Exeter Temple Message notes: 6th September
2015
Bible Reading: Psalm 85
All of us,
throughout our lives and throughout our Christian walk will need personal
revival at various times. Every church that has survived more than a generation
or two will require times of revival if it is to continue to represent and
serve Christ in a powerful way.
Psalm 85 was
written sometime after exiled Jews had returned to Jerusalem. They found that
their land has been wasted, the temple had been destroyed; there was rubble
piled up around the holy places of God and the people who had remained behind
were spiritually weak and corrupt. They engaged in a sudden rush of activity to
address the problems and the foundations of a new temple were laid. However
years went by and they had not built God’s house again, there had been poor
harvest and not much food about and some enemies attacked them. In desperation one of them writes this psalm
as a prayer.
It was obvious to the psalmist that God’s people
of God needed restoration and a revival not only in their fortunes but in their
worship, in their devotion to God, in the strength to carry out their God given
mission to the world.
“Revival is God at
work, restoring His church to health. (Walter Boldt)
1. Look back
Psalm 85:1-3 recall the way God worked in the
past history of Israel: “You showed
favour to your land, O LORD; you restored the fortunes of Jacob. You forgave
the iniquity of your people and covered all their sins. You set aside all your
wrath and turned from your fierce anger.”
It is because the
writer remembered
what God had done in the past and thought about previous acts of God's power that he was now crying out for God to do it all
over again.
“Restore us again O God our Saviour. Will you not revive us again, that your
people may rejoice in you?" (v4)
It is a remarkable
fact that when people begin to take an interest in revival, they immediately
start to pray for it all over again. We can look back on times in the
history of the Church in the UK when God has brought renewal and restoration
after a period of decline. We can be
inspired by our history. We are not
asking for something that has no precedent.
“Lord,
you can revive us again. We are not so deep in the mire but that you can’t lift
us out. We are not so dead but that you can make us alive. Will you not revive
us again? It is impossible to us, but it is possible to you. Lord, one touch of
your hand, a breath from your blessed lips, and it is done.
Brothers, Sisters, we believe in God, do
we not? And if we do, we believe that whatever state a Church is in, God can
bring it out of it! Do not run away from it and say, “God can never bless it.”
He can bless it! Pray it up into a blessing and make this the essence of your
prayer, “Lord, You can revive us. We believe it, and we look for it.” (Charles
Haddon Spurgeon)
2. Look up
The Psalmist
looked back for inspiration and looks up for an answer to his present
need. He recognised that the turning
around of Israel’s fortunes would take more than everyone making an effort, or
for the great minds of the day to come up with a scheme. We need God to move
among us. God is not obligated to give us revival just because it is
needed. While it is ultimately a
supernatural act of God, revival begins with our earnest cry and desire to
receive it.
QUOTE: “The single greatest need in our land today
is heaven-sent revival! Revival comes at the sovereign, gracious decision of
God to send a fresh movement of His Spirit among his people… (but) Revival will
not come unless it is desired. It is an invasion from heaven at the request of
the saints on earth.” (Raymond Perkins, Sermon Central).
The psalmist
prayer consists of:
Praise v1-3 He remembers that God is good. He
rehearses what God has done. Even when
things are bad it is good to remember that God is worthy of our praise.
Penitence v4-7 He recognises that God has cause to
be angry with his people. They have
grieved him with their lack of love, their disobedience, their lethargy. In Ephesians 4:30 Paul warns not the sinners
but the saints not to “grieve the Holy Spirit.”
True revival
always involves the acknowledgement of sin and the forgiveness of sins. As he
asks God to be merciful towards a people who have grieved him and caused him
displeasure, he does soon the basis of the character of God. “Show us your unfailing love O Lord and grant
us your salvation.”
He sees that
repentance is linked to joy. We connect
repentance with tears but not joy but the one leads to the other. To confess
our sin and to turn around and set off again knowing that you are now on the
right road is to know a tremendous release.
It is sin, not the process of repentance that is the burden. Revival may begin in tears, but it proceeds
to joy.
Pledge V
8-9 “I will listen to what God the Lord will say.
Let them not return to folly, salvation is near to those who fear him that is
glory may dwell in the land.”
Revival is
not just about emotional moments. True revival is on-going; not a spur of the
moment trip to the mercy seat. When we
pray for revival we need to count the cost and examine our motives. The
motivation of the psalmist is that God’s “glory may dwell in our land.”
If we want
revival because we want our church to survive and we think revival means we
won’t need to do any more embarrassing evangelism then we had better forget
it. If we are looking for revival so
that we don’t have to work so hard in the church because there will be more
people about to do the jobs, forget it.
In Revival the voice of God is more clearly heard and will call us to
greater challenges. And we need to
remember that alongside revival there is often also an outbreak of
persecution.
But to walk
with God, in harmony with his will and with his approval has to be worth any
cost.
3. Looking Forward
Finally, in
v 10-13 the psalm expresses confidence in God and paints a picture of what
revival will look like. There is expectation.
There is belief in the promises of God.
Restoration and revival is not a wish that the writer has plucked out of
the air. It is something that God has already said he will do when God’s people
seek his face.
He may not
do it in the way we think he will or in the timing we expect but he will do it.
V10-13 “Love and faithfulness meet together;
righteousness and peace kiss each other. Faithfulness springs forth from the
earth and righteousness looks down from heaven. The Lord will indeed give what
is good and out land will yield its harvest. Righteousness goes before him and
prepares the way for his steps.”
Blessings
Carol
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