Revive Us Again

Biblical Principles for Revival Today

Walter C. Kaiser Jr.

• Publisher: Christian Focus Publication
• Year: 2013
• eBook ISBN: 9781781913420

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It Is Time to Ask God to Revive Us Once Again

Revival under the Sons of Korah

Psalm 85:1-13

Psalm 85, in several church traditions, is usually read on Christmas Day because of its bright pictures of peace, reconciliation, and fruitfulness of land—in the last verses. It is an amazingly beautiful prayer, probably set to music, as the psalm title informs us, with the focal point coming in verse 4, "Restore [or "revive"] us again, Ο God our Savior."

But just as significant is the fact that it was composed by "the sons of Korah." Now the name of Korah is connected with infamy in Numbers 16. There Korah, along with certain persons from the tribe of Reuben—Dathan, Abiram, and On — became insolent when they declared that it was time for a change in leadership. Moses and Aaron had to go! They argued that all the congregation was "holy," so why should Aaron and Moses set themselves up as leaders over the Lord's assembly? (Num. 16:3).

Moses and Aaron were instructed by God to tell the congregation of Israel to move away from the tents of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram (Num. 16:23, 26). Suddenly the earth opened up, and they went down to their graves alive (Num. 16:33).

One would think that all the natural descendants of Korah would forever be cut off from the mercy and grace of God, but the title to this psalm indicates that the exact opposite is true. The same Mosaic law that taught that God would punish the sins of "fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me" (Exod. 20:4) also taught that "fathers shall not be put to death for their children, nor children put to death for their fathers; each is to die for his [or her] own sin" (Deut. 24:16). Thus the marvelous grace of God did not hold against the lineal descendants of Korah the faults that overtook their forefather, but instead raised them to even greater heights by allowing them to be the authors of Scripture, including Psalms 42-49; 84-85; and 87-88. In 2 Chronicles 20:19 the Korahites stood along with the Levities and the Kohathites to praise the Lord.

How appropriate, then, that the family that had experienced so generously of the grace of God should be used by God to call their generation and ours back to that same God of grace! They did this in Psalm 85, with four strophes that laid out before the Lord four requests:

1. Grant us your restoration as in times past (85:1-3).
2. Grant us your joy and love in our times (85:4-7).
3. Grant us your peace and presence in our land (85:8-9).
4. Grant us your harmony among your people (85:10-13).

Here is the prayer for revival that should teach us how we ought to pray as we earnestly storm the gates of heaven and cry out to God that he might revive his church, our nations, and our sin-laden culture once again.

Grant Us Your Restoration as in Times Past (85:1-3)

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Is it not true that past revivals have been responsible for bringing to all who live on earth the benefits and blessings we now enjoy? And that is indeed the basis on which the psalm begins: God has been favorable to the people of Israel in the past. In fact, that is the very essence of our definition of revival. A revival is a time when believers witness an extraordinary work of God enlivening, strengthening, and elevating the spiritual life and vitality already possessed, but which life is now in a state of decline and is feeble, mediocre, and dull in its outworkings. Revivals come as "times of refreshing from the Lord" (Acts 3:19) or, in the case of Israel, it was a time when God restored the fortunes of Israel.

For modern evidences of such extraordinary movements of God among his saints, one need only look to South Korea's history in the last forty years, or to what has gone on in Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union, and the People's Republic of China in even more recent days. In each case, a cleansed church has led to fantas-tic enlargement of the believing family of God. For example, with less than a million believers in China prior to 1950, the Spirit of God has added, mainly since 1979, another 70 to 90 million believers in that nation that contains one-fourth of the earth's population!

And who can forget the 10 to 15 million believers in South Korea in a nation of just over 40 million citizens? Most of that growth in South Korea has come since the Korean War in the 1950s. Yes, God has "showed favor to [many lands]" (v. 1). But let Korea or any other nation forget what God has done, and the results are tragic: markets tumble, economies catapult, and prestige vanishes, until the believing community remembers where its strength and glory came from.

