The Word of God in the Heart of Man: Three Steps to Personal Revival - Psalm 119:25-32 (Psalms 119:25-32)

1:30Have chosen the faithful way. I have placed your ordinances before me. I cling to your testimonies. O Lord, do not put me to shame. I shall run the way of your commandments, for you will enlarge my heart. You know, one of the biggest needs I see in our churches today is revival. I think many of you all probably see that as well. In fact, I see one of the biggest needs as I counsel one-on-one or with my wife, with couples, or with anyone. The biggest need I see is personal revival, a need for God's reviving effects to take place in the heart of his people.

2:19We've heard a lot about revival, but I'm convinced that very few of us really know what revival is. Well, this message this morning is particularly that. It's about revival. In fact, three steps to personal revival. This message could easily have been called the three steps to overcoming depression. But the opening verse, if you look back, the opening verse, my soul cleaves to the dust, opens with the psalmist on his face in the dust before God. And it ends with. Him making the statement, I shall run in the way of your commandments. Something takes place in this psalm. He is revived. In these eight verses, he goes from being absolutely face down, depressed, in despair, to a resolve that says, I will run in your commandments. I will accept the station in life that you have placed me, and I am going to run it with all of my heart. How did he go from such a low to such a high? Well, that's what our message is about this morning. And there are three steps to personal revival. That if you're truly going to be revived, if you're going to truly be a person who runs in the way of his commandment, these three things will have to happen to you. Three steps to personal revival. Let's just walk through this. It's kind of setting the stage for this. In verse 25, he starts out with a very graphic image of depression and hopelessness. Verse 25, my soul cleaves to the dust. Literally, my soul, my entire being, not just his physical, but his spiritual being, is seen prostrate before the Lord. He's on his face in the dust. And the dust literally refers to the Soil or the dust, ground level, but it also is a reference to the place where man returns. Ecclesiastes 3:20, all go to the same place, all came from the dust, and all return to the dust. It's a picture of the grave. And here is this psalmist in the opening scene saying, I am one with the dust. My soul cleaves. It's that language from Genesis 2:24. For this reason, a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined or cleave to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. Here is the psalmist opening up this stanza saying, My soul is laid low in the dust, so much so that I am one with the dust.

5:14A picture of tremendous or deep depression, deep hopelessness, to the point of death. He's at the total end of himself. Why? It doesn't really say. Could be because of his personal failure, some have suggested, some because perhaps he's been extremely humiliated because of the word and following the word. And it could also be due to overwhelming loss or a combination of all of these. One, two, or a combination of all of these, or even others. Do not know for sure, but God in His wisdom has kept that information from us because no matter how you are laid low, there are many. Ways to that deep depression. And this psalmist offers us a guide to how to pull out of that deep depression, experience the revival of God, and run the race that God has for you.

6:14He starts out with a prayer for revival. He needs revival, and so he prays for it. You and I need revival. We need to pray for it. This church needs revival. It's providential that this was the text that we started our first formal Emmanuel Baptist Church early service at Steep Hollow about because that location needs a revival. And if you look around, we need revival. Many of us don't know what revival even is. So he starts out with this prayer for revival. My soul cleaves to the dust, verse 25, revive me according to your word. Revive me. A very bold statement, an imperative command. He's saying, you must revive me.

7:03He's not being disrespectful, but he's saying to God, God, you need to breathe life into me or I am not going to live. Unless you take from yourself and give to me and breathe life into this human shell, there will be no life. You must do it. Make me live. Make me live. Infuse me with life. Infuse me with life. Like Genesis 2:7. You get that image of God who formed man from the dust, and then he breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. And that in a physical sense. And here's the author saying in a physical sense, but even more so in a spiritual sense: infuse me with life, revive me. He's so weak that this depression, this sorrow, this loss, this deep anguish of soul, he's powerless to even rise up. But he comes to the right person. This psalmist definitely knows the Torah. In Deuteronomy 32, 39, it says this: See now that I am He, and there is no God besides me. It is I who put to death, and I who give life. The Psalmist knows this, and He calls out, God, give me life, and give me life. Look back according to your word. According to your word. Could literally mean at your word, say the word, and I will be revived, or according to your word, or according to what you have said, according to your gracious promises, revive me. Revive me.

