Psalm 119.153-160 (7)

Pray Psalm 119.154, 156, 159.
Plead my cause and redeem me;
Revive me according to Your word…
Great are Your tender mercies, O LORD;
Revive me according to Your judgments…
Consider how I love Your precepts;
Revive me, O LORD, according to Your lovingkindness.

Sing Psalm 119.153-159.
(Angel’s Story: Angels from the Realms of Glory)
Lord, look down on my affliction, see my wounded, weary soul!
Plead my cause, redeem and save; deliver me and make me whole!
O revive us! O revive us! Let Your Word our lives control!

They who do not seek Your statutes saving grace shall never know.
For Your tender mercy, Jesus, I will to Your judgments go.
O revive us! O revive us! Let Your grace and mercy flow!

Many foes and persecutors from Your Word have turned away.
Though they threaten to undo me, yet Your truth will I obey.
O revive us! O revive us, Lord, our Rock our Strength, our Stay.

Lord, consider how I love the precepts of Your holy Word!
All Your Word is truth forever, and your judgments, righteous Lord.
O revive us! O revive us by Your kindness, loving Lord!

Read Psalm 119.153-160; meditate on verses 154, 156, 159.

Preparation
1. What did the psalmist want God to do for him?

2. What would be the basis for that?

Meditation

Nine times throughout Psalm 119 the psalmist cries out for God to revive Him. Three of those occasions are here, in this ר (resh) stanza. It’s safe to say, I think, that the longer our psalmist labored over this magnificent poem, the more acutely aware he became of his own need for reviving grace.

Indeed, these heartfelt cries for revival in verses 154, 156, 159 strike me as the denouement of this entire psalm. Themes we’ve seen to this point throughout the psalm – affliction, salvation, the wicked, and of course, God’s Law – recur here and are all swallowed up by and resolved in the utter reliability, truthfulness, and perdurability of the Word of God (v. 160). We can almost sense a sigh of relief at the end of this stanza in this confident, even defiant, testimony of faith in God and His Word. From this point of urgent pleading, the psalm begins to wind down to a surprising, even anticlimactic end.

It’s against the backdrop of God’s unfailing Word that the psalmist realizes his need for revival. He longs to be more fully and consistently in the shelter of God’s Word (v. 154), to know the judgments of God for all aspects of life (v. 156), and to increase in the lovingkindness of God for working his Personal Mission Field (v. 159). God must do this for Him. Revival is a work of God’s grace. Yet we must seek it, open our soul to receive it, and go forth into our day believing we have been revived and ready to draw on revival’s grace and power.

Let it be your daily cry: “Revive me!”

Treasures Old and New: Matthew 13.52; Psalm 119.162
“Revive me according to Your lovingkindness, so that
I may keep the testimony of Your mouth” (Ps. 119.88).

The precursor to revival is repentance. And God’s lovingkindness woos us to repent when we feel safe
in His love. But repentance must result in our sincere intention and effort henceforth to keep God’s Law.

Previously unbeknownst to me, another way our children used to “clean” on Saturdays was just revealed by Kristy, who informed me after reading Friday’s Scriptorium, that she used to just turn on the vacuum and let it run for 10 minutes. Mind you, not moving it around; just letting us hear the noise of perceived activity. I must admit, it made me laugh. Now. But I’m not sure how amused I would have been at the time. 

Really though, isn’t that the best example yet for insincere repentance? We make all the outward signs and noise of spirituality but there is no actual remorse or turning from our sin to be thoroughly cleaned and revived.

Since the entirety of God’s Word is enduringly true, and it is the quintessential definition of perdurability—the state or quality of being enduring, long-lasting, having everlastingness, and extremely durable; and since “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever” (Heb. 13.8); and God has always, and will always, hate sin; and we have all sinned, and the payment for that is death (Rom. 3.23; 6.23); wouldn’t it make sense for us to be truly repentant of our sins, turn from them, and then do the good works that God has prepared for us to do? (Eph. 2.10) And yes, “the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 6.23), but we have been given this incredible gift so that we keep and do God’s Laws (Ps. 119.88). This is the whole of salvation.

Our Personal Mission Field needs us to turn on the vacuum of repentance and do the cleaning up and turning away from sin, so that our lives will daily be Revived! and useful in the Kingdom work set out for us. We dare not just make “spiritual noise” like sounding brass and clanging cymbals. (1 Cor. 13.1)

We must be thoroughly revived!

For reflection
1. How would you explain what the psalmist means by being revived?

2. What is repentance? How is repentance related to God’s Law? To revival?

3. What might be some of the effects of revival in a believer’s Personal Mission Field?

Those who were quickened by his Spirit and grace, when they were dead in trespasses and sins, often need to have the work of grace revived in them, according to the word of promise… The psalmist begs for God’s reviving, quickening grace. Matthew Henry (1662-1714), Commentary on Psalm 119.154, 156

Pray Psalm 119.160.
Pray that God will show you from His Word specific areas of your life where you need to be revived. Call on Him to direct your steps for revival today.

Sing Psalm 119.160.
(Angel’s Story: Angels from the Realms of Glory)
All Your Word is true and all Your righteous judgments will endure.
I will look to You and walk within Your Law forevermore.
O revive us! O revive us by Your Word so strong and sure.

T. M. and Susie Moore

You can listen to a summary of last week’s Scriptorium study by going to our website, www.ailbe.org, and clicking the Scriptorium tab for last Sunday. You can download any or all the studies in this series on Psalm 119 by clicking here.

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Except as indicated, all Scriptures are taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. For sources of all quotations, see the weekly PDF of this study. All psalms for singing are from The Ailbe Psalter (Williston: Waxed Tablet Publications, 2006), available by clicking here.