Final week, we had been doing a little work on our basement lavatory, on the point of host a household of seven. A few days earlier than the household flew in, we had been placing some last touches on the paint and putting in a pleasant classic mirror Faye thrifted and a few cute cabinets when she observed that the mat in entrance of our kitchen sink was unusually moist — not the four-year-old-spilled-her-water moist, however wetter than that. We hung the mat out to dry and put it down once more that night time and went to mattress.
The following morning, it was the identical factor. We observed that our flooring was starting to swell and warp. We had been useless drained from all of the work downstairs, our seven company had been coming in 24 hours, and we now had water coming from we-knew-not-where. Effectively, we now know the place — some mixture of a dysfunctional dishwasher and a badly configured drainpipe. They finally needed to rip out the ground, the sink, a part of the wall, the pipe, the dishwasher, and numerous our cupboards within the course of.
So, we’ve had some low moments this week (drained moments, discouraged moments, wrestling-with-God moments). To be clear, this sort of low is mild and momentary in contrast with what a few of you might be struggling proper now, however we’ve had our low moments, and I’m sharing about them with you as a result of I used to be stumbling by them whereas I used to be making ready to evangelise these verses — and so they ministered to me deeply. As they ministered to me, I prayed for you, as a result of all of us have low moments of varied sorts. So, we’re all recurrently in want of reviving.
And whereas the low second for Israel right here was a extreme judgment (seemingly exile), this actually is a psalm and a prayer for all our low moments within the Lord. We’re going to look first at our want for revival, then at our hope for revival, and lastly on the fruit of revival.
Our Want for Revival
Like I discussed, the central prayer of Psalm 85 is that this prayer for revival, for restoration. Psalm 85:4–6 says,
Restore us once more, O God of our salvation,
and put away your indignation towards us!
Will you be indignant with us perpetually?
Will you lengthen your anger to all generations?
Will you not revive us once more,
that your individuals might rejoice in you?
Israel skilled these cycles within the previous covenant. God would present up with beautiful mercy and rescue them from their enemies, like he did in Egypt and on the Purple Sea (after which dozens of instances after that). Then they might finally develop comfy and complacent and begin chasing after idols once more. Then God would choose them to humble them and make them repentance. That’s the place we discover them right here, praying in one other valley of judgment.
By God’s grace, they’ve woken up and are available to their senses (a minimum of these Sons of Korah have), and they also pray, “Restore us once more, O God.” “Revive us.” And there’s outstanding religion and energy in these prayers. They might have simply prayed, “We all know we’ve sinned towards you, so forgive us,” or “Consolation us,” or “Allow us to again into the land,” however as an alternative they prayed revive us, restore us. Actually, they’re saying, “Flip and provides us life. Do one thing within us that we are able to’t do in ourselves. Awaken our weak and wandering religion. Burn away no matter is preserving us from you. Stir our hearts into flame once more. Begin a revival proper right here, between our lungs.”
They requested him to do one thing unattainable like that as a result of they knew he works these sorts of miracles in human hearts. He’s not simply sovereign over forests, thunderstorms, and elections, however he’s sovereign over fears and emotions and religion. The apostle Paul knew this about God and had a painfully low second, and so he says in 2 Corinthians 1:8–9,
We had been so totally burdened past our power that we despaired of life itself. Certainly, we felt that we had obtained the sentence of dying. However that was to make us rely not on ourselves however on God who raises the useless.
The God over your low moments is a God who raises the useless. After all he can get you thru this. After all he can revive your uninteresting and struggling coronary heart. So, pray larger prayers, prayers like this one: “Will you not revive us once more, that your individuals might rejoice in you? Revive my sleepy coronary heart. Revive my aching coronary heart. Revive my wayward coronary heart.”
Is God Offended with Me?
Now, earlier than I say extra about this reviving God and our hope in him, the query I wrestled with greater than every other this week was whether or not we must always nonetheless pray verses like Psalm 85:4–6:
Restore us once more, O God of our salvation,
Put away your indignation towards us!
Will you be indignant with us perpetually?
Will you lengthen your anger to all generations?
Will you not revive us once more?
Does God nonetheless get indignant with us like this? Once we undergo low moments in religion, moments of great trial or doubt or temptation, is God indignant with us? Are we tasting indignation in these moments? There are three issues I need to say to you.
