FRIDAY 29th
Psalm 85
NIV & ESV (v6) – ‘Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you?’
The heading in the ESV which I use has above this psalm the words ‘Revive Us Again’.
In verses 1-2 the author remembers that God had been favourable towards the land of Israel, Jacob, and had restored the fortunes of Jacob, they had known the forgiveness of God and that he had covered all their sin, but when we get to verse 3, we see the psalmists request to God to ‘Restore us again’, and in verse 6, ‘Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you?’ Something had gone wrong in their relationship with God, and the psalmist wanted what had been to be revived, restored among them again, to know again God’s favour and blessing.
I wonder how often we are found in a similar place where our relationship with God has waned, we have departed from our first love, we have allowed ourselves to be distracted, or our lives to be filled with other things that have taken over the place that rightly belongs to God? Yes, we have known God’s favour and blessing in the past, we have walked in close communion with him, we have known what it is to be forgiven as we have knelt at the foot of the Cross, but something has crept in and caused the relationship to have cooled down, dwindle, our desire to pray, our desire to worship, our desire for fellowship, our desire to seek after the things of God has either slowed down or is petering out.
If this is you today as you read this devotion, or if you feel that some of this applies, then pray the prayer that this psalmist wrote and pray for yourself, change the language used to be more personal, ‘Restore me again, O God of my salvation, will you revive me again, that I may rejoice in you, show me your steadfast love again, and grant me your salvation.’
There is a wider application for the Church, the body of Christ, that we together will cry out to the Lord God to restore the Church, to revive the Church so that it will begin again to have an impact upon our own nation and also the nations of the world, cause us to be restored to what you want us to be, the Church universal and the Church local, us at Emmanuel Pentecostal Church, come by the power of your Holy Spirit with the Spirit of revival, that we will know the powerful presence of God amongst us in all his glory, touching our hearts and touching us as a fellowship so that we will have an impact on the community around us.
The final verses in this psalm indicate that God will give what is good, and in asking to be revived we are asking for what is good, it continues, that the land will yield its increase, righteousness will go before him and make his footsteps a way. As God revives us, we will know increase, and he will lead us in the way that we should be going as we move forward in his divine purpose.
Revive us, restore us O Lord, revive us as individuals, revive us as a Church, cause your face to shine upon us, cause your favour to be upon us.