The Scope and Focus of Revival (1)

May the LORD answer you in the day of trouble;
May the name of the God of Jacob defend you;
May He send you help from the sanctuary,
And strengthen you out of Zion;
May He remember all your offerings,
And accept your burnt sacrifice. Psalm 20.1-3

In times of trouble
Where do we turn when trials and troubles confront us? If we look at the record of Christian activism over the past generation, we might discover a reason why God has not yet seen fit to bring revival, renewal, and awakening to His people and the world.

Beginning in the early 1970s, church leaders began to be aware that moral foundations were shifting in America. The legalization of abortion in 1973 woke up a significant section of the Christian world, which immediately began a notable and untiring struggle on behalf of unborn children. That struggle continues to this day, and considerable progress has been made.

During that same period, the imposition of a secular and evolutionary worldview on school children saw a rush to establish separate Christian schools, to protect Christian children from the lies of unbelief.  At the same time, efforts appeared from within the Christian movement to address the changes in culture and society that seemed to embody and promote the tectonic shift in values that was moving the nation off its putative Christian foundations. Efforts were mounted to rate the lyrics of pop music; boycott certain organizations for their support of abortion and other perceived evils; decry the rise of progressivism in politics and education; secure certain moral positions in national political platforms, and befriend politicians who promised to stand for those values; and work for more conservative judges to fill the benches of the American judiciary. Ministries took to the air waves and the Internet to serve as watchdogs against rising cultural immorality, political chicanery, and shifts in long-standing institutions such as marriage.

A tsunami of progressive, secular, hedonistic, and narcissistic change was washing over the country, and Christian leaders turned to politics and activism as their preferred means of redressing the changes troubling the Christian conscience. So much, however, did Christians invest the power of change in the political realm, that they became captive to politics and the materialistic focus which drives it. This, at least, is the opinion of Notre Dame historian Nathan Hatch, writing in a recent issue of Comment.

As a community, Christians rightly diagnosed the rising troubles on every hand. But they gave at best only a passing effort to resolve those troubles as God prescribes. Only now are believers beginning to realize that, while we should have been involved in addressing moral and cultural changes and troubles in many different ways, none of that will be of any lasting benefit apart from seeking the Lord together in prayer.

In the day of trouble, whatever that trouble may be, we must call the Lord (Ps. 20.1), and continue to call, and increase our calling – asking, seeking, knocking, imploring, confessing our sins and repenting day by day – if we expect God to deliver us from the troubles that, more than ever today, threaten to put targets on the backs of believers everywhere.

In short, we have not because we ask not (Jms. 4.2). God promises to hear and deliver us in our times of trouble, if we will make calling on Him our primary and most constant effort.

The Lord’s promise
Psalm 20 overflows with promises from the Lord for helping His people in their times of trouble. He promises to hear them (vv. 1, 6, 9), defend them (v. 1), send them help (v. 2), strengthen them (vv. 2, 6), remember all their prayers and offerings (v. 23), give them their hearts’ desire (v. 4), fulfill their purpose (v. 4), save them (v. 6), and enable them to rise and stand upright in all their ways (v. 8). The realization of all these promises is premised on God’s people calling on Him in prayer (vv. 1, 5, 6). We have believed that better chariots and more horses were the answer to all our troubles (v. 7); the result is that Christian influence continues to lose ground, Christian values are being compromised even by church leaders, churches and believers have turned inward for the fullest experience of faith, and the banner that waves over this land is that of progressive secular humanism, and not the Kingdom of God (vv. 8, 5).

Why have we not turned to the Lord in prayer, beseeching Him day and night, in our private devotions and homes and as gathered congregations? We know that past revivals have all grown out of extraordinary efforts at prayer – repenting of sin, pleading with God for mercy, calling on Him to fulfill the promises of His Word, and staying at the work of prayer by every means in every season. Jonathan Edwards, in an extended exegesis of Zechariah 8.20-22 showed us what God is looking for from us, before He will deliver us from our troubles. The title of Edwards’ book says it all: An Humble Attempt to Promote Explicit Agreement and Visible Union of All God’s People in Extraordinary Prayer for the Revival of Religion and the Renewal of Christ’s Kingdom on Earth, Pursuant to Scripture Promises and Prophecies.

If we want God to deliver us, and to save the world from its many and increasing troubles, we must give ourselves to extraordinary efforts in prayer. This we have not done. Our leaders have not called us to this work, and we have not taken it up in our homes and private devotions. And do we wonder why our troubles continue to increase?

Praying Psalm 20 for revival
Psalm 20 encourages us to come to God with our troubles in one hand and His promises in the other. Hold your burdens up to the Lord – your personal needs, those of your family and church, and those that threaten to swallow the nation in a sinkhole of narcissism, materialism, mere sensuality, and sickness. Offer prayers of confession like burnt offerings to the Lord, pleading with Him to forgive and revive you, to renew the churches in the land, and to awaken lost souls to the salvation of the Lord.

Call on God to fulfill everything that He promises in this psalm. Name each of the promises outlined in the paragraph above, and spread them out in detail before the Lord. Thus, you both take Him at His Word and show your confidence in Him, to do what He has promised when we pray.

Declare your confidence in the Lord: He hears your prayers! He will answer and show you great things and mysteries you’ve never known (Jer. 33.3)! He will lift you up, unfurl His banner over you, and bring you to great heights and power of His saving mercy and grace! Tell Him that you believe Him, and call on Him to show you the steps you need to take each day to move toward His promises and fulfill the requirements of His word.

And get others to pray with you! It’s when All God’s People join for Extraodinary Prayer for revival, renewal, and awakening that God rides out among us, conquering and to conquer, bringing His Kingdom to reality on earth as it is in heaven, and turning the world rightside-up for Jesus Christ.

Get God in focus amid the growing darkness of these troubling times, and let His own Word, as in Psalm 20, guide you in calling on Him to act according to His promises and power.

For Reflection
1. Why does God make prayer a prerequisite for delivering us from our troubles?

2. What are you doing to make prayer for revival a more constant part of your daily walk with and work for the Lord?

3. What can you do to enlist the believers in your Personal Mission Field to join you in seeking the Lord for revival?

Next Steps – Transformation. Begin using Psalm 20 to pray for revival. Add it in rotation with the other psalms we have considered thus far in this series. Pray boldly, and encourage other believers to pray boldly, too.

T. M. Moore

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Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.