, I encourage you to try it sometime. Especially on the bad days, when it seems like everything’s wrong.

If we want revival — if we want to see God do something new in us and in the church — then we need to be experts at remembering what He has ALREADY done. And we need to be vocal in our praise for what He’s already done.

So, we need to be in prayer. We need to confess and repent of our sins. We need to look to God in faith. We need to be praising God. And we need to be devoted to Him and His will for us. Look at verse 6.

Psalm 40:6–8 NASB95

6 Sacrifice and meal offering You have not desired; My ears You have opened; Burnt offering and sin offering You have not required. 7 Then I said, “Behold, I come; In the scroll of the book it is written of me. 8 I delight to do Your will, O my God; Your Law is within my heart.”

What David is saying here is that he has come to a better understanding of what God wants than he had before. What God wanted from David wasn’t simply the ritual of worship, but rather the true devotion of David’s heart.

What God wants from US isn’t simply to be here on Sundays for an hour or so, but rather a devotion to Him that says, “Lord, wherever you lead, I will follow. Whatever you want, I’ll do.”

Revival requires a devotion to God that sets aside our devotion to ourselves. Instead of the ritual of worship, revival requires the reverence and devotion of a people completely devoting their lives to the King of kings and Lord of lords.

The revival that took place at Asbury University in 1970 resulted in 2,000 teams of people who set aside their own plans, their own ambitions, to be sent out as little-A apostles. To share the good news of this new thing that God had done. To share the Good News of a Savior who takes away sin.

And that leads us back to the question of how we will know if this outpouring at Asbury University is a true revival. How will we know if WE are experiencing true revival? Look at verse 3.

Psalm 40:3 NASB95

3 He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God; Many will see and fear And will trust in the Lord.

Just as it did in Jerusalem in Acts, chapter 2, revival gave David a new song. It gave him new words of praise for God that he shared with others.

He lifted His voice in praise to God — he gave his public testimony of salvation and deliverance — so that others could “taste and see that the Lord is good!”

We MUST not desire revival simply to go away with warm, fuzzy feelings about God. That’s not the point of revival. It’s not the point of salvation.

We are blessed so we can bless others. If you have found new life in Jesus Christ, you’ve been given that new life so that you can bless others by introducing them to the Savior who can give THEM new life through the Holy Spirit.

You’ve been given a new song of praise to God, and it’s a song that was meant for others to hear so that they might see and fear and trust in the Lord.

If we want revival, we need to be screaming out to God for it in the confident expectation and joyful recognition that He who lifted us out of the miry clay and set our feet upon the rock will sustain us. And we need to be ready to sing that new song to all who will hear.

Let us pray for revival. Here at Liberty Spring Christian Church and across the land and around the globe. Let us be praying in faith, repenting in joy, and singing praise to Him who gives eternal life. Let’s sing our new song.