It is little wonder, then, that the six verbs of verses 1-3 review the way that God had worked so majestically in the past. While it is true that the context of this psalm may have been some recent national catastrophe, verse 4 was not a request that God should complete a work then in progress; instead, it was a prayer that God would once again, in that present time, do the same new work for those who currently were completely deserving of the wrath of God as others had experienced God's grace in the past.

Three important components of Israel's past history formed the basis for the request for revival: (1) confession of sin, (2) forgiveness of sin, and (3) the removal of God's wrath. The fact that God "showed favor" and that he "restored" (or literally "turned") the "fortunes of Jacob" in verse 1 implied that the people had begun their quest for renewal and revival by confessing their sin. In turn, God "forgave" their "iniquity," and he "covered all their sins" (v. 2). The people's quest for results, blessing, prestige, influence, and power had to address the issue of blockage caused by sin first. Without forgiveness, none of the sought-after results would be present, or at least, they would not be long-lasting. The sin question must always be dealt with first, or the quest for renewal and reviving of life among God's people will be dead in the water, even before it starts.

When sins are confessed and forgiven, God's restoration also involves the removal of his wrath against us sinners and our nations. That is what verse 3 affirmed: God "set aside" his wrath, and he "turned" or "called back" his fierce anger. The allusion in verse 3 is probably to Exodus 32:12; 34:7,14; and Numbers 25:4, where the offended holiness of God is like a consuming fire that can only be set aside when an atonement for sin has made possible a reconciliation for all who will ask for forgiveness. But thanks be to God: he has restored us to his favor, and his anger no longer burns against us, when we confess our sin and he forgives us and removes the impending threat of his wrath that hung over our heads.

Grant Us Your Joy and Love in Our Times (85:4-7)

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Spiritual growth cannot exist where there is unconfessed sin. Neither is the joy of singing possible where fellowship has been broken. Have you ever visited a new congregation and been struck by the absence of any heartfelt joy and vitality in the songs of the congregation? I have. In my experience, it has been possible to almost determine the spiritual sensitivities of that group, based on the way in which that congregation sang. Where the singing had been lackluster and almost begrudgingly offered as a requirement to God, the ability of that group of saints to receive the word of God with joy and to allow that word to judge them was almost defeated in its effectiveness before it began. Why? Because they needed to get rid of their festering sins and to ask the Holy Spirit of God to revive them again.

Only when God's people are restored to his favor and new life has again begun to flow through that body of believers is it possible to experience the joy believers were meant to have in our Lord. That is why the sons of Korah pleaded, "Restore [or "turn"] us again ... and put away your displeasure toward us" (v. 4).

Notice that revival is the work of God: You restore us and you revive us (vv. 4,6), they prayed. Revival comes from God; it cannot be imitated or self-induced. Revival is the gift of God's "love" (v. 7). The Hebrew word used for "love" in this verse is the word hesed, one of the most beautiful, but difficult, words to translate in all the Old Testament. ¹ It is not as if we did not know what hesed meant; instead, it is that it contains too rich a meaning for any one English word to approximate. It includes the ideas that God is gracious, loving, and faithfully loyal in all that he has promised to do—and more. Thus, the same love that chastens us will now revive us by bringing us back to the forgiving Savior. That is why we judge the heart of this psalm and prayer to God for all ages, times, cultures, and nations to be in verse 6: "Will you not revive us again?" How else will we be able to rejoice in our Lord if we are not first revived?

The request in verse 7 to grant us "salvation" is not a request to bring us into the family of God for the first time. It is a request that we be delivered from the just consequences of our sin. For too long the body has suffered powerlessness, unhappiness, affliction, dispersion, and a cultural captivity that has made the church the laughingstock of the heathen.