8:47At your word, say the word, I will be revived. And Lord, revive me according to your word, not according to my ways or my thoughts, but according to Your word. I can call upon your gracious promises. Revive me according to the things that you have said. You are the God who heals. You are the God who restores. You are the one who looks to those who are bowed low. So I call upon you. Save me according to your word. Revive me.

9:21It's a call. It's a cry to give me life. And not just life to limp along or just to get through or to cope, but give me that abundant life. That's his plea. Same thing he says in verse 17. You remember, deal bountifully with me so that I may live. The idea is live the abundant life. And what's interesting is the psalmist knows that a life of favor is completely undeserved, but it's not completely unexpected because of the character of who God is. He knows he is not deserving, just like you and I know, we don't deserve the abundant life, but we can expect the abundant life because God is the God who loves to revive. And we can expect it according to his promise and to who he is. This is what he does.

10:16And it is nothing but a crime on our part that keeps us from this abundant life, our sin. So I want you this morning to understand three things that you need to. Do in order to experience revival. Three things that you need to do, three steps. We'll just start looking at them. First of all, revival starts with your thought life. Think thoughts that revive. That's where it begins. Thinking the right thoughts. Look at verse 26. Look at his confession. In verse 26, he says, I have told of my ways, and you have answered me.

10:59I have told you of my ways. You could put it, you could say it like that. I have told of, that is, I have made known to you my ways. Even I have written out my ways. I have laid all this bare. I've laid my thoughts, my shortcomings, my dilemmas, my perplexities, my needs, my wants, all my moral fluctuations. I've laid all that bare before you, and you have answered me in the past. And so it's upon that basis, because you have graciously responded to me in the past, that I will present my requests again to you. And look at his prayers. Verse second part of 26, teach me your statutes. Again, that an imperative command. And there's six of them. This is the second of six. Revive me is the first one. Second one here is: teach me, teach me your statutes. You must teach, otherwise I cannot know. I'm not going to figure this stuff out on my own. And you You must assume the role of teacher. Teach me your statutes. That is your remedies for life. Teach me your prescriptions.

12:08You must, Lord, take the role of headmaster and teach me. Teach me your ways. Second prayer, look at verse 27. Make me understand the way of your precepts. Now, this ratchets it up a notch, doesn't it? Not just teaching me. Drive it into my head. Make me understand. It's a very bold prayer, not disrespectful prayer. He's saying, unless you do something, God, I'm not going to get it. Open my eyes, he's already said, so that I may see wonderful things in your law. But make me understand. Make me perceive. Make me cognitively aware.

12:55I had this little dog. It was one of those little dachshunds, one of those little red wiener dogs. And I remember one time we put some food before him, and he didn't go for it. He was too busy looking at me and wagging his tail and all that kind of stuff. So finally, I just grabbed his head, turned it to the food, and all of a sudden, ah, food, and he jumps on it. Okay? You ever seen that? It felt like you had to turn someone's head to make them look at something. Well, that's what I had to do. We get that feeling with, that's what the psalmist says. Is saying here, God, make me see.

13:34Give me insight. I want to know your precepts. I want to know your charges. What's interesting is this is a term that Daniel used a lot in the book of Daniel. He'd get these visions in Daniel 8, and he'd say, Come, explain this to me. So Gabriel, in Daniel 8:15, comes to him, and he says, Here, Daniel, understand this. Daniel asks for understanding. In verse 15, someone sends Gabriel to give him understanding in verse 16. So then Gabriel comes and says, Here, son of man, understand.

14:15And then in Daniel 9, 2, he sees another, he understands the significance of the 70 years of captivity. He sees that. He understands it. Same word here. And then Gabriel again comes. And in 9:22, the ESV says, he made me understand. Very consistent linguistic tie between the book of Daniel and this psalmist. Daniel said that a lot. Make me understand. Make me understand. And this is exactly what the psalmist is saying here. Make me get it. Teach me your statutes. Make me understand the way of your precepts.

