The Reverend Harold A. Linn, Pastor

Revive Me According to Your Word - Psalm 119:25

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Theme: Revive Me According to Your Word

Text: Psalm 119:25

Date: May 1, 2005

Sixth Sunday of Easter

Revive Me According to Your Word
By Dr. Richard P. Bucher, Pastor

(Passage lookup provided by BibleGateway.com)

^{NAU
My soul cleaves to the dust; Revive me according to Your word.}

Can you remember a time when your love for Jesus was much more fervent than it is now? Can you remember a time when you really loved God's Word, when you couldn't wait for the next opportunity to hear or read it? Can you remember a time when you loved to worship your God? When praising him openly, both inside and outside of the church building, came easier than it does now? Can you remember a time when your joy, joy in your salvation, was greater than it is now? When your zeal and energy to serve and do good works of love was stronger than it is now?

If you can answer any of these questions, "Yes," then you are not alone. It is quite common for Christians, especially those who have believed for many years, to grow weary and tired, and even burn out. It is common for the love of longtime Christians to grow cold, or at least lukewarm. Because of this, many Christians need to renewed, revived, refreshed, and restored.

When we turn to the Scriptures we find that God's people often prayed for renewal and reviving of their faith. We hear David praying, "For the sake of Your name, O LORD, revive me. In Your righteousness bring my soul out of trouble" (Psalm 143:11). Notice that David does not base his request on his own worthiness; nor does he expect God to answer him simply because he is crying out so fervently. David prays, "For the sake of your name, O LORD," and "by your righteousness" revive me. In other words, "Not because I am asking or deserving, but because of your grace, revive me."

What Naomi said, when after many years she returned to Bethlehem, "I went out full, but the LORD has brought me back empty" (Ruth 1:21), also has been the spiritual experience of many a Christian. Sometimes we experience it from one Sunday to the next. We leave the service of Word and Sacrament full and by the time we come back we are feeling empty because of the many challenges of living in a fallen world.

The primary way that God brings renewal to Christians is through his powerful Word. The psalmist knew that. So he prayed the words of our text, “My soul cleaves to the dust; Revive me according to Your word.”

It is no surprise that God's Word brings renewal and revival. Because in the very beginning, that is how God brought life into existence. God spoke, He said, "Let there be . . ." and it was created (Genesis 1). And when it was time to create man, God breathed his breath into Adam's lifeless body, and Adam became a living soul (Genesis 2:7).

Of course the Word of God through which He created everything was none other than the Son of God, who later became our Savior. As it says in the prologue of John's Gospel, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being" (John 1:1-3). This eternal Word was the eternal Son of God who became flesh and saved us.

The breath is the Holy Spirit. As I've told you before, in both Hebrew and Greek, the word for "breath" is the same word for "spirit." In Hebrew it is ruach, and in Greek pneuma. Doesn't St. Paul write in 2 Timothy 3:16 that "All Scripture is inspired by God?" The word translated "inspired" literally means "God-breathed." All Scripture is "God-breathed." Notice the reference to "breath." What this means is that the Holy Spirit so guided the writers of Scripture that every word is the living Word of God.

All of this is to say: Renewal comes first and foremost through the Holy Spirit working through Word of God. If you are looking to be spiritually renewed and revived, then look first to God's Word. That is why I chose Psalm 119:25 as my text: "My soul cleaves to the dust, revive me according to Your Word." The psalmist knew that revival and renewal came from God's Word.

This truth is repeated throughout Psalm 119. Verse 50: "This is my comfort in my affliction, That Your word has revived me." Verse 93: "I will never forget Your precepts, For by them You have revived me." Verse 107: "I am exceedingly afflicted; Revive me, O LORD, according to Your word."

Now we Lutherans know that all of Scripture is either Law or Gospel. Technically speaking, it's is the Gospel, the promises of God, the good news that we are justified by God's grace through faith in Christ's atoning death, that renews and restores our faith. The Law commands us and condemns us if we transgress it. It shows us our sin and it shows us what we should do. But it cannot renew us. Only the Gospel can. Only the Gospel "is the power of salvation for those who believe" (Rom. 1:16). When Paul gave his farewell sermon to the Ephesian’ Pastors, he ended the sermon by saying, "And now I commend you to God and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up" (Acts 20:32). Notice that it is the "word of His grace" that builds us up.

But if this so, that Christians are renewed, restored, refreshed, and revived through God's Word, then why are so few Christians renewed through the Word – even when they regularly hear it and read it?

