Psalm 85:6 Wilt thou not revive us again: that thy people may rejoice in thee?

Revive means, “to regain life, consciousness, or strength”. It also means to “give new strength or energy to.” As I read this definition, my imaginations went back to a time someone with whom I was speaking had a heart attack right in front of me. He said he wasn’t feeling well, then went pale, and collapsed. Life left. I remember the panic and uncertainty of that moment. But I also remember when one of the ladies jumped into action, and began to do CPR. After what seemed like an eternity, the paramedics came and shocked his heart back into motion. They got a pulse, and over the course of a couple days, he was revived.

There is a spiritual parallel between Psalm 85:6 and this story. The Psalmist understood that there are times when our spiritual condition needs revival. There are times that our prayer life needs revival. There our times where our thought life needs revival. There are times where our “first love” relationship needs revival. And how bout our Bible reading? Our relationship with our spouse or children? Our ministry? And it’s at that point we, like the Psalmist, must seek “spiritual CPR”. We must seek a reviving from above.

This morning might we seek a reviving from on high. For once we do, we can truly rejoice in Him. Wilt thou not revive us again: that thy people may rejoice in thee?

Psalm 84:2 My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the LORD: my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God.  84:4 Blessed are they that dwell in thy house: they will be still praising thee. Selah.  84:10 For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand. I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness. 

I have a fast metabolism, and get hungry quickly. We all know that feeling when we haven’t had food, or have missed a meal, and we begin to feel faint. If we have a healthy appetite, we long for food to keep us going. If we continue to go on without food, our flesh begins to cry out for it. I know – here in the West we don’t know too much of hunger, but around the world, people experience this daily.

Yet the Psalmist here isn’t talking about a fainting or longing after physical food. He speaks of a fainting, or longing, after the Lord and His house. He further says that his flesh cries out for the living God. In this Psalm we see a deep hungering and thirsting for the God, kingdom of God, and for His righteousness.

My hunger for the Lord is definitely challenged through this passage this morning. I don’t know that I can say my soul faints or longs for for HIM and His courts, or that my very flesh cries out for the Lord, as the writer here did – but I desire to.  Might meditating on this passage fuel a desire and hunger for the Lord and His house.

Job 23:12 “…I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food.”

Matthew 5:6 Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.