A Prayer for Revival in the Psalms — Mack Tomlinson

Psalm 85 as a Prayer for Revival

Well, let's turn our attention now to the Scriptures. Please turn to the Psalms. And we will look at the 85th Psalm. Psalm 85. It's a short but a powerful psalm. Psalm 85 is a prayer for revival. A prayer to be revived.

When Israel did well spiritually, when you as a Christian have been spiritually healthy and doing well, and hard times come, and you need renewal, you need revival. That's what's in this psalm. So, let's read it, and then we'll pray, and then we'll go through this psalm together.

Lord, You have been favorable unto Your land. You brought back the captivity of Jacob. You have forgiven the iniquity of Your people. You have covered, forgiven all their sin. Selah. You have taken away all Your wrath.

You have turned Yourself from the fierceness of Your anger. Turn us, O God, of our salvation, and cause Your anger toward us to cease. Will You be angry with us forever? Will You draw out Your anger to all generations?

Will You not revive us again in order that Your people may rejoice in Thee? Show us Your mercy, O Lord, and grant us Your salvation. I will hear what God the Lord will speak, for He will speak peace unto His people and to His saints, but let them not turn again to folly.

Surely His salvation is near those who fear Him in order that glory may dwell in our land. Mercy and truth are met together. Righteousness and peace have kissed each other. Truth shall spring out of the earth, and righteousness shall look down from heaven.

Yes, the Lord will give that which is good, and our land shall yield her increase. Righteousness shall go before Him and shall set us in the way of His steps. Let's pray. Our Father, unless You speak, we will not hear in a real way.

So give us grace right now. Give us Your Holy Spirit to speak right now in a way that will honor You, that will please You. Let the words of my mouth and the thoughts and motives of my heart in this hour please You.

And Lord, would You give us fresh ears to hear, hearts to see, illuminate the eyes of our understanding, grant us fresh faith and focus. Lord, that the voice of Christ by the Spirit would speak through this psalm and produce change.

Lord, come. We look to You with thanksgiving. And we trust in You now. In Jesus' name, Amen. A prayer for revival. A prayer to be revived. I wonder if there's any candidates for that in the room today.

Revival in Israel's Old Testament History

Reviving, coming to the believer, or to God's people corporately. There were probably at least six or seven major reformations and revivals in the Old Testament history of Israel. When God's people had been obeying the covenant and then departed.

And when that happened, a reformation was needed. And you remember those. They're recorded in Ezra and other places. When love for the Lord and spiritual health was thriving in Israel, and there was conformity to the law of God, there was observance of God's law, and then their spiritual health as a covenant family declined and grew cold, and ultimately apostasy into idolatry and Baal worship.

You know the story. Then, at those times in Israel's history, a revival and a renewing of the Holy Spirit was needed. And have no question about this, the activity of the Holy Spirit in the individual believer in the Old Covenant and upon at times with reality, the activity of the Spirit was just as real as it is in the New Testament.

Not as much, not the effusion, not the permanency like began at Pentecost, but still, the activity of the Holy Spirit was at work in reformation and revival. And in the individual hearts of believers.

That's why David could say, renew a right spirit within me. Take not your Holy Spirit from me. Experientially, that's what he was praying for. When spiritual life declines, when spiritual health erodes into coolness, lukewarmness, and then downgrades into a cold heart, then revival is needed again.

The Babylonian Captivity and Psalm 85's Historical Setting

Psalm 85 is a revival psalm. Now the historic setting is the deliverance from the Babylonian captivity. A return from Babylon to Jerusalem came as a result of Cyrus, the Persian king, ending their captivity.

And then they returned home. And around 516, 520 to 515, the temple was rebuilt. And the restoration was real and seemed permanent. It was glory days when restoration happened. And that's what the first three verses are about.

God bringing Israel back from the captivity, restoring the captivity of Jacob. Great mercy was extended toward the nation as the covenant people of God. As God turned again the captivity of Zion. Psalm 126 speaks to that, doesn't it?

I'll refer to that in a moment. Israel saw it. They experienced it. They knew it. And there was great joy. Now, then, after the passing of time, months, a year, years, those revivals and reformations did not last.

