Revive Thy Church, O Lord

The Beacon Pulpit

May 25th, 2025

Psalm 85

Revive Thy Church, O Lord.

Introduction:

I am a product of revivalism. I was both saved and convinced of my desire for the ministry through such efforts. In the “world” that I grew up in, revival meetings were a regular aspect of life. As a younger believer, I would find myself going from meeting to meeting on an almost weekly basis, chasing an experience that you could describe as a spiritual methamphetamine, which I now know to be emotionalism. One day, while getting ready for a meeting, I ran into my Grandpa, who stopped me to ask where I was going. I told him that our church was having revival this week, to which he replied, “Hunter, you don't schedule revival. You schedule meetings and pray for the Lord to revive. Ultimately, it's up to Him; He doesn't work on our schedule.”

The longer I walk with the Lord, the more I long for Him to pour out genuine revival on His Church. I long to see the Church consumed with a fresh understanding of divine holiness and grace. I long to see the Church infatuated with the nourishing word of life. I long to see the Church pulling up her tent-pegs, which have been far too deeply anchored into this world, and reclaiming her status as pilgrims headed home. I long to see the Church speaking boldly into an antagonistic world and embracing God’s word without regret or retreat. Emotionalism won’t cut it. Theatrics won’t cut it. Conferences won’t cut it. We need a fresh move of God, an outpouring of His Spirit in a peculiar way. In 1785, Andrew Fuller wrote:

It is to be feared that the old puritanical way of devoting ourselves wholly to be the Lord's…is now awfully neglected. This was to make a business of religion, a life's work, and not merely an accidental affair, occurring but now and then, and what must be attended to only when we can spare time from other arrangements. Few seem to aim, pray, and strive after eminent love to God and one another. Many appear to be contented if they can but remember the time when they had such love in exercise, and then, tacking to it the notion of perseverance without the thing, they go on and on, satisfied, it seems, if they do but make shift just to get to heaven at last, without much caring how. If we were in a proper spirit, the question with us would not so much be What must I do for God? as, What can I do for God? A servant that heartily loves his master counts it a privilege to be employed by him, yea, an honour to be entrusted with any of his concerns.

Beloved, I am convinced that we desperately need reviving. Our knees, which were once calloused from prayer, have grown unfamiliar with bowing at all. Our eyes, which once wept over the souls of men, only grow angry with them as we watch the news. We must be revived. As we quickly scan over this Psalm, it gives us a diagnosis of our need. In verse 6, there was a declining joy in God, and in verse 8, there was a disinterest in God and a desire for the world. Does that characterize us today? Do we find our hearts like theirs? Has our once joyful worship become dry? Has our once insatiable appetite for the word become a begrudging chore? Has our devotion to Christ turned into a desire for the world? If so, you need reviving. I need reviving. We need reviving. But what is revival?

As we look at Psalm 85 today, we will find that revival is a gospel-centered work of God where He reminds His Church of past mercies, provokes her to realize her desperate need, provides assuring peace, and produces fruit. Tonight, as the Church longs for revival, the Spirit invites us to: First, remember gospel mercy, second, repent in light of the gospel, and third, receive gospel assurance.

Remember Gospel Mercies.

While Psalm 85 doesn’t give information as to the author or its dating, it is generally agreed that this was written after Israel’s return from Babylonian exile. It seems that the psalmist, reflecting on God’s delivering work, is moved as he considers how cold Israel’s worship has grown since God worked among them. As we examine these verses, we will notice that revival is gospel-centered in nature. Just notice the gospel-centric language that is employed through these first three verses:

In verse one, the Psalmist prayerfully reflects before the Lord as he recalls God’s favorableness to His land. Notice that the Psalmist doesn’t pray for their land but seeks to wave the faithfulness of God before Him again as though to say, “Lord, don’t forget the people whom you’ve been so faithful to deliver in times past!”

One thing I want us to notice that isn’t extremely clear on the surface is that the psalmist uses a word for “turn back” four different times, although the translators render it differently. In verse 1, it’s “brought back,” in verse 3, it’s “turned,” in verse 4, it’s “restore us,” and in verse 8, it’s “turn back.” In essence, the Psalmist is putting together a petition in this Psalm to say, “Lord, you have turned Israel back from exile by turning back from your wrath in forgiveness in the past. Now, please turn us back to you that we might serve you and not sin again.”

