When We Need Revival: Barrenness of Soul — Ronald Glass

The Soul That Clings to the Dust

This morning, I'm turning to Psalm 119, and our text is verse 25 of the 119th psalm. Just these words. My soul cleaves to the dust. Revive me according to your word. In recent years, it's become fashionable to have a midlife crisis.

Especially men. You know how it is. All of a sudden, they become obsessed with their appearance and their health. They hit about 40, 45, some a little earlier, maybe some a little later. And all of a sudden, they care about how they look.

And then they go out and spend money, sometimes in irrational ways. Things like luxuries, cars, things of that sort, or little toys that they like to play with. Some have even gone so far as to have midlife affairs.

Well, underlying this strange behavior, there seems to be a mental disillusionment. They've worked hard for years, and they aren't achieving to the level of their expectations. They find themselves physically exhausted, emotionally drained, and psychologically unmotivated.

And they realize life does end at some point. You know, I also find this same dynamic colliding with the spiritual lives of Christians. Today, it seems that there are many Christians who are finding themselves stressed out by routine and unfulfilling jobs.

They have family problems. They're busy in the church serving the Lord. But it seems like their lives lack focus and purpose. Now, perhaps you've come to a point where you're exhausted, and you're disillusioned, and you're tempted to ask, what's the use?

I just don't need this anymore. What you find is that you are living in a spiritual wilderness. You are in a desert. You're tired, you're thirsty, and you're feeling very lost. Now, is that you this morning?

I hope not, but maybe it is. I want to talk about that today from this verse in the 119th Psalm as we continue our series on biblical revival. Now, to this point in our series, we have discovered what revival is.

We have gone back into Scripture, and we have reviewed not only the biblical revivals, but we've also seen what God has done in some of the movements where he has awakened the church in the past 2 ,000 years of church history.

What we have seen is that revival is the supernatural intervention of the Spirit of God into the affairs of the church. It is God, in the words of one pastor, making bare his omnipotent arm, working sovereignly, working powerfully to stir up his people who have fallen asleep spiritually, waking them up once again.

And we've seen how desperately in our age we, too, need this work of revival. Now, we've also seen how revival comes. The last three messages in this series, we saw that revival comes through the sovereignty of God.

We saw the awakening in Nineveh under Jonah and how God sovereignly awakened that pagan city. We have seen that revival comes with the desperation of the saints. When God's people get so desperate, we saw that in the life of Jacob.

And then looking at the early history, the first day of the church's existence, we saw what happened when God gave life initially to the church and how he gives life to his church now. Well, our study, I hope, has left us with some biblical prayers on our lips in these intervening weeks.

I hope that you prayed something like this. Isaiah 64, remember all that you would tear open the heavens and come down. Or Psalm 119, 125, and 126. Give me understanding that I may know your testimonies.

It is time for you, Lord, to work. Every time we go to the newspapers or watch the news on television, we should be saying, Lord, it is time for you to work. Psalm 85, verse 6. I commended to you. Will you not yourself revive us again that your people may rejoice in you?

Habakkuk 3, 2. O Lord, revive your work in the midst of the years. Make it known in wrath, remember, mercy. And then the words of Jacob as he wrestled with the Lord. They're in the banks of that little brook.

And he cried out, I will not let you go until you bless me. Now these are the kinds of prayers I hope that you are praying today for our church here and for the church of Jesus Christ around the world.

Personal Revival as the Foundation of Corporate Revival

We move now to the very personal and very practical aspects of revival. Let me just simply put it to you this way. Genuine revival in a church happens only when there is revival in many individual lives.

In other words, corporate revival is really personal revival multiplied many times over. I think sometimes when we talk about revival, there are many who sit in our churches and say, Yes, this would be a wonderful thing.

We long to see God work this way just as long as I don't have to change. Well, that's the problem. We all need to look at our lives and seek God's reviving grace for our lives. Now during the next five weeks, I want to answer this question of how we know we need revival by going back to the 119th Psalm.

