In 1863, the Scottish medical doctor William P. Mackey wrote a song entitled, “Revive Us Again.” Some of the lyrics of this well-known hymn declare, “Revive us again! Fill each heart with thy love. May each soul be rekindled with fire from above. Hallelujah! Thine the glory! Hallelujah! Amen! Hallelujah! Thine the glory! Revive us again!” These words are based on Psalm 85:6-7, in which the sons of Korah petitioned the Lord, crying out, “Will You not revive us again, that Your people may rejoice in You? Show us Your mercy, LORD, and grant us Your salvation.” We’re going to look at a similar Psalm, and prayer for revival, in just a moment. But I must ask, what was it that inspired Mackey to write this hymn? Well, listen closely as I share some of his own testimony:
“My dear mother had been a godly, pious woman, quite often telling me of the Savior . . . But nothing had made a deep impression on me. The older I grew the more wicked I became. One day a seriously injured (laborer) was brought into the hospital . . . The man died, [and] some things about the deceased’s affairs were to be attended to in my presence. ‘What shall we do with this?’ asked the nurse, holding up a book in her hand. ‘What kind of book is it?’ I asked. ‘The Bible of the poor man’ . . . I took the Bible and – could I trust my eyes? It was my own Bible! The Bible which my mother had given me when I left my parents’ home, and which later, when short of money, I sold for a small amount. My name was still in it, written in my mother’s hand . . . Be it sufficient to say that the regained possession of my Bible was the cause of my conversion.”(1)
William Mackey’s song “Revive Us Again” is a prayer for revival, and so is Psalm chapter 80, which we’re about to read. Mackey prayed for everyone to experience God in a personal and powerful way just as he did! And as we’re going to discover, there is nothing more powerful in sparking revival than a visitation from God! In Mackey’s case it was a personal revival. Now, we’re also going to see that an outpouring of the Holy Spirit, on an individual or a group, is most often born out of a season of prayer motivated by some form of hardship or depraved condition. So, let’s go ahead and get started by reading Psalm 80:1-19; and I want to invite you to stand in honor of the reading of God’s Word.
Asaph’s Plea for Revival (Psalm 80:1-19)
1 Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, You who lead Joseph like a flock; You who dwell between the cherubim, shine forth! 2 Before Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh, stir up Your strength, and come and save us! 3 Restore us, O God; cause Your face to shine, and we shall be saved! 4 O LORD God of hosts, how long will You be angry against the prayer of Your people? 5 You have fed them with the bread of tears, and given them tears to drink in great measure. 6 You have made us a strife to our neighbors, and our enemies laugh among themselves. 7 Restore us, O God of hosts; cause Your face to shine, and we shall be saved!
8 You have brought a vine out of Egypt; You have cast out the nations, and planted it. 9 You prepared room for it, and caused it to take deep root, and it filled the land. 10 The hills were covered with its shadow, and the mighty cedars with its boughs. 11 She sent out her boughs to the Sea, and her branches to the River. 12 Why have You broken down her hedges, so that all who pass by the way pluck her fruit? 13 The boar out of the woods uproots it, and the wild beast of the field devours it. 14 Return, we beseech You, O God of hosts; look down from heaven and see, and visit this vine, 15 and the vineyard which Your right hand has planted, and the branch that You made strong for Yourself.
16 It is burned with fire, it is cut down; they perish at the rebuke of Your countenance. 17 Let Your hand be upon the man of Your right hand, upon the son of man whom You made strong for Yourself. 18 Then we will not turn back from You; revive us, and we will call upon Your name. 19 Restore us, O LORD God of hosts; cause Your face to shine, and we shall be saved!
This Psalm is said to be a testimony of Asaph (v. 1). There was one named Asaph who was a leader in David’s choir. He was said to be skilled in music and he was a seer (1 Chronicles 6:29; 2 Chronicles 29:20). However, the Asaph mentioned here is thought to have been one who lived at a later time during the reign of King Hezekiah, and known as “the recorder” (2 Kings 18:18). Warren Wiersbe says, “This is Asaph’s prayer to God on behalf of the northern kingdom (Israel and Samaria) after it was taken captive by Assyria in 722-721 B.C.”(2) So, let’s take a look at another passage that addresses the beginning of the Assyrian captivity, and which also mentions Asaph. Feel free to turn to 2 Kings chapter 18, verses 9-16, and follow along as I read and make some comments.