In the Old Covenant, Israel as a nation inhabited the land so long as they obeyed the covenant they had with God. In this covenant, God made it clear that when they disobeyed and forsook Him, He would punish them with captivity. As we push into verse 2, we find that when God restored Israel from exile, He didn’t just address the surface issue but went to the heart of the matter – their sin. And how did He do that? The Psalmist says it was by forgiveness. The word “forgiveness” here is the word that Moses uses in Leviticus 16 to refer to the Scapegoat. In that passage, the priests would take two goats and roll a die to decide which one would be the Scapegoat. Once it was decided, one goat was taken west to be sacrificed for the cleansing of the Temple. But the High Priest would take the Scapegoat, lay his hands on its head, confess the sins of Israel, and banish it to go west into the wilderness. This symbolized that the goat bore the sins of Israel and removed them, and was a foreshadowing of Christ, who, dying on our behalf, has removed our sins from us as far as East is from the West. What was the result of this act of God, according to the Psalmist? Their sins were covered, and God’s wrath was taken away. This sounds a lot like Christ, doesn’t it? Romans 3 describes Jesus as the propitiatory sacrifice, which essentially means that Jesus both appeased the wrath of God and reconciled us to God.

With that in mind, I want to explore that phrase, “covered all their sin,” a little more. In the New Testament, this phrase is used twice, once by James in James 5:20, and once by Peter in 1 Peter 4:8. James 5:20 reads, “Brethren, if anyone among you wanders from the truth, and someone turns him back, let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul from death and cover a multitude of sins.” 1 Peter 4:8 reads, “And above all things have fervent love for one another, for 'love will cover a multitude of sins.” What we see here is that when James and Peter pick up on the “cover sins” language, it’s always to do with believers calling others to see the vileness of sin and to turn from it. We might apply this here by saying that the forgiveness of God results in an awareness of the vileness of sin and a repentance from it.

As the Psalmist looks back at Israel’s history, he is stirred as he remembers how God’s forgiveness provided deliverance and provoked holiness in the lives of His people. As I sat in my study this week and reflected on this text, I found myself sharing a sort of “holy jealousy” with the psalmist as I read on the great moves of God throughout the Church’s history. J.I. Packer summarized it best when he wrote, “Revival is God touching minds and hearts in an arresting, devastating, exalting way… It is God accelerating, intensifying, and extending the work of grace that goes on in every Christian’s life... It is the near presence of God giving new power to the gospel of sin and grace.”

As we reflect on the grace of God and how He provoked revival among the Church of the past, I pray that we might find a rekindled yearning for God to overwhelm us with a renewed sense of awe at the grace that we’ve received through the work of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because, as we consider the radical grace of the gospel, we will be moved to a fresh realization of our desperation, which leads us to our second point, which is: As the Church yearns for revival, the Spirit invites us to:

Prayerful Repentance in Light of the Gospel.

As the Psalmist remembers past mercies, he is moved to prayer as he examines the hardships that Israel is facing at the time. While we aren’t given specific insights into their circumstances, we find that there is a serious spiritual lethargy plaguing the people of Israel, which can only be summarized by four short requests: Restore us, revive us, show us mercy, and grant us salvation. Israel is in a desperate spiritual place, and their only hope is a reviving work of God.

With this idea of a divine work of reviving in mind, it's important to remember that if our "revival" is merely an isolated emotional response to three songs and a sermon—and it ends after the forty-five-minute altar call—we weren’t revived; we were emotionally manipulated. That’s not what the Psalmist is crying out for, and that’s not what we’re wanting here either. We’re asking for an overwhelming recalibration of our hearts, which can only be affected by a fresh understanding of grace and results in our souls delighting in the Lord.

Listen to this quote by Andrew Fuller:

"Wherein in particular can we glorify God more than we have done? Is there no room for amendment? Have we been sufficiently earnest and constant in private prayer? Are there none of us that have opportunities to set apart particular times to pray for the effusion of the Holy Spirit? Can we do more than we have done in instructing our families?.. Can we rectify nothing in our tempers and behaviour in the world so as better to recommend religion… In a word, is there no room or possibility left for our being more meek, loving, and resembling the blessed Jesus than we have been?"