Now the psalmist here, and we don't know who the psalmist was. Many believe it was David. I think it probably was. But even if not, this psalmist had a passion for personal revival. And we'll see it as we study it together.

Now if you are a believer, you probably wish you could live a consistent life of godliness as is described in the opening eight verses of this psalm. Now listen to these words. How blessed are those whose way is blameless.

Is your way blameless today? Is your life blameless? Who walk in the law of the Lord. How blessed are those who observe his testimonies. Who seek him with all their heart. They also do no unrighteousness.

They walk in his ways. You have ordained your precepts that we should keep them diligently. Oh that my ways may be established to keep your statutes. That ought to be the heart cry of every faithful believer.

Then I shall not be ashamed when I look upon all your commandments. When we come face to face with the word of God, we won't be ashamed by understanding how far short we fall. I shall give thanks to you with the uprightness of heart.

When I learn your righteous judgments, I shall keep your statutes. Do not forsake me utterly. Now this is the ideal for the man or the woman of God. This is the way we ought to be living. Blameless. Walking in the law of the Lord.

Observing his testimony. Seeking him with all of our hearts. Too often however, we have to admit that we find ourselves right where old William Cooper, that great old poet and hymn writer friend of John Newton's.

A man who wrestled with depression all of his life. And here's what he wrote in one of his hymns. Where is the blessedness I knew when first I saw the Lord? Where is the soul refreshing view of Jesus and his word?

Well you probably know that sentiment. Sometimes you just say, Lord, I seem to have lost it. See the problem is we don't often realize just how barren our lives have become. We become so enamored, so caught up in the world.

We come to a point of spiritual thirst. And then all of a sudden it dawns on us that we're in a desert and we're thirsting. And that we must have those living waters to refresh our souls. We begin to understand just how dry our souls really are.

The Five Symptoms of Spiritual Barrenness

Today I want to ask the question, what is the solution to spiritual barrenness? How do we overcome its deadening impact in our lives? And if you are a Christian here today, I dare say that you have experienced this.

I have. And I dare say that every one of us go through these times. How do we overcome it? How do we experience personal revival? Our text provides the answer. And we're going to actually be in two places today.

I'm taking the basis for my thoughts here in the 25th verse of Psalm 119. But we're also going to be going back to those Psalms 42, 43, and 44. Because they have a lot to say as well. Alright, there are two dynamics that I think beg our attention on this subject.

And here they are. First of all, you can identify spiritual barrenness by its common symptoms. Its common symptoms. Now look at our text once again. The first line says, My soul cleaves to the dust. Now that word cleaves is a word that, in fact it's the same word that is used of the marriage relationship.

And it's the word that is used in Genesis chapter 2. When it says that a man shall leave his father and mother and cleave unto his wife. It is a word that means to be stuck together permanently. The writer says, My soul sticks to the dust.

Now the imagery here probably is that of mourning. When they were sorrowing, when they were mourning in the ancient world of that day, what did they do? They went out and they sat in ashes. They sat in the dust in sackcloth.

They threw ashes on their head. Now this is apparently the picture. You have a man here who is mourning. A man who is down. His soul is very low. It can't get any lower. It can't rise up. He said, Yes, I'm sitting in the ash heap.

I'm sitting in the dust. And my whole soul is stuck to that dust. He's saying, I'm stuck in depression and my soul is barren and I don't know how to get out of it. Now when we read about what we as Christians ought to be doing, how our attitude ought to be, we have a passage like Colossians chapter 3 verses 1 and 2.

Therefore, if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above. Where Christ is. Seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above. Not on things on the earth. The Christian's perspective is up.

This man's perspective is down. In barrenness, there are times when you just feel, I can't rise. I can't get up. I am stuck in this misery. Now another psalmist experienced the same discouragement. And so let's go back now to the 44th Psalm, which we read earlier in our service.

Spiritual Barrenness and the Weight of Oppression

Let me just say this. First of all, let me have you look with me at the 25th verse in the 44th Psalm. Verse 25. And here the language is very similar. For our soul has sunk down into the dust. Our body cleaves.