They were temporary. Spiritual negligence, drawing back, spiritual sluggishness, slow drifting. Hebrews 2 warns against that, doesn't it? About drifting from the things you've heard. Drifting away from the Gospel.

The inevitable downward tendency. Laxity set in. Decline, backsliding, and departure. That is Israel's Old Testament history. That cycle of spiritual health and faithfulness to the covenant. And then spiritual decline and apostasy and idolatry.

And then what came next? Somebody give me the word. Judgment. And then repentance and prophets would come trumpeting a return of Israel back to the covenant, back to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

And God the Spirit would then restore and bring them back to a renewal of the covenant. Always that cycle of spiritual health, decline, idolatry, worldliness, judgment, preaching, and a move of the Holy Spirit.

Spiritual Cycles in Believers and Churches

That's Israel's Old Testament history. Now brothers and sisters, if we're honest with ourselves, if we are transparent with the Lord in ourselves, if we're transparent with the Holy Spirit, we too have spiritual cycles, don't we?

Not everybody's always on a high. Not everybody's always completely consistent, spiritually healthy, assurance, prayer life is great, Bible reading is a feast, the fellowship's wonderful, firing on all cylinders.

We're not always spiritually doing well, are we? We too have cycles. Churches can have cycles, spiritual cycles. Maybe not back to the world totally. Maybe not forsaking the assembly of God's people. Maybe not back to our unregenerate idolatry.

A friend of mine, an old preacher used to say, if you can sin and go back and dabble in the world and have no fear of it, you're in great danger. So maybe we're not talking about maybe back to the world, but believers have cycles where they're spiritually healthy and fervent and consistent and joyful assurance.

The nearness of the Lord is real. Much like the first days of conversion. You remember the days when you first came to know the Lord? The freshness, the realness, the joy, the wonder, the ah. I'm really forgiven.

God's my Father now. I'm a son. I'm washed. I'm clean. The fresh days were real. And then, gradually, a waning can come. A lessening. The distractions we heard about last night, the routine, the mediocrity, the mundaneness begins to drain us.

From the freshness. Drain us of our sensitivity, our tenderness. Praying isn't what it used to be. The Bible reading isn't a feast anymore. It can seem like a famine. What did I even get out of that this morning?

It's so dry. Well, the dryness is not here. The dryness is here, isn't it? There's a waning, a lessening. And the soil of our heart lacks the fresh dew of heaven that it had before. Dry times come. And if you're in a declining cycle and you find yourself, I'm needy, I'm weak, I'm hurting, I'm fearful, I'm struggling, I can't even pray, I'm dry, I'm cold.

Then personal quickening and revival is needed. So this 85th Psalm is about that and the implications for Israel and for the church today and for the individual Christian. So let's hear this psalm. Let's have the psalmist speak to us about this.

Three Movements in Psalm 85

There's three parts in this psalm. Verses 1 -3 show first of all true salvation experienced. And it's past tense. God, You did this. You did this. It's past tense. True salvation experienced. It's verses 1 -3.

That's when revival isn't needed because you have vival. You have life. You don't need revival. You have life. And it's fresh and wonderful. Verses 1 -3, true salvation experienced. 4 -7, decline and present need of new reviving mercies.

And then verses 8 -13, divine promises for revival. You could say it in another way. Verses 1 -3 when revival is not needed. Verses 4 -7 when it is needed. And 8 -13, how it comes. So we see here then in verses 1 -3, first of all, true salvation was experienced.

Look at the language there. Lord, You have been favorable. You have brought back the captivity. You forgave or You have forgiven. You have taken away your wrath. All of it is past tense language declaring the reformation that God brought them into.

This was their present possession. True salvation was experienced both by Israel historically and by every Christian. True life-altering, God-given, heart-changing experiential salvation. God bringing Israel to possessed deliverance from Babylonian captivity.

So, what's happening here in these first three verses? The psalmist is acknowledging and remembering and rehearsing and celebrating their deliverance, their restoration, their return from captivity. Lord, You did these things for us and it was real.