15:01Have you ever felt like God needed to do that for you? I mean, if you, I think we all, if we're honest, we know sometimes we can be pretty thick-headed. And sometimes we need him to take the initiative to claw through our dullness, break through it, and show us things and make sure we get it. Go back to square one and keep going back to square one until we get it. We need God to do that. And that's exactly the way the psalmist saw himself. God, you need to break through my spiritual dullness, my spiritual imperception, and make me understand. And the reason he gives this: teach me, make me understand. And then look back at verse 27. Look at the reason for these prayers. So I will meditate on your wonders. In other words, he wants to get his mind off of his personal situation and onto the wondrous things of God's word and to see his situation through the lenses of God's word rather than the lenses of his overwhelming circumstances.

16:17And he needs God to teach him and to make him understand so that he will meditate upon the wonderful things in the word. Because when you Boil it all down, this book really isn't about us. It is, we see ourselves, but more so, it's about the God of the Bible. Your situation is not about your overwhelming circumstances, it's about the God of those circumstances. And throughout the Bible, God has revealed himself as the one who is far superior to man's perplexities, difficulties, circumstances.

17:00There was a whole lot of other hopeless situations in the Bible when God came through for just all the way from Genesis to Revelation. You see the hand of God inserting himself in very hopeless situations. You remember the Egyptian Pharaohs and their treatment of the Israelites, holding them into bondage. But then there is a God who said, I remember my covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and I have come to set them free. And he does so. It's about the God who is there when there is a pursuing army and a Red Sea, and the God who can deliver through even such desperate situations as that. And throughout the scripture, there is the God of the Bible who is far greater than any circumstances or any depression or any failure or any shortcoming for man or any hopeless situation. He's greater than all.

17:58And you need to get your eyes on it. On that, because if you keep your eyes on your overwhelming circumstances, you will go further, further into despair. It's not going to lead you to a personal revival at all. Think upon the wondrous, upon his wonders. And that's what the psalmist is saying here: teach me, make me understand, so that I will meditate upon your wonders. There is a path of revival, and it begins with thinking thoughts that revive. It begins with your thought life. And even in the midst of the deepest depression and the most hopeless situation, there is a path of revival. And it begins with thinking right thoughts. Second thing, second step to personal revival is to pray prayers that revive. Pray prayers that revive. It's another graphic image of the psalmist's situation described in verse 28. And this is an image of deep, deep grief. Look at verse 28. My soul weeps because of grief. He's already said in verse 20: if you just look up, my soul is crushed. Here is, my soul weeps. And it's the picture in Ecclesiastes 10:18 of a roof that's leaking, of a house that's just giving way. Sagging and leaking, such as the picture of this man's soul. He is cratering, he is sagging, and he is literally weeping. His eyes are crying, tears are coming down his face.

19:48It's the picture of a soul melting away because of his grief, because of his deep, deep sorrow. If you have the ESV, he says, My soul melts away, or if the King James, my soul melteth away. That's the idea here. It's diminishing down to nothing, one tear at a time. That's the idea. And this kind of soul grief or sorrow is usually connected with overwhelming loss. Something has really taken this psalmist into the deepest pits of despair. You know, a couple of weeks ago, Friday night, we have this youth ministry, our inner city urban area, where we pick up a bunch of kids and we have a bunch of counselors that spend time sharing the gospel and try to minister in various ways. Well, an incident happened. One of our counselors was holding a nine-year-old kid that had come up here, and she had asked him, says, who loves you in your life? And his answer was, God, Jesus, and my grandmother, except my grandmother is dead.

21:09And he began to weep. He began to weep. And he held on to her for over 20 minutes. And the tears that streamed out of his eyes fell on her arm and on her hand, and she could feel this deep grief of this little boy who had lost his grandmother and the only person that he really thought loved him in this world. The good news is that God graciously responds to such deep grief. Isaiah 30, 19, O people in Zion, inhabitant of Jerusalem, you will weep no longer. He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry. When he hears it, he will answer you. And certainly he's talking here about the nation of Israel who crucified their Messiah. Yet there will be a time when they turn, and when he hears their cry, when they understand, God responds.