We read in 2 Kings 18:9-12, “Now it came to pass in the fourth year of King Hezekiah, which was the seventh year of Hoshea the son of Elah, king of Israel, that Shalmaneser king of Assyria came up against Samaria and besieged it. And at the end of three years they took it. In the sixth year of Hezekiah, that is, the ninth year of Hoshea king of Israel, Samaria was taken. Then the king of Assyria carried Israel away captive to Assyria, and put them in Halah and by the Habor, the River of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes, because they did not obey the voice of the LORD their God, but transgressed His covenant and all that Moses the servant of the LORD had commanded; and they would neither hear nor do them.” We then read in this same chapter, down in verse 18, how Asaph’s son Joah – who was also a recorder – was commanded to notate the words of Rabshakeh to King Hezekiah of Judah (2 Kings 18:18ff). Now, Rabshakeh was the title given to the chief cup-bearer of the Assyrian court.
So, the northern kingdom had fallen to Assyria; but if we continue in the chapter, we can see that Judah was troubled too. In 2 Kings 18:13-16, we read this: “And in the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and took them. Then Hezekiah king of Judah sent to the king of Assyria at Lachish, saying, ‘I have done wrong; turn away from me; whatever you impose on me I will pay.’ And the king of Assyria assessed Hezekiah king of Judah three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold. So, Hezekiah gave him all the silver that was found in the house of the LORD and in the treasuries of the king’s house. At that time Hezekiah stripped the gold from the doors of the temple of the LORD, and from the pillars which Hezekiah king of Judah had overlaid, and gave it to the king of Assyria.” I should note that the people of Judah were not hauled off to Assyria like their neighbors to the north, but the southern kingdom still suffered oppression by Assyria.
Wiersbe had said that “this is Asaph’s prayer to God on behalf of the northern kingdom,” but I beg to differ. I believe it’s his prayer for both kingdoms – north and south. Israel to the north and Judah to the south were once a consolidated nation before their civil war. At one time there was no Israel and Judah, but simply one united Israel. We just read how the Lord allowed these calamities to befall His people, “because they did not obey the voice of the LORD their God, but transgressed His covenant and all that Moses the servant of the LORD had commanded” (2 Kings 18:12), but that all started long before the nation was ever divided. In fact, their defiance to God and moral decline is what led to civil war and the division between north and south. And things only got worse from there, as the people continued to reject the Lord.
In this Psalm, Asaph offered a prayer for all of Israel – both north and south – and he referred to Israel as “this vine” (v. 8); one that had been transplanted to a fertile vineyard. “The Lord transplanted Israel from Egypt to Canaan, uprooted the nations in Canaan, and planted His people in the land of their inheritance. As long as the people obeyed the Lord, the vine grew and covered more and more of the land. The boundaries of the nation reached from the hill country in the south to the mighty cedars of Lebanon in the north, from the Mediterranean Sea on the west to the Euphrates on the east – and beyond. But the luxurious vine disobeyed the Lord, produced ‘worthless fruit’ (Isaiah 5:2), and felt the chastening hand of the Lord. He withdrew His protection and permitted the enemy to enter the land and ruin the vineyard.”(3)
Now, I can’t help but think that this sounds like America. Beginning around 1620, the Puritans traveled here to escape persecution from the Church of England. The ones we call “The Pilgrims” were seeking religious freedom, like Israel when they fled from Egypt. Now, instead of “uprooting” the existing inhabitants, like God did with Canaan, He had other plans for America – to transform the Native people through the power of the gospel; and so, He sent forth missionaries, like David Brainerd. Unfortunately, though, others mistreated the Native Americans; and then later on, people mistreated more minority groups. But to blame God for the sins of America would be like blaming Him for the sins of Israel. People make bad choices apart from the Lord, which is called sin. But God had a plan for Israel, and He has a plan for America, despite our sin and atrocities.
God wants America to be a light to the nations, just as He meant for Israel; and like Israel, who was said to be the Lord’s vine, America has grown and now stretches “from sea to shining sea.” But we keep acting like Israel by going astray from the law of the Lord and by following after our own ways. So, here’s what we need to understand. The Lord will only overlook our sin for so long. In verse 12, Asaph asked the Lord, “Why have You broken down her hedges, so that all who pass by the way pluck her fruit?” In America, our hedges are being broken down, and our borders are being overrun by those seeking its fruit. If you were to think in terms of unattended vines, fruit is how the vines reproduce. Fruit is where the seed is located. If foxes were to come along and eat the fruit before it fell to the ground and germinated in the soil, then the grapes would eventually die out. So, when the hedges begin to come down, this should be a signal of impending death.