Some of you can look back and have just as strong and clear of a testimony. You can remember when God brought you out of your captivity, exact things that God did for you or delivered you from or what He did for you to rescue you.

Lord, You did these things for us and it was real. Now, this reminds me of David's words in Psalm 40 where David remembered, He inclined unto me and heard my cry. He drew me up from the pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet on a rock, and put a new song in my mouth, even a song of praise unto God.

David's rehearsing God's mighty deliverance. That's what the psalmist is doing here in verses 1 -3. Acknowledging true rescue and deliverance. We ought never to forget that we were a bondsman in Egypt, should we?

We should never forget. We should never lose the awe and wonder. We should never lose the fact that we can rejoice. Jesus said it. Rejoice not that demons are subject to you, but what? But that your names are written in heaven.

We rejoice not in the power we have, but in who we are as sons of God. That's always the greatest basis of rejoicing. And that's what the psalmist is doing here. Acknowledging true rescue. So in verses 1 -3, he mentions four realities.

Look at them there. Four realities. The first one he says is this word, favorable. You have been favorable unto your land. To your people. Favor. Now what's this Old Testament picture? It's simply the picture of grace.

Free, unmerited, unearned, undeserved, sovereign, gracious grace. Lord, You've shown favor. Not because they deserved it. They never deserved it. Not because they improved themselves good enough and then they could accomplish it again.

No. It was pure favor. Israel's sin put them in captivity, and divine mercy and favor brought them out. Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us be glory but unto Thy name. God's mercy came and rescued them out.

Their rebellion and idolatry robbed them and always set them back. And sin's choices, weak choices, lead to worse choices, and it always robs us and sets us back. That's what it did for Israel. Their rebellion, their idolatry robbed them and brought them down, but divine mercy came and lifted them up and brought them back to their possession.

God was favorable to Israel. And that's the first reason they came out of the Babylonian captivity. Present, true salvation. They were brought out by divine favor. He was favorable to Israel and to who else?

To you, Mike Stockwell. Favorable to you. Favorable to you if you're a Christian here. Why did you clear your schedule to come here and be here for these days? Because God was favorable to you in your lost estate, and He did a deep, wonderful work if you're a Christian.

And here you are, wanting to continue in that grace. God's favor. Gracious, free, unearned mercy. Everything begins and ends with God's gracious acts of favor. Second thing acknowledged, verse 2, forgiveness.

Not only favor, but particularly forgiveness. You forgave the iniquity of your people. You covered all their sin. Forgiveness. We know the sacrificial system was dealt with sin, topologically. And we know that the blood of bulls and goats could never take away sin, Hebrews says.

But God forgave them based on future payment. This says He pardoned them. He pardoned Israel and forgave their sins. All the Old Testament pictures of true salvation, the psalmist said it in another place, there is forgiveness with thee in order that what?

You might be feared. With true forgiveness, freshness, comes the fear of God and thankfulness that God would forgive you. Forgive all your sins. So, God was favorable and God was forgiving. And we don't have time to unfold those more, but we're just reminded of them that this is a picture of true salvation.

In time, in space, in history, temporarily in the land, God was being favorable to them and forgave them. Well, what's the next reality? Restoration. Look at verse 4. Turn us, O God, of our salvation.

The word is restore. Restore us again. Restore us. It means to bring back to the state you once had. You lose ground. God can restore. Israel lost ground. He restored them. Restored them to the land. Restored them to the covenant.

Restoration. Turning us again. The last verse of Psalm 119 says, turn me again. And God does that. He restores and brings us back to regain lost ground when He revives His people, when He revives the individual Christian.

And then verse 3. The next reality spoken of here is the removal of wrath. The removal of wrath. You withdrew your wrath. You have taken away all your wrath and have turned yourself from the fierceness of your anger.

Literally, it means you broke your anger toward us. Wrath was being exercised. And you see this in the Old Testament at different times. God's wrath would be poured out and God was judging Israel. Poisonous snakes.

Plagues. David numbering the people. And the angel was killing those thousands of the Israelites. God would come over and over again and break His wrath and it would stop. And that's what this picture is.