He continues:

Finally, brethren, let us not forget to intermingle prayer with all we do. Our need of God's Holy Spirit to enable us to do any thing, and every thing, truly good should excite us to this. Without his blessing all means are without efficacy and every effort for revival will be in vain.

Church, when God begins to thaw the coldness of His Church, the first signs of spring are seen in prayer. It’s seen in our praying for powerful prayers, it’s seen in our praying for a spirit of prayer to be found among us, it’s seen in a peculiar manifestation of a desire for prayer in His Church. If this is so, then I have a hard time believing that we are serious about revival while simultaneously refusing to come to prayer meetings when we’re not hindered by work or sickness. Spurgeon said, “If we would have the Holy Spirit [in peculiar power], we must meet in greater numbers; we must pray with greater fervency, we must watch with greater earnestness, and believe with firmer determination. The prayer-meeting, then… is the appointed place for the reception of power.”

Let us pray that God would give us a fresh awareness of our sinfulness. Let us pray that God would show us His salvation in killing sin in us. Let us pray that God might make it said of Beacon that we are a prayerful church, and that whenever you meet a Beaconite, you meet a prayer warrior. Let us pray that we would delight in the Lord. The prayer that we must pray is not, “God, look what we have to offer You.” But, “God, we remember what You have done before, please do it again.” Just as the Psalmist asked God to revive “His land” and reminded God of the work He’s done for them. Let us also pray that God revives “His Church,” which His own Son died to save.

As the Spirit moves us to confess our desperate need for revival, He turns our hearts from disinterest in His word and worldly desires to now receive assurance, which brings us to our final point.

Receive Gospel Assurance.

As we look at verses 8-13, I want to point out two major subpoints: First, I want us to notice a personal reception followed by a precious rest.

A Personal Reception

In verse 8, the Psalmist switches the language from “Their” and “Us” to “I.” “I will hear what God the LORD will speak.” Now that the Psalmist has made his petition and considered the character of God, he sits and waits for the Lord. At this point, we can pause and consider the necessity of personal receptivity in longing for revival. In yearning for revival, our desire isn’t for God to revive our neighbor, or “those other people,” but us individually. Growing up, there was an old children’s song which went, “It’s me, O Lord, standing in the need of prayer. Not my brother, not my sister, but it’s me, O Lord, standing in the need of prayer.”

Now that the Psalmist has shared his burden with the Lord, he is moved to wait for the Word of the Lord to come to him. Why? Because he is confident that the Lord will speak peace to him. That short phrase is loaded to the brim with hope as it is filled with assurance, power, and provision. It is this glorious God, this God that is angry with the wicked, and this God that saves His people from captivity and sin. It is that God who WILL speak peace to the psalmist, and so all he is moved to do now is to sit and wait. Not only that, but that God will SPEAK peace. The Psalmist isn’t just assured of God’s desire, but God’s supreme capability. It isn’t hard for the Lord to provide peace to His people; He simply does it with His word. Amid heartache, societal turmoil, or even being shaken by our sin, when we run to the Lord with a broken heart, we too can be restfully reminded that our God is so great that He can simply speak and peace will be ours.

But what is this peace? Peace, or Shalom, was a greeting among friends in Israel. To wish “shalom” on someone was essentially to say, “I hope that all is well between you and the Lord, as well as you and those around you.” For the Lord, in the Psalmist’s mind, to speak “shalom” over him is to be assured the Lord will set everything so that I am concerned with. But how does He do that? I believe we are given insight in verse 10. In this verse, we see mercy, truth, righteousness, and peace reconciled. As we read this verse and think deeply for a minute, we should ask ourselves, “Where have I ever seen these things reconciled?” Even in our own lives and our relationship with the Lord, we all have realized that if God is righteous and if He upholds the truth, then He cannot be at peace and be merciful to me because of my sin.

In Romans 3, Paul picks up on this dilemma and says, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”

How does God reconcile these friends, and how does God speak peace over us? Through the cross of His Son. George Horne comments on this Psalm and says, “These four divine attributes parted at the fall of Adam, and met again at the birth of Christ… There is no religion upon earth, except the Christian, which can satisfy the demands of all these claimants, and restore union between them; which can show how God’s word can be true, and his work just, and the sinner, notwithstanding, find mercy, and obtain peace.”