And this is the same word as in the other verse. Our body cleaves to the earth. The writer in Psalm 119 says, My soul is stuck to the dust. Here he says, our body is stuck to the earth. Our soul is literally bowed down with the heavy weight of spiritual oppressiveness.

Now Psalms 42, 43 and 44 seem to go together. Psalms 42 and 44 have the same inscription. Psalm 43 was probably originally a part of Psalm 42. So they seem to fit together. And I want to take a look at these psalms as we look at five symptoms of spiritual barrenness.

How do you know if you are really in a condition of spiritual barrenness? Let me give you five symptoms that often come about in the life of a believer. Number one. You experience an apparent abandonment by God.

Apparent Abandonment by God

Look here in the 44th Psalm. Verses 23 to 25. Rouse yourself. Why do you sleep, O Lord? Awake. Do not reject us forever. Why do you hide your face and forget our affliction and our oppression? For our soul is sunk down into the dust and our body cleaves to the earth.

Look also if you turn back to the 43rd Psalm and verse 2. For you are the God of my strength. Why have you rejected me? Now why does the psalmist think this? Well, come back now to the 45th Psalm and follow beginning in verse 9.

Look at what he says here. You have rejected us and brought us to dishonor. Do not go out with our armies. You cause us to turn back from the adversary. And those who hate us have taken spoil for themselves.

You give us as sheep to be eaten and you scatter us among the nations. You sell your people cheaply and have not profited by their sale. You make us a reproach to our neighbors, a scoffing and a derision to those around us.

You make us a byword among the nations, a laughing stock among the peoples. All day long my dishonor is before me and my humiliation has overwhelmed me. Because of the voice of him who reproaches and reviles.

Because of the presence of the enemy and the avenger. Nothing is going right. Here is a nation that supposedly is obeying God and yet they are being oppressed. They are being defeated. The problem here is the difficulty of their circumstances.

The battle seems unending. Where is God in the struggle? Now when you come to a point in your life where you are asking that question, Lord, where are you? Why have you rejected me? Why have you abandoned me?

Lord, this isn't fair. This isn't the way you should treat one of your children. You get to a point where you say, I just don't sense that God is near anymore. I just can't sense his love to me anymore.

It seems that God is very far away. We are exhausted perhaps. Our souls are crushed under the weight of the enemy's onslaught. It seems like Satan is getting the better of us all of the time. And then God's word loses its freshness.

You get to a point where you can't even open the Bible. You take your Bible from church and it sits on a shelf or on a table for the entire week. You know when you get up in the morning you should open the word of God and read it.

But you just can't bring yourself to do it anymore. And prayer? You know you should be praying, but it's like the heavens are brass. You can't get a word through to God. There is no heart to pray anymore.

Every time you want to pray, thoughts come to your mind that just make you resentful and bitter. You've been abandoned by God. Spiritual barrenness. You experience an apparent abandonment by God. Second circumstance.

Extended Absence from Worship

You experience an extended absence from worship. Now notice this. In the 42nd Psalm, verses 1 -4, As the deer pants for the waterbrook, so my soul pants for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.

When shall I come and appear before God? My tears have been my food day and night, while they say to me all day long, Where is your God? These things I remember and I pour out my soul within me. For I used to go along with the throng and lead them in procession to the house of God, with a voice of joy and thanksgiving, a multitude-keeping festival.

Now here's a psalmist who is prevented from being in the house of God. For whatever reasons, he is not able to worship God, with the people of God, in the temple of God, like he wanted to, like he had in the past.

So, because of that, he is feeling very, very, well, he's feeling barren. His soul is thirsty and he cries out that he's like a deer that's out running in the desert, and that he is very thirsty. When you stay away from the fellowship of God's people, the result of that can very well be spiritual barrenness.

I've always wondered why it is that when people have problems, when they have deep-seated troubles, perhaps in their family, perhaps problems in their personal lives, that the first thing that they do is they stay away from the fellowship of God's people.

They stay away from church. It's the worst possible course of action. Here's what the writer of Hebrews says, you know it well. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering. See, that's a big issue, that's a very important issue today.