God suddenly stopped the action of His displeasure and wrath toward Israel. It ceases. It stops in its tracks. Its force and its action is broken and ceases. That is an action that God brings when He brings His people out of captivity.

His judgments cease in the moment because He's granting reviving grace. These are all divine favors. Propitiation has occurred. Divine mercy has shown toward Israel when their captivity ended and when they returned and possessed the land.

That was great deliverance from captivity. And it made Israel greatly remember and rejoice. Psalm 126 is the greatest example of Israel's rejoicing. When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dream.

Then our mouth was filled with laughter and our tongue with shouts of joy. Then they said among the nations, the Lord has done great things for them. The Lord has done great things for us. And we are glad.

Do you walk in joy that your sins are forgiven? Do you ever wake up and you just think to say, Lord, thank You for a bed and a pillow. Thank You for breath in my lungs and a beating heart. Thank You that today I have peace with You and You're my Father.

And I'm Your child. Do you rejoice in your true past salvation? Well, it never stopped that. But we do because we get used to it. We presume upon it. And that's wrong. Past true salvation. That's verses 1 -3.

Salvation's New Testament Fulfillment

You know, it's true for all of us. All those Old Testament meanings in those verses. Favor, restoration, forgiveness, wrath removed. They're all New Testament truths. They're all New Testament realities that a Christian experiences.

Favor, for by grace you've been saved through faith and that's not of yourselves. Restoration, that is reconciliation in Christ. That we were enemies of God, but God in Christ reconciled us to Himself.

We've been restored to a genuine relationship. Forgiveness, justification. All our sins are gone. Declared righteous when we were not righteous. And propitiation. God's wrath has been removed toward the Christian.

Does not every Christian, should not every Christian feel what Psalm 126 says? We're like them that dream. I remember 47 years ago, like it's fresh last week, I was a college student between my freshman and sophomore year in college.

And the Lord suddenly saved me. A close friend came back to West Texas, found me. He'd been in the army. God had saved him in a rock concert. Some of you don't know who Carole King was. Some of you are old enough to remember Carole King.

He was at a Carole King rock concert drunk. And a song she was singing wasn't a Gospel song. The Holy Spirit fell on him, smote him. He was converted on the spot and he was sober. He came a month later.

There were no cell phones, remember? No computer. I only had a landline at my mom's house and I didn't have a phone. I wasn't living there. He said, I'm going to go home and find Mac. The Lord helped me find him.

God had told me I didn't know it. He put it in my heart. I'll go home this weekend. See friends. Hang out. I drove home on Friday 60 miles. He drove home from Colorado Springs to West Texas. Eight hours.

He sees me driving around. The drag was about five blocks long in my little town. He saw me. Waves me down. Hey, get in. Let's get in. Let's be together. Five hours. I knew him. I trusted him. He starts talking to me about the Gospel.

We had been in the Baptist church together. And by 11 o 'clock, God had gloriously said to me I wasn't seeking. I was out of church. I was uninterested. And God saved me. And I remember, that was July 28, 1973.

Fast forward to Christmas Eve. I was home. Christmas break. It had never meant anything to me. Christmas. Except gifts. I went in our living room. Big plate glass window looking outside. I sat down on the couch.

I was alone. And suddenly, it came over me. And tears filled my eyes. And I said, the Lord Jesus really did come. He really was born as a baby. He really did live a sinful life. He really did die for my sins.

He's forgiven me. He's real. I can celebrate His birth and His life. And I can love Him. I was like them that dream. Because God had turned again my captivity and had delivered me when I never could have myself.

So, does not every Christian feel that? The Lord brought me out of sins bondage. I can't believe it. I'm free. I'm forgiven. It seems too good to be true. Past salvation. Experienced and remembered. That's verses 1 -3.

We've got to hurry on. Our first days of grace when we were saved. First love. Closeness, freshness, intimacy, gratitude. I used to hate the hymns in the church I grew up in. Boring. When I started hearing the hymns after I was a Christian, I've never heard that before.

