Revive Us Again

Introduction

Introduce self; BCM, currently serving, student at Southern

Tonight, in the third message of this revival I want to take us to Psalm 85 in its entirety. We often reference this chapter when it comes to revival and don’t look any further than Psalm 85.6 “Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you?” This verse is central to the message of the Psalm but the context around it is pure gold in regards to revival.

Psalm 85 is a Psalm of lament because God has been showing his displeasure with his people. It is not just a lament but it is a community lament. In some places we see one person lamenting, which a lament is just a passionate expression of sorrow, but here we see this is from all of God’s people.

The background for this Psalm can be found in Exodus 34.6-7

Exodus 34:6–7 ESV

The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.”

This passage in Exodus shows us some of God’s attributes and this is a passage that was very well known to all the people in this time. It is on these attributes that the psalmist rest. This is especially clear in Exodus 34.6 and Psalm 85.10 in reference to the steadfast love and faithfulness of the Lord.

The main idea of this passage can be summed up in this; God has shown us favor in the past, and when we make our plea now and listen, we can have confidence that he will answer with what is good.

Let’s begin tonight by reading this Psalm in it’s entirety then we can begin to look at each individual part of it.

Read Psalm

Pray

Past Favor

Psalm 85:1–3 ESV

Lord, you were favorable to your land; you restored the fortunes of Jacob. You forgave the iniquity of your people; you covered all their sin. Selah You withdrew all your wrath; you turned from your hot anger.

I will not be long here in these verses because I know you got to hear about them in full last night but we will look at them some as they set up the rest of the passage. The psalmist here in Psalm 85 begins by showing us the past favor that God had on them. He remembers and reminisce this past favor reflecting upon the knowledge of what God can do. He knows what God can do because he knows what God has done. Here he recalls how God has been favorable to the land that is ultimately God’s land. He has brought the rain to the ground and the growth to the crops. He has brought them back from captivity and restored them into the land of promise. He has forgiven them when they have turned from him and worshiped false Gods and did other abominable acts. He did not just cover some of their sins but he covered all of their sins. He did not just withdraw some of his wrath but he withdrew all of his wrath. He turned from his anger and instead gave them his steadfast love. This is what God has done for them in the past.

To bring about a revival we must first remember what God has done in the past. We must remember his faithfulness to us. We must remember who he is. When we remember the great and mighty things that God has given us over the years it brings a revival from being some lofty thing that we are always seeking to being just a simple repetition of the work of the Lord. It increases our reliance in God through all things.

This is not just something that we are to do on the whole church scale though but we should also remember the works of God within our own personal life. This psalm is a corporate psalm for the original audience but each one of them had a personal tie to the points of remembrance. We think of the covering of sins like a blanket on an old soul providing warmth, it is not only all of us but there was a time when my sins were covered and forgiven.

It is also important to notice that we are not in the times of the Old Testament anymore but rather are on the other side of the cross. We are to also heed the call in 2 Timothy 2.8 “Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, the offspring of David, as preached in my gospel,” We are to remember all the great things that have been done for us, most of all the atonement for our sins that was accomplished through the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Pause

I would be doing you a disservice if I did not leave you with any practical application for the text. One way in my life I keep up with remembering what God has done for me is by writing it down. I keep a regular journal where I write what is going on in my spiritual life along with prayers and meditations. I make a habit of going back and seeing how God has worked in my life and when I see something that effects me deeply I write down that I reflected on that remembrance. I know of some people that keep a prayer journal where they write down every prayer request along with the answer to each, sometimes it takes a while for that answer to come but when it does you can rejoice and remember it.

Remember the work that God has done in and around you, remember the work that he has done throughout history and in his word. Remember that through Jesus, he has covered our sins and has withdrawn his wrath. It is through our remembering that we are in a position for the plea.

The Plea

Psalm 85:4–7 ESV

Restore us again, O God of our salvation, and put away your indignation toward us! Will you be angry with us forever? Will you prolong your anger to all generations? Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you? Show us your steadfast love, O Lord, and grant us your salvation.

Moving from the psalmist introduction of remembering the things that God has done in the past to this next stanza, the plea. The people are pleading that God would restore them again. That his anger would cease so that they can be revived and rejoice in God and see his steadfast love and salvation. This is a plea from deep in the heart and it is the same plea that we should have in every generation.

Revival is the renewal of God’s life in us. This means that revival is for Christians. We often associate revival with mass amounts of people coming and professing faith in Jesus. What that is is the outpouring of revival, the outpouring of Christian hearts being revived, of Christian hearts having God’s life renewed in us. It starts with us. When we remember all the great things that God has done for us while earnestly and eagerly inviting his Spirit to come in and do it again we are going to see revival.

The important part of this is the purpose of being revived, it is so that we may rejoice in God. That we may give glory to the Father of lights in whom there is no darkness. To glorify God is our purpose here on this earth, we share the gospel for his glory, we sing for his glory, we study his word for his glory, we preach and listen to preaching for his glory. In this there is a level of satisfaction involved. Our satisfaction in God brings him glory. John Piper puts it this way “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him.” God reviving us is a way of bringing our satisfaction fully back on him and in turn we rejoice and glorify God.

In our world people seek satisfaction in so many ways and rural western Oklahoma is no different, the things we seek our satisfaction in aside from Christ are just different. What if we sought to be fully satisfied in Christ and him alone? We would be sharing with everyone we could about the one that brings us complete satisfaction. We would be in his word constantly, always delighting in it. We would be discipling younger Christians, helping them to find this great secret as Paul calls it in Philippians 4.

In the first stanza the psalmist remembers a time where the people were fully satisfied in God and God provided their every need.