Reviving is a work of the Spirit of God in and among us. And what does the Spirit do? He points us to the Lord Jesus Christ. What I believe we find all throughout this Psalm is that genuine revival is gospel-centered to its core, and this results in a precious rest.

A Precious Rest

What is the result of this peace being spoken over them? The psalmist says that it lets them not turn back to folly. Why do Christians need to be reminded of the gospel? Because God’s message of peace with us prevents us from running back to sin. Verse 9, “Surely His salvation is near to those who fear Him, that glory may dwell in our land.” Is this passage insinuating that fear is a prerequisite to salvation? No. Instead, the Old Testament teaches that a holy fear of the Lord is the fruit of salvation. Psalm 130:4 says, “But there is forgiveness with You, that you may be feared.”

So, the first fruit of this peace is forsaking sin and a fatherly fear of the Lord. Next, in verses 11-13, we find that it results in righteous living. So it not only kills sin, but puts on righteousness. Spurgeon comments on verse 11 and says, “When God looks down in grace, man sends his heart upward in obedience.” Looking at verses 12-13, there is some work to be done in application. In Old Covenant Israel, the land blessings were stipulated on obedience. In the New Covenant, as the Israel of God, our blessings are stipulated on obedience still. But it’s on the obedience of Jesus Christ. Verse 13 speaks of righteousness going before Him, which I take to be a reference to the active obedience, or the sinless life of Jesus Christ for us, which is the fulfillment of that statement “that glory may dwell in our land” in verse 9. But notice the end of the psalm. It says, “and shall make His footsteps our pathway.” In Ephesians 2:10, Paul writes, “For we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” In essence, as we consider the gospel, and as we experience gospel centered revival, we will find our lives manifesting righteous and fruitful works because we will follow in the footsteps of our Lord.

When the early Baptists experienced revival, they began to emphasize good works. They began building orphanages, hospitals, and taking care of the poor, widows, and immigrants. And perhaps most of all, they went to war against the Transatlantic Slave Trade. Would the Lord be pleased to revive us? The Psalmist said, “Will you not revive us again?” That simply means that God’s done it before, and He can do it again. If we will ever see power in our preaching, in our evangelizing, and in our praying, there must be a reviving work of God. If we’ll ever witness the manifestation of heart devouring repentance among our Church, it must be the work of God. If we’ll ever cry, like Edwards, “Lord, stamp eternity on my eyeballs,” there must be a move of God.

Would He be pleased to churn in us a desire to walk in the footsteps of Christ in caring for the helpless? Would He be pleased to devour us with a holy zeal to speak out on the atrocities taking place in our own culture? Would He be pleased to revive the voice of the Church in speaking with gracious authority on the sins of greed, political idolatry, homosexuality, abortion, transgenderism, and critical race theory in our society? If it’s to happen, it will be a result of a divine work of God among us. Lord, wilt thou not revive us again?

Conclusion:

Church, Psalm 85 has shown us our desperate need for revival. Our joy in God has faded, our hunger for His Word has waned, and our hearts have chased the world’s folly. Yet, this psalm reveals God’s heart to revive us through the gospel. He reminds us of past mercies, forgiving our sins at the cross (vv. 1–3). He provokes us to cry out, ‘Will you not revive us again?’ (vv. 4–7). He provides assuring peace in Christ’s sacrifice (vv. 8–10). And when this is done is us, He will produce fruit in us (vv. 11–13).

Revival is no human effort—it’s God’s work, as H. Elvet Lewis said: ‘No amount… of organised effort could produce… what seemed as natural as a breath of air.’ But God invites our response. John Sutcliff, being moved with a yearning for revival, called for prayer and said, ‘The grand object… is that the Holy Spirit may be poured down… Let us plead with God.’ As we have considered the past, we have seen the fruitfulness of God’s revived Church. So, let us pray fervently, at home and in our prayer meetings, for the Spirit to revive us personally and corporately. Let us speak truth with grace, care for the hurting, and live as pilgrims. Beloved, if God works among us today and produces in us a prayerful longing for revival, that is a sign of spring in our hearts. May God will it.

Benediction:

Heb. 13:20-21 Now may the God of peace who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you complete in every good work to do His will, working in you what is well pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.