Many years ago I used to watch a couple of TV shows that focused on telling stories of people who were sick or injured, and how they were rescued and restored to health. Sometimes the characters in these accounts seemed almost dead. One wondered how they would ever be able to survive, yet they were revived. Our psalm for this week speaks of being revived. What is the Lord speaking about in this psalm? Let’s take a look.
The dictionary definition of the word “revive” is to restore to life or consciousness, to regain life or strength, and to give new strength or energy to. When someone is very sick or injured, perhaps even near death, and then the paramedics and doctors restore their health, we can say that the person has been revived. Those shows I watched only dealt with the physical condition. As serious as it may be to need to be revived physically, there is something even more important than that. That is the need to be revived spiritually, which is what our psalmist prays for in our psalm.
For this discussion here today, let’s say that there are three types of people in the world, three types physically and also three types spiritually. There are the physically healthy, physically sick and/or injured in various degrees, and the physically dead. There are also the spiritually healthy who are the ones which are saved and living their lives for Jesus. There are the spiritually sick or unhealthy, who have strayed and drifted away from the Lord and a close walk with Him in varying degrees. And there are those who are spiritually dead, who have never accepted Jesus as their Savior, and either follow false religions and teachings, or don’t even believe in God.
When we are healthy and in good physical condition, all is fine. We’re doing good. However, sometimes we get sick and we need to see a doctor. We may have a medical emergency at home or somewhere, or perhaps we get injured, and the paramedics are called. Depending on how serious the situation is, how sick or injured we are, the doctors may or may not be able to revive us. If they pull that white sheet over us, revival did not happen. Then we are physically dead, and there is nothing anyone can do for us then.
There are some Christians who are living very godly lives. They are walking closely with the Savior. They read and study their Bibles daily, pray, and follow what the Lord wants them to do. They are spiritually healthy. Then we find some Christians who are drifting away from the Lord. Their Bible reading drops, their church attendance drops. They start doing things, saying things, watching things, and going places a Christian shouldn’t. They are backslidden, or spiritually unhealthy and sick. Then we also have the spiritually dead. The difference between the physically dead and the spiritually dead is that the spiritually dead can be revived and become spiritually alive as long as they are still physically alive. After that there is no more hope.
Our psalmist cries out to God, pleading with Him to restore the people, to revive them again (vs. 4, 6). Many of the people of Israel, perhaps even the majority, had strayed far away from the Lord. They tossed His Word aside, and many were now worshiping false idols, in addition to pretending to also worship Yahweh. A lot of them were spiritually dead, and most of them were spiritually sick. They all needed to be restored and revived. We see a similarly dire situation today. There are so many people who make a profession of faith, but have drifted away from the Lord and His Word. Then there are the multitudes of lost people. Both need the Lord to revive them.
How can we be revived again? With physically sick people, they need to get the medical attention they need with a doctor and hospital. They need to take the medicine required, and follow the doctors orders for treatment. To be spiritually revived, one first needs to be sure they are saved, by accepting the Lord Jesus as Savior. Then they need to be in a church that believes in and preaches the Word of God (like the right hospital), and reading their own Bible at home (like the right medicine). Just as we know that some behavior is risky for our health or safety, there is plenty of behavior that is risky for our spiritual health, and will end us right back in the condition that will require more spiritual revival. We all could use some spiritual revival to some degree or another, just like we all need to get periodic physical check-ups, exercise, and take vitamins.
In closing, I am reminded of a story I heard of the 19th century hymn writer William MacKay. He had been brought up in a Christian household, but in his youth and young adulthood had drifted far from the Lord, so far that one day he pawned for spending money the unread Bible his mother had given him. Eventually MacKay became a doctor, and one day a dying man he was attending cried out for “his book”. A nurse brought the dying man the book. Later MacKay asked what book it was, and then to his surprise he found out that it was the very Bible his mother had given to him years earlier, as she had written a note to him on the inside cover. That night he returned to the Lord he had strayed so far away from, and later wrote the well-known hymn “Revive Us Again”. Like the psalmist centuries earlier, William MacKay, and all of us today can cry out to the Lord for Him to revive us and rekindle a flame of devotion to Him in our hearts.
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