This section concludes with one final plea, to grant us salvation. This specific salvation is to turn away his anger and forgive his people. This calls our mind to our salvation found in Christ. We desire that the revival in ourselves will have the outpouring of salvation to others. This is accomplished through the one true gospel. As we see in Galatians 1 there is no other gospel. We must remember what Jesus did on that cross, he paid the debt we owed for our sins. God grants us salvation by us putting our faith in him.

This is the plea that the psalmist and all the congregation had and this is the plea that we still have right now. The plea that God would revive us so that we can be fully satisfied in him and bring about the salvation that only he offers.

Let Us Listen

Psalm 85:8–9 ESV

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. Surely his salvation is near to those who fear him, that glory may dwell in our land.

The psalmist remembers what God has done in the past, makes a plea for the present, and now listens for what the Lord will answer. So often we speak to the Lord but never stop to listen, we make our pleas then do not seek his answer. The psalmist is assured that the Lord will speak peace to his people over anger and will help them to not turn back to their old ways of folly.

I am sure that you have had an experience at one point or another where there is someone that is seeking advice yet never stops talking long enough for you to give any, that is sometimes how we are to God. We plea and plea for him to bring revival yet we don’t listen long enough to know that revival is right here in our hands. The word of God is central to revival and it must be central to our lives if we want revival. If you want to hear from God you need to read your Bible, if you want to hear the audible voice of God then read it out loud.

We don’t want to be a people that pleas and pleas to God and turns back to our folly without ever stopping and listening to what he has for us in his word. The most important thing for any Christian to do is to read, meditate, and apply God’s word to their lives. If you do this then guess what, God will speak to you and revival will come. It seems like it is such a simple principle yet still so many will not do it.

Pause

This salvation that we have been talking about is near to those who fear God. This thing that we are waiting to hear the Lord speak on is near to those who fear God. It is easy to see why these things are not prevalent in our culture today, it’s near to those who fear him. There are so few that fear God today.

The fear of God is a doctrine that runs throughout the Bible in places such as Ecclesiastes 12.13 “The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.” and also in the New Testament in 2 Corinthians 7.1 “Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God.” As well as many other places throughout the Bible. Martin Luther described this fear as a twofold fear. The first fold of this fear is the fear that we will get the wrath that we deserve, it can be compared to the fear that a prisoner in a torture chamber has as the tormentor comes in. It is a dreadful fear about a clear and present danger. The second fold of this fear more closely related to the fear of disappointing the master. Like a young boy seeking the approval of his father.

This fear is something that is often lacking and is not talked about much in the church today but it is more than just some healthy fear that we should have. God’s help is near to those who fear him.

We should listen to God and walk steadfastly in the fear of him.

God Will Answer

Psalm 85:10–13 ESV

Steadfast love and faithfulness meet; righteousness and peace kiss each other. Faithfulness springs up from the ground, and righteousness looks down from the sky. Yes, the Lord will give what is good, and our land will yield its increase. Righteousness will go before him and make his footsteps a way.

God’s steadfast love and faithfulness meet, they work together in perfect unity. His righteousness and peace kiss each other like the affectionate greeting of a relative, they guarantee each other and show the reliability of God’s promises. God will honor his promises and give what is good to his people. We can be confident in this because of God’s own righteousness.

We can have confidence that God will answer the pleas of his people. He has done it before and he will do it again. When God’s people seek him he will forgive them and renew them.

How often do you ask God something with confidence that he will answer? We should stand with full confidence that God will answer our plea’s all we must do is seek him. There was a man named George Muller that was a pastor in the late 1800’s. Muller also ran an orphanage. In both his church and in the orphanage he never asked for money or even mad a need known whether it be personal or for the orphans, he only told God. He was never worried whether there would be food the next day or enough money to pay the bills, he just prayed and waited on the Lord’s response with full confidence much like the psalmist. Never a day did the orphans go hungry or every one of Muller’s needs go unmet. There were nights when they had no money for breakfast the next day but he would pray and wake up early enough to go buy the provisions, without fail he would find a letter with a donation or meet someone on the street that had been meaning to make a donation. Muller kept a detailed finance record for the orphanage, it just so happened to be in his detailed prayer journal. When he first started there were 30 orphans that he cared for and by the time of his death there were over 2000.

We read about guys like George Muller and see the full confidence that they have in God and wonder how can you be so confident! Is there not any fear inside of you about what might happen? The answer is that there was early on but the longer you go the less there is. It is this way because he looked back on what God has already done, he made his plea to God, and he waited on the response. After years of doing this he gained great confidence. The same can be said for us someday.

We can be assured that God will give us what is good and answer our plea.

Conclusion

The great lament of Psalm 85 is full of the truth of who God is. We here today are in the same position as the people of Israel that originally sang this in the congregation. We must remember what God has done and plea that God be our full satisfaction. We must seek him in his word and fear him because salvation is near to those who fear him. We must be immersed in his word because that is how we listen to him, and we know who God is so we can have confidence in what he will do for us, and that it will be good.

Most of all through this we must see Jesus. He has been here through it all, especially for us now. We remember how we were sinners yet Christ died for us making a way for us to be forgiven. We plea that he would revive our life in him and that others would come to know him. We listen to him through his words found in the New Testament. We have confidence that he will answer, as well as the fact that he will return. Jesus has either forgiven you or wants to forgive you right now. This forgiveness is accepted by putting you faith in Jesus as your Lord and savior. Revival in your soul is the renewal of this faith, the breath of Jesus, in your life. Pause

God we sing this our song

God we plea all the day long

God we plea our souls revive

God we sing in you we are right

Let us now remember

The mighty works you have done

Let us ner forget the death of your Son

We will wait your voice to come

We will know your will be done

God we plea our souls revive

God has shown us favor in the past, and when we make our plea now and listen, we can have confidence that he will answer with what is good.

pray