First, in case you imagine in Jesus — in case you’ve been saved by grace alone, by religion alone, in Christ alone — there’s due to this fact now no condemnation for you. Your days of wrath are over. God has already put away his wrath and indignation, as soon as for all, by crushing his Son in your house. We don’t should get up and surprise if we’re going to stay below wrath right now. If we belong to Jesus and stay in him by religion, we’re dwelling all day, daily below the Father’s grace and mercy and love.
He’s not indignant with you want that anymore. I hope you’ll be able to imagine that. He loves you want a father or mom loves a toddler — even extra than good fathers love their youngsters. In Christ, his love doesn’t waver, and his mercies are new each morning. They’re new right now.
Now, that’s to not say that our sin doesn’t displease him. It does. And that is the second factor to say right here: even beloved, forgiven, no-condemnation youngsters can grieve the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 4:30). And so, God nonetheless disciplines us, like every good father would, and that self-discipline is usually very painful. However that ache is rarely wrath. It’s fatherly love. It’s not punishment. It’s a preserving ache, a refining ache. Our low moments, in Christ, are all acts of affection meant to guide us to extra of him.
That being mentioned, that is the third factor. Should you’re knowingly persisting in some sin proper now, verses like this could make you tremble. Unrepentant sin makes him very indignant. It fills him with righteous, violent wrath. Israel’s exile was an terrible judgment towards their unbelief — and it’s now, right here in Psalm 85, a merciful warning to us about what occurs once we received’t stroll away from sin. Those that are his won’t ever style his wrath — by no means — however those that fake to be his whereas dwelling in sin have each motive to worry.
If that’s you, you need to pray, “Put away your indignation towards me! Will you be indignant with me perpetually? Give me religion to lastly imagine and repent and stroll within the mild! Give me eyes to see Jesus for who he’s — Lord, Savior, and Treasure, a Treasure way more worthwhile and satisfying than something sin has ever completed for me. And provides me braveness to lastly put my sin to dying by your Spirit.”
The Hope of Revival
We’ve felt Israel’s determined want for revival right here. They’re languishing in exile — spiritually, relationally, emotionally. They’re feeling the implications of God’s anger, and so they know he’s proper to be indignant. Their struggling isn’t injustice. So, what can they attraction to? What can they probably say to the God they’ve sinned towards? They’ve nowhere to face now — nowhere however mercy. Psalm 85:7–8 says,
Present us your steadfast love, O Lord,
and grant us your salvation.
Let me hear what God the Lord will communicate,
for he’ll communicate peace to his individuals, to his saints.
They’re saying, “We all know how depraved we’ve been. We all know we don’t deserve your forgiveness and luxury, however we’re asking for it anyway, as a result of we all know who you might be. You’re the God of steadfast love. You’re the saving God. So even whereas our lives are something however peaceable — even whereas wars rage and our enemies make our lives depressing — we belief that you’ll communicate peace to your individuals, your saints.”
The place does that confidence come from? They will have this sort of confidence, regardless of how far they’ve strayed from God and the way a lot they deserve his judgment, as a result of this God has revealed himself to be a sure sort of God. At Mount Sinai, God handed by Moses and declared to his individuals Exodus 34:6–7 (and we hear these verses all by Psalm 85):
The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, sluggish to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, preserving steadfast love for 1000’s, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin.
He doesn’t should be that means with sinners. He would have been completely simply to simply wipe us all out. However that’s not who he’s. Even when he was clearly indignant with Israel (and, once more, he was proper to be indignant), the psalmists right here knew he would communicate mercy once more (to those that had been really his). They usually knew this, partially, as a result of he had completed it so many instances earlier than. That is what Psalm 85:1–3 says:
Lord, you had been favorable to your land;
you restored the fortunes of Jacob.
You forgave the iniquity of your individuals;
you coated all their sin. Selah.
You withdrew all of your wrath;
you turned out of your sizzling anger.
The psalmist says, “You restored. You forgave. You coated. You withdrew your wrath. You turned away your anger.” In different phrases, “We’re not asking you to do one thing that you just haven’t already completed for us. And we’re not asking you to be anybody aside from who you’ve at all times been. We’re asking you to be who you’ve been and do what you’ve completed — once more.”
And once we look again, we’ve got a lot extra to say than they did, don’t we? Our previous is even higher than their previous, as a result of we all know Jesus. They might bear in mind what God did in Egypt, within the wilderness, and in Canaan, however we’ve got Bethlehem and Calvary. We will pray,
Jesus, you got here into our world, born in a manger.