That's wonderful. And I learned to love them. Learned to sing them. First love, love. First love, joy, newness. Then your heart needs no revival. You're walking in it. All because of experiencing true salvation.

And that's verses 1 -3. But, then you come to verse 4. Look at it. It's a new day. It's a different day. He moves from past tense language to verse 4's present tense situation. Israel's experience had changed.

They were now in need. There had been decline. They had forsaken the covenant. The reformation was short-lived. They were in need again. And God's judgment was coming on them again. That's why verses 4 and 5 speak about God's anger and His judgment.

Present Need for Reviving Mercy

Here they are needy again after having experienced past salvation. Our present need often is reviving grace. Whether you were converted a year ago, or 40 years ago, or 5 years ago, we come into times where the good period of our early days of being a Christian, the freshness is gone.

And that closeness and intimacy is a wonderful memory, but for some of us, it can just be a memory because we're not experiencing it now like we did. And the psalmist directs his prayer to the Lord for fresh, reviving mercies needed now.

Now, are you a candidate for that in your own soul? Spurgeon, about this psalm, said this, this is a prayer of a patriot for his afflicted country in which he pleads God's past mercies and through faith, sees brighter days coming.

There are brighter days coming for every Christian, even those who struggle spiritually. There are brighter days coming for the true church of Jesus Christ in America. No matter how hard it gets, there's brighter days promised here.

Days of reviving when there presently is decline. New revival is truly needed often. So the psalmist moves, and we move from the freshness of true salvation, sometimes to a lesser joyful condition. Verses 4 -7, all the joys of that past salvation soon deteriorated because Israel had departed again.

The good condition changed. They lost their first love. They departed, and the reformation was stalled, and they were presently very needy. Was Israel at times flourishing and knowing God's blessing? Yes.

And did they decline, disobey, lose ground, cool off, settle in, coast? Not fresh, not pursuing, not passionate. Yes, they were in that condition. So the psalmist turns in these verses 4 -7 to earnest prayer.

Honest prayer. Needy prayer. For when God revives His people, His work, a church, or an individual. Here, notice He prays for three things in 4 -7. Verse 4, Turn us, that is, restore us again. Verse 6, Revive us again.

Verse 7, Show us Your mercy or Your steadfast love. And really, four things. Verse 7, Grant to us, give us Your present deliverance. Most of the time when the word salvation is used in the Old Testament, it's not talking about conversion.

It's talking about present deliverance in a needy situation. That's why the psalmist prayed, Lord, command deliverances for Jacob. Command new salvation to rescue Your people when it's truly needed. Show us Your steadfast love.

Turn us again. So, the word there in verse 4, turn us again is restore. The idea of bringing one back to where they were. What did Jesus say to the Ephesians? Think of what a glorious thing it would have been to meet with the Ephesian church in those early days.

The phenomenal church they would have been. The epistle they read together. The life that was there among them. And yet, Christ said to the Ephesians in Revelation 2, what? Remember from whence you are fallen.

Remember where you've fallen from. Brethren, we can and we do at times lose ground. We all lose ground. Is your prayer life today as good as it ever was in the past? Is your fervency and your passion and your zeal burning more or is it burning less than it once was?

We can and we do lose ground spiritually. Let's just be honest. Christ said remember therefore from where you've fallen and repent. So here's a pop quiz. What ground have you lost? What ground have you lost that must be regained?

How have you declined from the fresh days when you didn't really need revival? What area have you yielded to the world, the flesh, or the devil? What needs in your soul true, real restoration that has waned, weakened, slowed down, or seems gone?

No Christian should go from first love devotion, radical discipleship, all-out commitment, Romans 12 living of nonconformingly to the world, and transformation by the Spirit. No Christian should leave that and not have the kind of life that's a passionate pursuit consistently.

No Christian has to leave first love realities and go backwards. We don't have to. Backslide. We don't have to sin, but when we sin, 1 John says, we have an advocate. But we don't have to wane and decline.

We don't have to live inconsistent. You don't have to remain a weaker brother or sister. You don't have to be inconsistent. God can strengthen the things that remain that you've lost ground in. But we do at times lose ground, and when we do, what needs to happen?