We know that. We, as God's people, are called to hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering. We need each other to stand together, shoulder to shoulder, that we stay faithful to the Christian faith.

He who promised is faithful. Then, let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and to good deeds. We are to be encouraging each other by loving each other and encouraging each other to love one another and to do good works.

Now, we can't do this if we're not together. And so he goes on to say, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another and all the more as you see the day drawing near.

Now, when you start staying away from the fellowship, the assembly of God's people, when you decide that you can do without church or you just can't bring yourself to come to church anymore, a sign of spiritual barrenness.

Persistent Loss of Hope

There's a problem and it needs to be addressed. Here's a third sign. You experience a persistent loss of hope. Now, let's go back again to that 42nd Psalm. Here's the refrain that we hear throughout Psalm 42 and 43.

Verse 5, Why are you in despair, O my soul? And why have you become disturbed within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet again praise Him for the help of His presence. The 11th verse, Why are you in despair, O my soul?

Why have you become disturbed within me? Hope in God. Psalm 43, verse 5, Why are you in despair, O my soul? And why are you disturbed within me? Hope in God. See, there's a despair, there's a depression, there's a discouragement and a loss of hope.

The psalmist feels rejected by God and his soul is barren. You see, when we endure difficult testing for extended periods of time, we tend to lose hope. We begin to think that God is never going to do anything for me.

God is never going to answer my prayers. Am I doomed to live like this the rest of my life? We lose hope. Now, the psalmist knows what he needs. Psalm 43, verse 3,. Send out your light and your truth.

Let them lead me. Let them bring me to your holy hill and to your indwelling places. Then I will go to the altar of God. To God my exceeding joy. And upon the liar I shall praise you, O God, my God. What does he say he needs?

Two things. He needs light and truth. That is, he needs the word of God. He needs to be back in the environment of truth. And secondly, he needs renewed worship and fellowship with God's people. That's what he says.

I need to go back to the altar. And I need to get out my liar. And join in the praise of God. Renewed worship and fellowship with God's people. What are the symptoms of spiritual barrenness? An apparent abandonment by God.

Growing Attraction to the World

An extended absence from worship. Persistent loss of hope. Number four, you experience a growing attraction to the world. Now, in this particular case, the psalmist denies falling into this sin. But I think he acknowledges the danger.

44th Psalm, verses 20 and 21. If we had forgotten the name of our God or extended our hands to a strange God, would not God find this out? For he knows the secrets of the heart. The danger is always there that we will reject God.

That we will forget his name. That we will become idolaters, extending our hands to a strange God. In our current contemporary culture, it means becoming so attracted and so absorbed in the world that we forget God.

When God seems far away, the world appears to be enticingly near. When you let God go from your life, when you don't spend your time in the word of God and prayer and with God's people in worshiping and fellowshipping, what happens is the world becomes increasingly attractive.

And the more its attractions occupy us, the less we are occupied with the Lord. And our souls dry up. Now, this was Israel's experience. And we can just sort of shake our head as we read the history of Israel.

But listen to these words regarding what happened to Israel not long after God did a miracle in delivering them from Egypt through the Red Sea. Verse 13 of Psalm 106. Listen to this. They quickly forgot his works.

They did not wait for his counsel. They forgot his works. They didn't bother to talk to him and ask him for his guidance. They craved intensely in the wilderness and tempted God in the desert. They craved.

Well, we know that what they craved was the food that they had been eating in Egypt. We want to go back and eat the leeks and the onions and the garlics. And at least back there we had meat and we never were without water to drink.

Well, they intensely craved in the wilderness and they tempted, they tested God in the desert. Now, notice verse 15. So he gave them their request, but he sent... Now, our text here says, a wasting disease among them.

I don't know why our New American Standard translates it this way because it's not what it says. And the old King James has got it right. Other translations like that. He sent leanness into their souls.

That's what it says. He sent leanness into their souls. Now, listen. When we get away from God, that's what can happen. There are times when you say, I don't want to read the Word. I don't want to pray.

