Psalm 85:1-4
LORD, you were favorable to your land;
you restored the fortunes of Jacob.
2 You forgave the iniquity of your people;
you covered all their sin. Selah
3 You withdrew all your wrath;
you turned from your hot anger.
4 Restore us again, O God of our salvation,
and put away your indignation toward us!
I have learned from our granddaughter, Harriet, that if something I do entertains or amuses her, I will be obliged to do it again. And again…and again. Even if Harriet cannot say the word yet, she knows that something has happened that has been a blessing to her and she wants a repeat performance of the blessing. That is the point of the psalmist in these verses. God brought the Israelites out of the land of Egypt. We do not know when it was written but we have many options as the people needed help constantly due to their disobedience. Each time they cried, “Again!” The Lord was there. J. I. Packer likened this to the First Great Awakening, then the Second Great Awakening. Each time, we returned to the old disobedience and to this day we cry, “Again!” We long for the blessing of another revival when God restores us to his word and his ways. Every revival has been prefaced with two things, a return to prayer and a return to the Bible. Perhaps today, instead of crying to God for another revival, we should revive our interest in the Lord in our prayer life and in our attention to his word with the sure hope that he will revive us again.
Dear Lord, thank you for the revivals of the past. May the next one start in our prayer closet and in our devotions as you revive us again. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
Pastor Brad Boyer
Cape Community Church