We must have our eyes open. We must become dead honest with ourselves. We must examine ourselves. We must be honest with ourselves. And we must wake up and we must do verses 4 -7. Earnest prayer for God to restore.

Lord, I am needy. I'm hurting. I'm defeated. I have an impure heart toward people. I have a judgmental heart toward people. I'm not walking in love. I am struggling deeply. I feel like I'm in bondage.

Lord, restore me. Help me. Heal me. Revive me. Quicken me. Have mercy upon me. The shortest prayers in the Bible are the most great ones. Help! Peter didn't pray a flowery prayer on the water when he began to sink, did he?

O Thou God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, I feel the water changing. He cried out. And immediately, Jesus reached forth and got him. The simplest, childlike, heartfelt prayers for help are the most eloquent to God.

Lord, I'm needy. Lord, I'm hurting. I don't even know what to pray anymore. You feel the agony, the hurt of my heart. So Lord, just take those groanings. Take that hurt and that agony I feel. The Holy Spirit transform it into true prayer to the Father.

And the Holy Spirit does that, doesn't He? He prays with groanings that cannot be uttered for us and in us. God will revive the humble soul, the needy soul. To this one will I look. First love devotion.

Earnest prayer for restoration. We're talking about the quickening power of the Holy Spirit. Here's another pop quiz. Do you have a conscious, living, vital relationship with the Holy Spirit? If you're a Christian, He's in you.

But it's easy to pray to the Father and to the Lord Jesus. Do you pray to the Holy Spirit ever? Do you maintain a conscious communion with the Spirit of God? He is God, Emmanuel now. He's God with us.

So how's your relationship with the Holy Spirit? No reality there? Or do you ever, when you wake up from your bed, do you ever say, Lord, fill me today with the Spirit of God. Control me. Holy Spirit, I'm Yours.

I'm not my own. I've been bought with a price. Take me. I'm Yours. Fill me like a hand fills a glove. Make me Your vessel. Spirit of God, I'm Yours. Own me today. Control me. Keep me from evil. Give me courage to speak when I should.

Do you pray that way to the Spirit of God out of a vital, living, conscious communion with Him? I'm talking about the quickening of life. The joy and freshness of Israel's national restoration has a consistent parallel with God's people and for every Christian.

And it all brings us to see the need when we find that we've lost ground, that when we say, I'm not where I once was, but I want to be. Where's the love and peace when I first met the Lord? I walked in realities as a new Christian, Lord, that I've lost.

Revive me. Restore me. Quicken me. Have mercy on me. Psalm 51 is a prayer of a joyful, forgiven king when God forgave him of monstrous sin. So, the need of reviving mercy. Are you there today? Can you bring before the Lord these days, these hours we're here together, and just focus on one thing and get before Him and say, Lord, I want the light of Your truth and Your presence to shine with noonday sun clarity on this area of my soul.

I can't change myself. A leper can't change his spots, but a leper's spots can be changed. The Lord changed me. Years ago, 2002, I was real inconsistent with my Bible reading. I would go a day, I'd miss three.

And I was struggling. I went to Canada to Bill McLeod's house for a week. I was helping him try to write his biography. I was in his house, 20 below zero, in Winnipeg, and I saw these 20 black King James, Oxford, or Cambridge Bibles lined up on his desk.

He would wear one out, he'd get another one. Bill McLeod probably read the Bible through 300 times in his life, I imagine. And I was with him for a week. I knew his consistency, and I knew my inconsistency.

So I didn't say, Lord, I'm going to be like Bill McLeod. I can just pull this off. I left Winnipeg and I said, Lord, I know how he reads, and I know the Spirit of God has been on him to read 12 chapters every day and meditate in them.

For 60-something years he did that, devotionally reading the Bible. I went back to Texas and I said, Lord, I can't change myself, so here's what I'm going to pray. I'm going to pray every day this prayer.

Lord, give me new desire for Your Word. When you like to eat, you'll eat, won't you? When you like the Bible and you desire it, you'll read. And God began to do that. I began to read, and it would be like a buffet spread.