For our sake, you had been obedient to the purpose of dying/on a cross.
You had been pierced for our transgressions.
You had been crushed for our iniquities.
You had been wounded in order that we could be healed.
You had been poor in order that we may turn out to be wealthy.
You suffered, the righteous for the unrighteous, to carry us to God.
And three days later, you rose to overcome dying and provides us life.
The Sons of Korah couldn’t say that but, in order that they mentioned, “You restored. You forgave. You coated.” They’d have died to wish the sorts of prayers we get to wish, the prayers we pray daily — in Jesus’s identify.
And but, a few of you continue to doubt God’s mercy. You don’t need to doubt his mercy (and also you won’t even admit that you just doubt it). You don’t need to really feel all of the guilt and disgrace you carry round with you. And but, for 100 completely different causes (in your thoughts, and in your story, and in your loved ones), it’s so onerous to imagine he’s like this. I hope this prayer makes that sort of mercy really feel potential once more.
Israel had totally rejected God for the millionth time. They knew they deserved what they had been struggling, and so they nonetheless knew God could be merciful to them. They are saying, “Even now, you’ll communicate peace to your individuals.” I hear God leaning in by these verses to say to a few of you, “Beloved, how way more do I’ve to do to show my mercy?” God likes to revive the undeserving — sure, even you — as a result of he loves to point out mercy. It’s who he’s.
Fruits of Revival
We’ve appeared now on the want for revival — then and now. We’ve checked out our hope for revival: the merciful God who raises the useless. With the time we’ve got left, I need to look briefly at three fruits of this sort of revival. When God works this non secular life and resolve in a individuals, what occurs subsequent? I see a minimum of three sorts of fruit right here.
1. The Fruit of Pleasure
First, this sort of revival fuels our pleasure. This can be a fairly wild means for sinners to wish, actually. “God, we’re struggling proper now since you’re indignant with us. And also you’re proper to be indignant with us as a result of we’ve rebelled towards you — blatantly and persistently. However we’re asking you to forgive us anyway, and never simply forgive us, however to make us actually, actually completely happy.” Psalm 85:6 says, “Will you not revive us once more, that your individuals might rejoice in you?”
How can they pray like that! How can they sin like they’ve after which flip round and ask for pleasure? As a result of they know that God needs them to be completely happy. That’s the one strategy to make sense of this verse: “We imagine you’ll be keen to revive us as a result of we all know you need us to rejoice in you.” And he does! That’s the sort of God we’ve got. The holy God of the universe is personally, sovereignly, and eternally invested in making you cheerful. Has anybody recognized a God like this? He doesn’t simply need an obedient individuals. He’s not on the lookout for slaves who will do what he says. No, he needs his individuals to be as completely happy as humanly potential in him.
And, discover, they pray particularly for a pleasure in God. “Will you not revive us once more, that your individuals might rejoice in you?” In different phrases, this isn’t the sort of rejoicing we did when the plumber mounted our leak this week. Don’t get me incorrect, we had been all types of completely happy that the ground was dry, and we had been grateful for expensive William and the nice work he did. However that is completely different. Sure, God guarantees to supply reduction and set up peace for his individuals, however they don’t solely rejoice in him for what he does. He is their exceeding pleasure. We heard this final week, in Psalm 84, didn’t we?
How beautiful is your dwelling place,
O Lord of hosts!
My soul longs, sure, faints
for the courts of the Lord;
my coronary heart and flesh sing for pleasure
to the dwelling God. . . .
A day in your courts is best
than a thousand elsewhere. (Psalm 84:1–2, 10)
Discover one of the best circumstances, in probably the most lovely place on earth, with the easiest individuals, and they’d a thousand instances quite be with God. Happiness, as Pastor Jonathan instructed us, is attending to be with Jesus. Jesus himself says in John 15:11, “These items I’ve spoken to you, that my pleasure could also be in you, and that your pleasure could also be full.” In different phrases, “I need you to be as completely happy as humanly potential — pleasure to the full — like I’m.”
So, as we pray for God to revive us, we’re on the lookout for greater than reduction from struggling, or reconciliation in a relationship, or freedom from temptation; we wish higher, fuller pleasure in him. God needs you to be as completely happy as you’ll be able to probably be, and also you’ll solely discover that a lot pleasure in him.