I think Martin Luther has the answer to this in one of his writings. In a little writing, Preface to His German Works (1539), Luther says there are three things you need to become a theologian. (Don't be put off by the word "theologian," which sounds stodgy and boring. By "theologian" Luther was describing one who has been called by God to be an expert in God's Word, who knows the Word so well that he is able to publicly teach in the Church. The word "theologian" actually means "one who speaks a word about God.") To become a theologian you need oratio, meditatio, and tentatio, which are three Latin words for "prayer," "meditation," and "suffering."

Luther was saying it is not enough just to hear and read the Word. You need more than this to become a theologian. And, I am adding here, that it often takes more than hearing and reading the Word to be renewed and revived.

You need oratio, prayer. In other words, you need to read and hear the Word prayerfully. Whenever you are preparing to hear a sermon or read the Bible, you should first pray, as the psalmists did, "Lord teach me Your Word. Help me to understand it. Speak to me, Holy Spirit, so that I know what you are saying to me through the Word. Only if you help me can I benefit from Your Word." "Open my eyes that I might behold wonderful things through Your Law," prays the psalmist (Psalm 119:18). We should also do this while we are hearing and reading the Word. That is what the psalmist does in our text. He prays for renewal through the Word. Is this what we do? Or do we just listen to the sermon, and just open the Bible and read it?

Luther went on to say that we need meditatio. It is not enough to hear and read the Word, go away and then forget it. We need to meditate on it. We need to turn it over and over in our minds. We need to be thinking about it after we hear it. Isn't this what the very first Psalm is talking about?

Happy are those who do not follow the advice of the wicked, or take the path that sinners tread, or sit in the seat of scoffers; but their delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law they meditate day and night. They are like trees planted by streams of water, which yield their fruit in its season, and their leaves do not wither. In all that they do, they prosper (Ps. 1:1-3; NRS).

I think Paul was talking about the same when he writes in Romans 12, "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God-- what is good and acceptable and perfect." We are to be transformed, Paul says, by the renewing of our minds – which surely comes about when we meditate on the Word.

Whenever we hear or read the Word we should always try to bring away at least one thought that we can meditate on for the rest of the day.

Third, Luther said that tentatio, suffering, is needed for those aspiring to be theologians. This does not mean that we should bring suffering on ourselves. Don't throw yourself if front of a car when you leave today. God is in charge of your suffering.

But as we look over the history of the Christian Church we discover that it is especially those who are in crisis or anguish of soul that find renewal and reformation from the Word. Suffering makes them more open to the Word. Suffering makes them depend on God's promises instead of on themselves. Whereas before they approached the Word as a lifeless object of curiosity and study, in the midst of suffering they approach it as an anchor for their souls. In suffering they see the Word for what it really is, the living voice of God saving them, renewing, restoring, and reviving them in the midst of their troubles. That was the experience of the psalmist, who wrote the words of our text, "My soul cleaves to the dust, revive me according to Your Word." In his suffering he cried out for revival through the Word.

Being renewed by the Word in the midst of personal crisis was also the experience of Martin Luther - his so-called "Tower Experience." Luther's personal anguish was that no matter how hard he had tried to keep God's commandments, to be righteous, he could not. And he knew that God condemned those who failed to love Him above all and one's neighbor as himself. The wrath of God hung over him like a ominous thunder cloud.

Finally, though, after years of studying and meditating upon God's Word (Romans 1:17), his breakthrough came. He discovered the Gospel, that God gives his righteousness as a gift to all those who believe in Jesus Christ. It is through faith in Jesus we become righteous not by our love, holiness, prayers, or random acts of kindness. Salvation is received through faith, not achieved by works.

After discovering this, Luther later wrote that he "was altogether born again and had entered paradise itself through open gates . . . that place in Paul was for me truly the gate to paradise." It was in the midst of tentatio that Luther's study of the Word resulted in new spiritual life and reformation.

Until God calls us home in Christ, renewal will need to be repeated. There will have to be many times of renewal throughout our lives, as the devil, world, and our sinful flesh keeps asserting themselves and dragging us down, but then God, the Holy Spirit, revisits us through His Word.

How do you know if you've been renewed? When you've been revived and renewed, either individually or as a congregation, you experience a renewed joy in your salvation. You become passionate again about Jesus, about His Church, about His teaching. You become zealous about the souls of men and you want to share your faith more. Your love for the Word and pure doctrine increases. You can no longer sit on the sideline of Christianity or be a mere spectator. From that point on, your heart's desire is to get in the game and make a difference. Your single-minded focus is to use whatever time you have left, every moment and every day, to God's glory. To dedicate your time, your money, your life, to the cause of the Gospel and God's kingdom.

If that change has occurred in you, whether for a week or a year, you know then that God has preached His Word over your emptiness and weariness, and has given you new life and restored you. May God grant this to everyone who needs it. Amen.