Some of the sins that we need to be delivered from should be mentioned to start our hearts and minds thinking of the seriousness of the summons that is being issued here in this passage. First, we would mention the sin of nonattendance at the house of God. Hebrews 10:25 warns, "Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing." Not only have the baby boomers dropped out of attending church, but now many above fifty years of age have felt that worship styles have catered too much to the tastes of the yuppies (in a distorted effort to win them back to the church). As a consequence, many churches have departed from incorporating the pastoral prayer, the public reading of Scripture, and the forthright exposition and proclamation of Scripture. While this is an accurate assessment of the habits of all too many churches, it still does not relieve us of our obligation to attend the house of God and to pray for the kind of spiritual hunger in all God's people that will see past trendy styles and strive for a real meeting with God in worship.

We could also mention the sin of unreliability in Christian service. Too many have invested all of their best efforts into their professions and jobs with whatever time is left being reserved for one's own leisure time. However, 1 Corinthians 4:2 likewise warns, "Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful." Where the fires of revival burned dimly, if at all, there it is that scores of positions for service in God's vineyard and his house go begging for faithful and dedicated workers.

In the third place, the sin of unholiness in everyday affairs could be mentioned. First Thessalonians 4:7 boldly affirms, "For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life." Hence, all that offends the holiness of God is one more reason why we ought to cry out to God in repentance for his reviving power in our lives again.

All sin is actually a transgression of the law of God, as John taught in 1 John 3:4. Thus all who sin break God's law and need to be reconciled to him. But if it is claimed that this is too much to ask of those who have already been forgiven and are part of the family of God, then let it be remembered that the apostle John's letter to the seven churches of Asia Minor (i.e., present-day Turkey) advised five of the seven churches to "repent." To the church at Ephesus he declared, "Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand [church] from its place" (Rev. 2:5). No less severe were John's words to the church at Pergamum: "Repent therefore! Otherwise, I will soon come to you and will fight against [you] with the sword of my mouth" (Rev. 2:16). The church at Thyatira had an even more damning indictment: "I have given her time to repent of her immorality, but she is unwilling. So I will cast her on a bed of suffering, and I will make those who commit adultery with her suffer intensely, unless they repent of her ways" (Rev. 2:21-22). To the church at Sardis he wrote: "Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; obey it, and repent" (Rev. 3:3). Finally, the church of Laodicea was advised, "So be earnest, and repent. Here ... I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me" (Rev. 3:19b-20).

Who can deny the fact that failure to recall and to act on what we have been taught from the Word of God will likewise earn the wrath of God, unless we, too, repent and return to obeying the whole counsel of God? All too frequently in this day of pluralism and minimalistic doctrine, ethical practice, and abbreviated morality, the full demands of Scripture are sacrificed in the name of every other good in Christendom, except respect for what he has taught us in his Word. We are told that we must think of the larger picture, of the need for unity among the brethren, of the need to bring as many as possible under one banner for a more effective voice in a culture that counts noses as easily as it counts beans in deciding what is the correct position in a democracy on the same basis. But will this wash with the Savior? Can we avoid the overwhelming necessity to repent and to cry out, "Do it again, Lord. Please revive us again."

In any case, God's anger, in comparison with his grace, mercy, and love, lasts but for a moment (Ps. 30:5), while his favor lasts a lifetime (Exod. 34:6). And when God's saints are restored to his favor, they are enabled to rejoice once more.

Is it not clear that oftentimes there comes a call even for the church of God to repent and to return to believing, acting, and living like she did when she first came to know the Lord? When we refuse to forsake our wicked practices, such as immorality, God will cast his very own people and his beloved church into a bed of intense suffering until she cries out in repentance.

The interesting point is that rejoicing is not an optional feature of the Christian life. It is an essential part of being the people of God. Thus, people who have little inner joy are probably in desperate need of his reviving work. This point is proven by the psalmist in other parts of that book: "Those who love your name may rejoice in you" (Ps. 5:11b); "May those who love your salvation always say, 'The Lord be exalted!'" (Ps. 40:16b).