2. The Fruit of Faithfulness
Pleasure isn’t the one fruit of this God-wrought revival, although. There’s a second fruit, and it’s hiding in Psalm 85:8:
Let me hear what God the Lord will communicate,
for he’ll communicate peace to his individuals, to his saints,
however allow them to not flip again to folly.
The prayer is, “Restore us, O Lord, after which don’t allow us to to show away from you once more.” The foundation Hebrew phrase for “flip again” is definitely used a number of instances on this psalm:
- You restored the fortunes (Psalm 85:1).
- You turned from anger (Psalm 85:3).
- Restore us once more (Psalm 85:4).
- Will you not revive us once more? (Psalm 85:6).
After which in Psalm 85:8, the Hebrew listeners would have heard this phrase repeated: “However allow them to not flip again to folly.”
They’re saying, “You’ve turned and restored us prior to now, Lord. We wish you to flip us again and provides us life. After which don’t allow us to flip again to our sin.” Our faithfulness to God is a second fruit of this revival.
Once more, that is how far his mercy reaches. He not solely forgives us and satisfies us in Christ, however he additionally preserves our religion in him and works obedience in us. He has loads of energy to maintain us from turning. And so, when he offers new religion, or when he revives weak or wandering religion, that religion at all times produces new life: love, pleasure, peace, persistence, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. The place, in your life, are you being lured again into folly? What besetting sins tempt you to show away from this mercy? Ask God for a revival with resolve — a resolve to reject all of the temptations of folly and embrace how he’s known as us to spend our brief lives right here earlier than glory.
3. The Fruit of Glory
And that leads us to our third fruit: glory. When God revives us like this, we expertise higher pleasure in him, and we flip away from sin and temptation (to higher faithfulness) — so glory fills the land. These are three nice fruits of revival: our pleasure, our faithfulness, and his glory. This final one will be the most encouraging factor I noticed all week. Once more, Psalm 85:8–9 says,
Let me hear what God the Lord will communicate,
for he’ll communicate peace to his individuals, to his saints;
however allow them to not flip again to folly.
Certainly his salvation is close to to those that worry him,
that glory might dwell in our land.
What does that imply? If God offers this sort of revival and unleashes this sort of pleasure in us, how would his glory “dwell in our land”? What are the Sons of Korah imagining right here? There’s no indication right here (that I can see, anyway) that they’re on the lookout for pillars of fireside or mountains of smoke. No, I believe they’re primarily imagining God’s glory in and amongst his individuals. They’re considering of all of the evidences of his presence and energy of their relationships, their households, their neighborhoods and workplaces. God shall be glorified when his individuals stay out their religion in obedience with pleasure. “Will you not revive us once more, that your individuals might rejoice in you . . . [and] that glory might dwell in our land?” As a result of when God’s individuals are happy in all that he’s for us, he seems nice. He will get the glory.
And that is what we need to occur in these Cities. We wish this to occur everywhere in the world. We wish this glory to fill the entire earth because the waters cowl the ocean (a delicate image for us after our water points the final couple weeks). That’s what we wish. We wish glory streaming down and swelling as much as fill all the pieces we see and know, and that occurs by our faith-filled rejoicing in God.
The Kiss on the Desk
When the Sons of Korah knelt all the way down to ask for mercy, they sang one of the crucial lovely photos in all of Scripture (Psalm 85:10):
Steadfast love and faithfulness meet;
righteousness and peace kiss one another.
It’s lovely as a result of it’s scandalous. In terms of sinners, how can righteousness and peace ever meet, a lot much less kiss? God is completely righteous — he by no means does incorrect, excuses incorrect, or overlooks incorrect. He’s holy, holy, holy. And we’ve all sinned, even this week, even this morning. And any sin, even one, towards a holy God deserves the fullness of his wrath in hell. It will be evil for God to easily communicate peace over our wickedness. And this brings us to the desk.
Righteousness and peace meet in Jesus. They arrive collectively, like two large beams, on the cross. They usually don’t simply meet. They don’t simply reluctantly conform to work collectively for a few years — no, they kiss. There’s no rigidity or distance between these two, not once they meet on this God, on this gospel. They kiss, for all who imagine, beneath the damaged physique and poured out blood of Jesus. Due to Jesus, God is just not indignant with you anymore. He stands able to forgive you, to revive you, and to fill your coronary heart to bursting with pleasure, all for his glory.