I don't want to be with God's people. I don't want to obey God. I want to do what I want to do. Fine, says God. Do what you want to do. But there is a penalty to pay for that. And it is barrenness of soul.

This is a New Testament principle as well. And we need to remember it in James chapter 4. Those familiar words. Verse 4. You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God?

You have a choice to make. The world or God. Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you think that the Scripture speaks to no purpose? He jealously desires a spirit which he has made to dwell in us, but he gives a greater grace.

Therefore, he says God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Verse 8. Verse 7. Submit, therefore, to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. That's what we ought to be doing.

Now, notice verse 8. This is a cure for barren souls. Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. So, becoming worldly in your focus, submitting to the attractions of the world, is a good way to experience the judgment of this barrenness.

Sometimes God will let you go your own way for a while. And you will experience leanness in your soul. Well, let me come on to the fifth evidence of barrenness here. And that is you experience a crippling exhaustion from ministry.

Crippling Exhaustion from Ministry

Yes, it's possible that you're even faithfully serving God, and yet your soul is barren in the midst of it. Look again in the 44th Psalm, verses 15 to 18. Now, listen to what he says here. Verse 15. All day long, my dishonor is before me.

My humiliation has overwhelmed me. Because of the voice of him who reproaches and reviles, because of the presence of the enemy and the avenger. In other words, my whole life, I am subject to dishonor and humiliation and reproaches.

Nothing is going very well here. But now, verse 17. All this has come upon us, but we have not forgotten you. And we have not dealt falsely with your covenant. Our heart has not turned back, and our step has not deviated from your way.

So here we are, faithfully trying to serve you. And yet, Lord, look at what's happened here. No wonder, he says, our soul is sunk down to the dust and our body cleaves to the earth. Is it possible to serve God faithfully?

Is it possible to be obeying, essentially obeying his word, and yet be so overwhelmed? Yes, the spiritual battle is intense. And there is a great example of this in 1 Kings chapter 19. We can become so exhausted from serving the Lord that we neglect our time with him.

We succumb to the enemy's temptations, even. We find ourselves living a life of hypocrisy, putting on a good show that we're good Christians. But deep down inside, we know that we're not. The classic example is Elijah.

19th chapter, 1 Kings. Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done and how he killed all the prophets with a sword. And Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, So may the gods do to me, and even more, if I do not make your life as the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time.

Same dynamic as with the psalmist. Elijah had just been faithful. He had slaughtered the prophets of Baal. He had proven the glory of God, called fire down from heaven. He had shown that God is truly the Lord.

He had been a witness for the true and living God of heaven alone among all those false prophets. Now Jezebel says, I'm going to kill you. And Elijah essentially says, What have I done to deserve this?

He was afraid. This is what I get for serving God? And he arose and he ran for his life. And he came to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah, left his servant there. But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness and came and sat down under a juniper tree.

And he requested for himself that he might die. He said, It is enough. O Lord, take my life. I'm not better than my father's. And he lay down and slept under a juniper tree. And behold, there was an angel touching him.

And he said to him, Arise, eat. And he looked, and behold, that his head was a bread cake baked on hot stones, a jar of water. So he ate and drank and lay down again. And the angel of the Lord came again a second time, touched him, and he said, Arise, eat.

Because the journey is too great for you. So he arose and he ate and drank and went in the strength of that food 40 days and 40 nights to Horeb in the mountain of God. So God refreshes him. And now for 40 days and 40 nights, he hasn't eaten anything else.

But he's running from Ahab, from Jezebel. Now I want you to look for a moment, jump down to verse 13. Now, this is after Elijah has come to the mountain there. And God has shown that he was not in the fire and the earthquake and the strong wind, but rather in the voice of quietness, the sound of gentle blowing.

And Elijah heard it and he wrapped his face in a mantle and he went out and stood in the entrance of the cave. And behold, a voice came to him and said, What are you doing here, Elijah? Now listen to what he says, verse 14.

I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts. As if God needed to be informed of this. But he says, I have been very faithful. For the sons of Israel have forsaken your covenant, torn down your altars, killed your prophets with a sword.