Grant Us Your Peace and Presence in Our Land (85:8-9)

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The promise of God is simply the reaffirmation of the word given in Leviticus 26:3-13. This promise comes in our psalm almost as if a voice interrupted the silence while an answer was awaited to the requests that had been made in verses 1-7. Just as the prophet Habakkuk had to wait to hear what God would say in his bewilderment, so the psalmist waits until he hears "what God the Lord will say" (v. 8a).

And the result of his waiting is that God "promises peace." Peace is not only protection from one's enemies and fertility of the land (as Lev. 26 makes abundantly clear), but God's shalom is a veritable summary of everything that he will do for his people materially, physically, socially, spiritually, and psychologically. This is not to give credence to the message of the health, wealth, and prosperity people, for that message is totally individualistic, secular, and me-centered. Instead, it affirms what has been true of every revival we have seen in the past. Wherever the voice of God has been recognized in all its fullness, there God's people have experienced the peace from God that passes all understanding. And that peace has both an inner and outer aspect that cannot be compared to any cheap tit-for-tat serving of God in order to get rich, or to a name-it-and-claim-it program of do-it-yourself egocentrism.

The people of God are called by three names in these two verses: "his people," "his saints," and "those who fear him." What a privilege to belong to God and to be chosen to be his special possession (Exod. 19:5-6). And who would ever think of the present body of Christ, at least in most of its forms, as "saints"? But that is what we are called in both the Old and New Testaments. Imagine the people at the messed־up church of Corinth being called "saints" (1 Cor. 1:2 NKJV), but so they were! And think about all the texts in Proverbs, Psalms, Ecclesiastes, and Job where we are enjoined to "fear the Lord." "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom" argued the psalmist in 111:10a.

Besides promising his peace, verse 9b observes that under these revived conditions the "glory" of God may now dwell in the land. The glory of God stood for nothing short of his very own presence. Indeed, the personal presence of God would come to dwell in the land or nation where the people of God had called out for a revival from above. What better exchange could we have today for all the wickedness and rampant evil than to have God's personal presence abiding with us where once the streets and cities had been all but given over to lawlessness? Is this not more than enough reason for us to call for a new work of God in our churches?

Ο that we would "not return to folly" (v. 8c). Such a reversal of directions would be tantamount to acting like pigs that want to get back into the mud after being cleaned up or to acting like dogs that return to their vomit after having experienced what really good eating was like (2 Pet. 2:22).

Grant Us Your Harmony among Your People (85:10-13)

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In everyday affairs, strict adherence to the claims of truth sometimes prevents the display of love and kindness. But when God showers his grace on a revived people, grace and truth (Hebrew hesed and 'emet) not only come together, but they embrace and kiss each other (v. 10)!

This may be looked at from two different aspects. From the terrestrial side ("springs forth from the earth," v. 11a) comes "truth" (or, as the NIV has it, "faithfulness"); but from heaven ("looks down") comes "righteousness."

In our personal lives, truth is combined with a gracious and merciful spirit when we believe and act on the assertion that "the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit" (Rom. 14:17). Meanwhile, our collective life manifested the reviving work of God when, as in the past, slavery was abolished, child labor laws were ended, work hours were shortened, missionary societies were formed, the YMCA was begun in many cities of the world, slums were cleared, the Sunday school movement began, homes for unwed mothers were provided, abortion was condemned, law and order was restored to the major urban centers, and many similar reforms were enacted by revived consciences of restored believers moving out into the marketplaces of the world and our society at large.

Even more amazing, the way back to the green theology of ecology was not by means of a concentration on the imbalance we have created in nature per se, but to tackle the problem of the heart of humanity first as a means to getting more than a fashionable response to a current eddy of thought that would no doubt only last for a period of time as long as it got recognition from the media.