22:17But it's not just about the nation of Israel, it's for anyone who turns to him. God graciously responds. He hears those cries. And this is the The psalmist. In the pits of deep depression, he feels like his life is just slipping away or ebbing away from him through grief, one tear at a time. Have you ever been there? You probably will, if you haven't. In such times, it's easy to focus on our problems, isn't it? It's easy to think thoughts that would lead to further despair. It's also easy to utter prayers that take us away from God rather than take us to God. And that's why we need prayers that revive. We need to think about God rightly. We need to commune with God rightly so that our prayers and our communication is such that it leads to revival and not leads to unbelief and war with God. Three prayers. Look at verse 28.

23:30The second part: strengthen me according to your word. Verse 29, remove the false way from me and graciously grant your law. Three more imperatives. Very much, God, you must strengthen me. God, remove the false way from me. Graciously grant me your law. You must do these things, God, or I'm lost. But these are all prayers that lead to revival. So just look at them. One at a time. First thing you need to do is you need to ask to strengthen God to strengthen you through according to His Word. That's what the Psalmist did. You need to pray prayers that will revive you. And the first one, ask God to strengthen you according to His Word. This is exactly what the Psalmist is asking him in verse 28. Grief and despair can be so taxing sometimes that it can just zap you of all strength. I'm sure many of you have been there. Sometimes it zaps both your physical and spiritual strength, but strength is needed. And so he asks, strengthen me, strengthen me. Literally, raise me up. That's the word. Raise me up. Remember where he's at? His soul is one with the dust. And now he's saying, strengthen me. Put me upright.

24:58Encourage me. Give me a reason to live. Give me hope. Strengthen me. It's very similar to that prayer: revive me according to your word. According to your word, not according to my criteria. See, oftentimes, what happens in situations like this, we start telling God what we want him to do. God, I want you to do this. This is how I want you to do it. And I want you to do it now. Those aren't prayers that are going to take you to revival, but into further struggle.

25:41Pray, God, strengthen me according to your word. Give me life. Set me up. Second prayer. Look what he says here. Second prayer you need to pray that will lead to personal revival is you need to ask God to remove the false way from you. This is exactly what the psalmist asks. Remove the false way from me. Look at him, back at verse 29. And the false way literally is the way of falsehood, the way of deception. Remove that from me. It's as though he is being enticed himself.

26:17Remove this from me. Remove this as an opportunity for me, as an option. And the word for remove is literally change the direction of. Interesting when you kind of think, okay, he's saying, God turned the direction of the false way away from me. It's very vividly illustrated when Saul's forces and David's men entered into a conflict in 2 Samuel chapter 2, and the commander of Saul's army was running away from one of David's men named Ashael. I'll just pick it up. Ashael was pursuing. Pursuing him, and Abner said to him in verse 21, turn to your right or to your left. In other words, turn away from me, redirect your path. And Abner and Ashel said, you know, he didn't. He kept going. And Abner repeated again to Ashael, turn aside from following me. Why should I strike you to the ground? However, he refused to turn aside. Therefore, Abner struck him in the belly with the butt end of the spear, so that the spear came out his back, and there he fell and died on the spot.

27:29That's the picture of this pursuit. The psalmist is saying, remove, turn the direction of. It's like the false way is pursuing him, and the false way is pursuing you. A way of deception, a pattern of deception. Take it from me. In other words, it's probably a temptation to go down that road. You know, we've got Highway 6 East Bypass out here, right? You understand what a bypass is. And now, if you're wanting to come into the area and you don't want to go to Texas AM, you can take the bypass, right? You can bypass Texas. Now, why anybody would want to miss Texas AM is the topic for a whole nother sermon, right? But if you wanted to, you could bypass the whole thing by going on the bypass. And that's exactly what the psalmist is saying here: remove the bypass. Bypass of truth from me. I want to go, I want to follow your way. I don't want to go any way that leads me anywhere but to you and in your way. So he's praying, God, remove anything and everything in my life and character that is false or that is inclined to go the false way. That's a prayer that will revive your soul. Because many of you here today are on the false way and you don't even know it. Or maybe you do.