And I am alone left and they seek my life to take it away. The Lord said to him, Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus. And when you've arrived, you shall anoint Hazel, king over Aram. And Jehu, the son of Nimshi, you shall anoint king over Israel.

And Elijah, the son of Shaphat, of Abba Meholah, you shall anoint as prophet in your place. And it shall come about the one who escapes from the sword of Hazel. Jehu shall put to death the one who escapes from the sword of Jehu.

Elijah shall put to death. Yet I will leave 7 ,000 in Israel. All the knees that have not bowed to Baal. And every mouth that has not kissed him. Now what was the point here? Elijah had faithfully served God.

But Elijah had become exhausted in that ministry. He was under the threat of the enemy. And so Elijah is afraid. And he becomes so afraid that he runs away. Now in this situation, Elijah needed some things.

Four things at least that I can see he needed. First of all, he needed a word from God. When you get so worn out, so exhausted from trying to serve God, there are times when you just need to step back and say, I need to hear from God.

He needed a word from God. He needed God to meet him. That's very important when we're experiencing spiritual barrenness. We need to have a word from God. Secondly, he needed some rest. He was tired. And God gave him rest and fed him there.

And gave him strength for the journey. Third, he needed some encouragement. And God indeed encouraged him. He told him that I've reserved 7 ,000 people in Israel that haven't bowed their knee to Baal.

Or that have not kissed him. You are not the only one who is left. So be encouraged. And then the fourth thing that he needed and that God told him here was get back to work. See, one of the worst things you can do is sit around and think how bad you feel.

One of the worst things you can do is feel sorry for yourself. And that often is a sign of spiritual barrenness. When you constantly are singing the blues, constantly the woe is me kind of mentality. So five symptoms here that often crop up when we are spiritually barren.

You feel like you've been abandoned by God. You have this desire to stay away from church, from worship. You don't want to be around the people of God. You experience a loss of hope. It will never get better.

You start feeling yourself increasingly attracted to the world. And then you find yourself just totally disillusioned and exhausted. You don't even want to serve God any longer. Now, these five symptoms all have one effective antidote.

Revival Through the Word of God

There is one answer for all of them. You know, it would be nice if every time you had a sickness, you went to the doctor. All he would have to do is say, take the medicine. What medicine? Well, there's one bottle of medicine, and it will treat anything.

You know, it's like they used to advertise these elixirs. You know, they were good for just about everything. Well, would that that were the case, that you had one bottle of medicine that could heal any disease?

Well, there is one bottle of medicine here for all of these symptoms. And the effective antidote is what our psalmist speaks of in the last part of verse 25 in Psalm 119. My soul cleaves to the dust. So what does he say?

Revive me according to your word. Here's the second matter I want you to see today. And that is that you can rectify spiritual barrenness with a common solution. A common solution. What is it? Now, the need is for personal revival here.

And the means for personal revival is God's word. What does the psalmist say here? He says, literally, bring me back to life. That's why revive is a good translation of it. The word is literally, bring me back to life according to your word.

He understands that God's word is the answer to spiritual barrenness. Now, you're probably sitting here saying, Pastor, you've talked all of this time up to this point in order to tell us that. You don't need to tell me that.

I know that. You've heard it over and over again, right? Especially if you've been a Christian a long time. If you've grown up in a Christian church, you've heard it from the time you were a kid in Sunday school.

Read your Bible. Read your Bible. Read your Bible. Study your Bible. Memorize these verses. You've heard it over and over again. Yeah, but the problem is that too many of us, in spite of the fact that we know it, we don't do it.

And when we become spiritually barren, we don't even want to do it anymore. That's one of the great secrets of spiritual barrenness, because there's not one of us here who are Christians who want to say to a brother or sister in Christ, I don't want to read the Bible anymore.

I'm tired of reading it. But I dare say that if you're like me, there are times in your life where you've said that to yourself. I've had that same battle in my own heart. Look, we have a vicious enemy, and he is attacking us.