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My mother did most of her growing up in Fayetteville, Texas. When she was a young lady, it was a regular practice for traveling evangelists to show up for a few nights in the summer and conduct tent revivals. On a particular night of the revival my mom noticed that the young man sitting in front of her was the same young man that had been her antagonist all day at school. Like all proper young women of the day, mom was wearing a hat to these revival services. Now her hat was held fast by a long hatpin that mom, in one of her less than godly moments, decided to turn into a weapon against her unsuspecting foe. She poked him hard in the rear end, which caused the young man to leap from his chair with a shout. The visiting preacher thought the lad “had got religion” and called him up to testify! Now in this instance, pain was not a precursor to true revival, but often it is. The psalmist implores the Lord not to be angry any longer with the people. Instead the psalmist wants restoration and revival because they are feeling the sting of God’s anger and indignation. I think that we are to understand that God’s discipline is really a grace gift to draw his children to himself. God jealously loves us and wants us in a right relationship with him. God’s discipline and the pain of that discipline are intended to alert us to the fact that we are in need of restoration and revival. Are you right with the Lord? If not, sing along with William P. Mackay who wrote, “Revive us again! Fill each heart with Thy love. May each soul be rekindled with fire from above!”
In Christ,
John
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