Verses 12-13 promise that when God revives his people, even the land will experience a substantial healing, thereby modeling what the full restitution of the whole creation will be when our Lord returns a second time to this earth (Rom. 8:20-22). Leviticus 26:4 had predicted that "the ground will yield its crops" when God's people obey him. Generally the most prosperous times in English and American history were directly connected as aftermaths of revivals from God.

Proverbs 14:34 is still true: "Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a disgrace to any people." It is also exceedingly true that "Where there is no revelation [i.e., preaching of the Word of God to God's people or to any nation], the people cast off restraint" (Prov. 29:18). What better explanation is there for the brazen effrontery of lawlessness and wickedness in our day than this verse supplies? When the pulpit fails to declare the whole counsel of God and turns, instead, to pop psychology, self-realization talks, and identity types of searches in sermonettes, be sure that the populace, both inside the church and outside it, will see all hell break loose just as Moses witnessed after a mere forty-day hiatus of his presence and preaching while he was on Mount Sinai receiving the Ten Commandments. Proverbs 29: 18 borrowed the very same word used in Exodus 32:25 when it observed that the people "were running wild" (or "had broken loose") in sacred prostitution to the golden calf. What will happen after months and years of such poor pablum and poppycock substitutes for the Word of God? Has not our culture, both church and secular, torn down the fences and gone wild? And whom shall we blame for this state of affairs? Or better still, to whom shall we go in repentance and hunger for revival given such a desperate state of affairs, no matter how they have come about?

Righteousness (i.e., the "rightness" of God) will go before the revived as a vanguard for all their steps and plans, exactly as Isaiah 58:8b had promised in a similar manner. And those who cry out so frequently for guidance and for someone or something to lay out the path they should take are relieved to know that when we are revived God lays down a path for us to walk in (v. 13b). What a blessing revival is both to the land and to its inhabitants!

Conclusion

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Without the reviving power and presence of God, there can be no spiritual life or vitality. If we are to have life — real life — we must ask the source of that life.

As I write this chapter, the temperature outside is slipping to 20 degrees below zero with windchill readings of minus 50 degrees! In this kind of weather, many will experience frostbite very quickly if exposed to the elements for too long. The first sign of a frozen limb is pain—and so is the first sign of our need for revival. If we deny that we need anything, we are actually in the very jaws of death, warned John (Rev. 3:17).

The second sign of life is a voice that cries out because of the pain. Here is where the ministry of prayer begins as we entreat our heavenly Father to come to our rescue. Never have we experienced a revival that has not begun with a humbling of ourselves in recognition of our abysmal state and a heavy burden that we must beg God to help us with. Without prayer, revivals do not even begin.

A third sign of life comes when we seek help from a physician. This is equivalent to our "seeking the face of God." God is under no duress of obligation to answer us, but we know that he is most merciful and gracious.

The final sign of life for tho...

Table of contents

• Title
• Indicia
• Dedication
• Contents
• Introduction
• Foreword
• Preface
• 1. It Is Time to Ask God to Revive Us Once Again
• 2. It Is Time to Get Rid of Our Idols
• 3. It Is Time to Confess Our Sin
• 4. It Is Time to Serve the Lord Only
• 5. It Is Time to Let God Be God
• 6. It Is Time to Seek the Lord
• 7. It Is Time to Pray to the Lord
• 8. It Is Time to Turn Back to the Lord
• 9. It Is Time to Humble Ourselves before the Lord
• 10. It Is Time to Renew the Work of the Lord
• 11. It Is Time to Rejoice in the Lord
• 12. It Is Time to Prepare for the Lord
• 13. It Is Time to Embrace the Gift of the Holy Spirit
• 14. It Is Time to Ask for a Change of Heart
• 15. It Is Time to Advance the Missionary Cause of Chris
• 16. It Is Time to Renew Evangelism in the Church
• Epilogue
• Study Guide
• Christian Focus