29:10But you need to ask God to remove that from you. There is a false way, many false ways. But that's what happens in difficult times. We're tempted to set aside the truth and to pray that God would perhaps remove our circumstances. Start praying things like, Lord, what in the world are you doing? What are you doing? Lord, get rid of these awful circumstances that I am in. Isn't that the way we pray a lot? But notice the psalmist. It's not about his circumstance, it's about the false way that he is inclined to go while in his circumstances. That's what you need to have removed from you. And that's a prayer that will lead to revival. Third prayer. Look. Back at verse 29 again, second half, graciously grant me your law. Again, that imperative, show favor to me. Show favor to me. Ask God to graciously grant you his law. And that is the directions. The directions that point the way for you. That's what you need in your circumstances. You need his directions that will guide you through whatever circumstances you're in. And that's what the psalmist needs. He's not asking him to change his circumstances, but give me your instructions through these circumstances. I remember I had, I don't know, a year ago, I had some of my kids in a, they were struggling in some classes or a class. And I remember telling them, you know, the only way through this class, or the only way out of this class, is through this class. And the idea is saying, look, we can change your schedule. We can drop things. I can do whatever I can do to help you. You're getting through this class. The only way out of it is through it. And I think in some ways that's the way life is, is that the only way out of certain circumstances, out of deep depression or out of deep grief, is to go through it. But to go through it God's way. And He is there to make sure we get through it. He is there with us through it. And many times that is the only way out, is through it.

31:30Hand in hand with a loving and gracious God who has given you his prescriptions for life and his directions, his law. That's what you need. And that's the kind of prayer that will revive you. That's the kind of prayer. So in certain situations, we're tempted to say, to set aside God's law, to ask Him to bless our way out, or to come up with our way, and then ask God to bless our way, or to change our circumstances, but those aren't prayers that really revive. That puts you in a struggle. Ask God to give you His directions in whatever situations, depression, grief, or whatever you're going through, ask Him to give you His directions while you're going through it. And He will.

32:27And He will walk with you through it. If you don't know Him as Lord and Savior, then you need to come to know Him. Because what I'm saying, what I just said, applies to the believer. And if you do not have a relationship with Christ, and you are outside of a relationship with Him, and the message that the Scripture has for you is to accept Him, to come to Him, put your faith and trust in Him, be joined to Him.

32:57And you can do that simply by saying, God, come into my life and say, Save me. And he'll do it in an instant. Three steps to personal revival. First of all, you need to think thoughts that revive. Second, you need to pray prayers that revive. And third, you need to make resolutions that revive. Look at verse 30. I have chosen the faithful way. Look at again, I have placed your ordinance before me. Verse 31, I cling to your testimony. Three rapid fire resolutions. I have chosen, I have placed, I cling. Those are resolutions that God blesses. Look at, I have chosen the faithful way. The faithful way is a way of continual fidelity. It's the word fidela, right? Fidela, that's what it means. Faithfulness, the way of faithfulness.

33:51It's literally translated the amen, the way of the amen. How would you like for God to say, you know, sometimes we see something in Scripture and something, somebody will say something, amen. I can imagine God saying that about your life. Yeah, amen. Right? In fact, Jesus Himself in Revelation 3:14 refers him, calls himself the amen, the faithful witness. That's the idea. I have chosen the way that God can say amen. That's what the psalmist has done.

34:27I have chosen, and it's important to understand. This is out of my own volition. I have, I will be faithful. Lord, I have chosen. I am resolved. Comes from me. It's an internal expression as a response to what God has graciously granted. And it's that response that comes out of the heart of man that says, I will be faithful. I have chosen to be faithful. And I have chosen to be faithful to you regardless of the cost. That is a resolution that revives. And this is what loving the Lord your God looks like. To say to him, I am yours. I am consistently yours. I am faithfully yours. Look at the second resolution. I have placed in verse 30, I have placed your ordinances before me. That is, I have accepted your governing rules. I have set them as my standard, and I will conform myself to them. I will submit myself to them. I will be conformed by them and to them. But I have placed them, and I am going to go after them. Again, out of my volition, I want this. And it's that soul responding to that gracious grant of God and saying, I will, I have placed these, and I will submit myself. And that is that submission is that... Primary attribute of a disciple. That's what a disciple does, conforms to his teacher.