I'd get something. It encouraged my heart. I'd pray it. The next morning, I was looking forward to reading the Bible. And it's changed since then. This morning, I read a psalm, and I got something from it.

Fresh manna from Heaven. Read the Bible, not intellectually. Read it devotionally like a child is reading your Father's words. And commune with the Lord. Well, when we're needy, what does verse 8 -13 tell us?

Divine Promises for Revival

The last point. The last section. 1 -3 was true salvation experience. 4 -7 is present need of present grace. What's 8 -13? Divine promises for revival. Certain promises of reviving grace in 8 -13. Now let me just read that.

Just see it in light of that. Here's a transition. The psalmist says, I will hear what God the Lord will speak. So think about this. Lord, I've been saved this long and it was wonderful. I'm needy now.

What's your perspective on this? How do you see this? I don't want to hear a counselor. I don't want to first go to Tim Conway or Don Curran and get their opinion. I need to hear what God has to say about this.

I will hear what God the Lord will speak. For He will speak what? Peace to His people. And then the rest of these verses declare what God does for the soul. What quickening grace He gives. What answers to prayer that He gives.

That's the belief and the faith reflected in verses 8 -13. Promises of reviving grace and renewal. Restoration. No matter where you are spiritually, promises. God can take us exactly where we are and give us tailor-made, custom-made grace to bring us on, to bring us out, and restore us.

Morning dew that makes the soil of our hearts moist again. The Holy Spirit has often revived a nation, a geographical area, a whole island like John G. Paton in the South Seas Hebrides, an individual church or an individual Christian.

Because He says, I will pour water on him that's thirsty. I will pour floods on the dry ground. I will pour My Spirit on your children and upon your offspring. I will pour My blessing. So divine blessing is promised to the needy soul.

So what does God say about the needy condition here in verses 8 -13? First of all, peace and holiness. Verse 8, The Lord will speak peace to His people and to His saints, but do not let them turn again to folly.

Why does He speak peace? Because a reviving soul, He will come and remind them of their standing before Him as a son of God with perfect standing. Justification by faith. You have peace with God because of Christ, regardless of how much your soul is struggling.

Your sanctification or lack thereof, your soul struggle doesn't change His love for you or your standing in the least. That never changes. And so God, to the reviving, needy one, God speaks peace. You're Mine.

You're Mine. I love you. Christ is sufficient. His cross work did it all. You're in right standing. So come. He speaks peace to the reviving soul. Don't let your struggle keep you at arm's length. Don't let your struggle cause you to be fearful to draw near to the welcoming God who's been reconciled to you, to who's your Father.

God speaks peace. And then, the double-edged sword. Don't you dare go back to sin. Let them not return to folly. The stuff that got you in the mess of declining and backsliding, whether it's your cell phone or your computer or entertainment or a worldly heart being tempted, when God revives you, do not dare look back or go back.

Remember Lot's wife. He will speak peace to His people, but do not let them return again to folly. Well, looking on, look at verse 9. Surely His salvation is near those who fear Him. The nearness of new deliverance.

God has present deliverances ready to give the struggling soul. He will deliver you from situations you don't feel like you can get out. He will deliver your heart from the waywardness and the lure and the strong control.

If you say, Lord, change my heart in this area. Deliver me. Give me fresh salvation and fresh deliverances. And then it says, verse 10 and 11. This is amazing. Here's the divine activity that starts happening.

These terms are like pictures of action figures almost. Mercy. God's mercy and God's truth suddenly are coming together. In the soul of the believer, mercy comes. Truth comes in like a flood and your mind is renewed and you set free.

They're meeting together in your soul. They're coming. This is what happens when God revives a church. Mercy is shed abroad. Truth is restored. And there's new life. And suddenly, mercy and truth are meeting together.

What else? Righteousness and peace are kissing each other. Animosity. The activity of God in the soul and in a church in a time of reviving. And it says truth suddenly will spring out of the earth. It just suddenly arises.

Do you know on Long Island, God could begin a work of the Spirit and suddenly truth is springing out of the ground all over the place that wasn't happening before. Truth shall spring out of the earth and righteousness from heaven.