36:07Look at the third, verse 31a. I cling to your testimonies. I cling to your testimonies. It's the same word in verse 25 as cleaves. I have glued myself to your testimony. You know, a little while ago, you'd see in verse 25, he's glued to the dust. And here he's been revived. He's, I'm glued to your testimonies. I adhere to them. I am married to them. I am one with them. I am joined to them. And when you put these three resolutions together, these resolutions that revive, you choose the faithful way, you place his ordinance before you, you cling to his testimony, you know what you're doing? You are obeying what the law tried to spell out so graphically in Deuteronomy so many times. Deuteronomy chapter 30, verse 19, God says, So choose life in order that you may live and your descendants. How do you choose life? This is what it looks like: three things: by loving the Lord your God, that's the same as choosing the faithful way, by obeying his voice, that's the same thing as placing his ordinances before you.

37:30And by holding fast to him, that's the same thing as clinging to his testimony. And throughout Deuteronomy, you'll see these over and over: to love the Lord your God, to walk in his ways, to hold fast to him. That is what, those are resolutions that revive the soul, not in and of themselves, of course, but because they God honors them. But notice again: so he's made these wonderful resolutions: I have chosen, I have placed, I cling. And then look at verse 31b. Again, he's got this expression of dependence: oh Lord, do not put me to shame. So here he's gone. He's just said, I have chosen, I have placed, I cling. By the way, don't put me to shame. You see that soul struggle. And that's the pattern throughout this psalm. You're like, God, you must do this. God, you must do that. The psalm looks in to the, and he sees the ways of God. He says, I want those for my life. God, you must do something in my life because these can never be part of my life unless you give them to me, unless you do something. And then he responds by saying, I will walk in this way. I will do this. I will respond. And then he says, oh, and help my response. That's the constant pattern in here. This desire that moves to a concept. Cry for help that moves to a holy resolve that then goes back to that cry for help. Don't let me put away to shame. I am capable of failing. The psalmist knew this, so he said, Please help me.

39:17So, three things that you need to do, or this church as a body needs to do in order to experience true revival. You need to think thoughts that revive, you need to pray prayers that revive, and you need to make resolutions that revive. Now, what is revival? Let me show you a picture of true revival because I think many of us don't quite get it. Verse 32: I shall run in the way of your commandments, for you will enlarge my heart.

39:50Now, how did the stanza open up with him laid low, deep depression, hopelessness? And what does a revived soul look like? I will run in the way of your commandments. That's revival. My circumstances are what they are, and the circumstances didn't change, or certainly we have no evidence of that, but he changed. I will run. I will accept the life that you have given me, I will accept the station in life that you have placed me, and I will accept your testimonies and your ordinances. And I will run in them. That's revival. That's revival. But there's more. I will run in this ways. I will run. And it's not just an internal resolve of humanity. It is a dependence upon what God will do. He says, For you will enlarge my heart.

40:52And I love this. It's this picture of God. It literally is this expression, God, you will make my heart big, that you will thrill my heart with joy. That's the idea. And Isaiah 61, 60, verse 1, arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. Verse 5, then you will see and be radiant, and your heart will thrill and rejoice. That's the picture of an enlarged heart. He has moved from deep despair to running in the way. And the picture of running is that of a warrior in his strength. That's running swiftly as an unconquerable force. That's the picture of Job 16:14, this warrior running in his strength. And this is what revival looks like. I shall run because you will strengthen, you will enlarge, and you will give me the thrill and the joy of running. My race according to your commandments, regardless of the circumstances. That's what revival is, revival isn't a changed circumstance, it's a changed heart.

42:18Hebrews 12:1 says, Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. The circumstances didn't change, he changed, he was revived. We need this, don't we? Lord, revive us. Let's pray. Lord, revive us. Lord, revive your people. Lord, revive this church. Lord, revive us to the very depths of our being. Father, and help us all here to understand that there's no depression too deep, that you are not far greater. There is no pit so dark, no grief so heavy, Father, that you are not the God who is above all. Father, and that you can not only teach us to cope with our circumstances, but Father, you can teach us to thrive as we walk.

43:30Yea, even run through them. Father, we just thank you as we look into the life of this psalmist that he, a blessed person, is those who walk in your way. And yet you have revived this man, this soul, to where he'll not only walk in your way, but run in your way. And Father, that is what we want for us. Father, please bring it about. Make us this way. Teach us, make us, strengthen us, revive us, for we desperately need you. Thank you in Jesus' name. Amen.