I’m sure that many of us are familiar with the famous call to prayer located in 2 Chronicles 7:14 that begins with “If My people.” Well, in that same chapter, the Lord warned His people that if they forsook His commandments and worshipped other gods that (quote) “I will uproot them from My land which I have given them . . . and will make it a proverb and a byword among all peoples” (2 Chronicles 7:20). The phrase “I will uproot them” alludes to Israel as the vine, one that will be uprooted and cast into the fire (Matthew 3:10); but the second part of that verse was fulfilled as God’s people, according to Psalm 80:6, became as strife to their neighbors and their enemies laughed among themselves. Right now, we have become strife to the world, as our allies have concluded that America can’t be trusted. We are also the laughingstock of the world because of our weak military leadership. I believe it’s important for us to know that we are on the verge of national ruin because of our country’s defiance against God.
But this is not the first time that America has been in such a place. “Not many people realize that, in spite of the awakening that preceded the American Revolution and its successful outcome, [that] twenty years later, in the early 1800s, there came a time of moral bankruptcy.”(4) Consider the church during that time. “The Methodists were losing more members than they were gaining. The Baptists said that they had their coldest season . . . The Lutherans were so languishing that they discussed uniting with Episcopalians who were even worse off . . . The Chief Justice of the United States, John Marshall, wrote to the Bishop of Virginia, James Madison, that the Church ‘was too far gone ever to be redeemed’ . . . [and] Tom Paine echoed, ‘Christianity will be forgotten in thirty years’.”(5)
“Look at the liberal arts colleges at that time. A poll taken at Harvard had discovered not one believer in the whole of the student body. A survey was taken at Princeton, a much more evangelical place: it found only two believers in the student body . . . Students rioted [during that time]. They held a mock communion at Williams College, and they put on anti-Christian plays at Dartmouth. They burned down the prayer room in Nassau Hall at Princeton. They forced the resignation of the president of Harvard. They took a Bible out of a local Presbyterian church in New Jersey and burned it in a public bonfire. Christians were so few on campus in the 1790’s that they met in secret, like a communist cell, and they kept their minutes in code so that no one would know.”(6)
So, “how did the situation change? It came through a concert of prayer. Finally, in September 1857, a praying Christian businessman named Jeremiah Lanphier started a prayer meeting in the upper room of the Dutch Reformed Church Consistory Building, in Manhattan, New York City. In response to his advertisement, only six people out of the population of a million showed up. However, the following week, there were fourteen, and then twenty-three, when it was decided to meet every day for prayer. By late winter, they were filling the Dutch Reformed Church, then the Methodist Church on John Street, then Trinity Episcopal Church on Broadway at Wall Street. In February and March of 1858, every church and public hall in downtown New York was filled.”(7)
“People began to be converted – ten thousand a week in New York City alone. The movement spread throughout New England; the church bells bringing people to prayer at eight in the morning, twelve noon, and six in the evening. The revival raced up the Hudson and down the Mohawk, where the Baptists, for example, had so many people to baptize that they went down to the river, cut a big hole in the ice, and baptized them in the cold water . . . The revival [soon] reached Chicago, [and impacted the] young shoe salesman . . . Dwight L. Moody, and that was the beginning of his ministry that lasted forty years . . . More than a million people were converted to God in one year out of a population of thirty million.”(8)
So, our nation is at a spiritual crossroads yet again; needing to make a choice between following the ways of God or the ways of Satan. So, what are we to do? How can we get massive amounts of people on board with turning back to God? Well, I’m sorry to say that we can’t control what other people do – but we can take charge of ourselves. Allow me to share an illustration: “A man once came to Gipsy Smith, the celebrated English evangelist of an earlier time, and asked him how to have revival. Gipsy asked, ‘Do you have a place where you can pray?’ ‘Yes,’ was the reply. ‘I’ll tell you what to do. Go to that place, and take a piece of chalk along. Kneel down there, and with the chalk draw a complete circle all around you – and pray for God to send revival on everything inside the circle. Stay there until He answers and you will have revival’.”(9)
Revival is not up to the many, but rather the few – the few circle-makers who will dedicate themselves to prayer. J. Edwin Orr says of the revival that swept America during the 1800’s that “having begun in a movement of prayer, it was sustained for a generation by a movement of prayer.”(10) You see, revival begins with prayer – serious, dedicated, heart-wrenching prayer; and when the prayers of those few dedicated saints reach the throne room of God, the Lord hears from heaven and pours out a holy visitation. Now, what we might call Asaph’s “song,” was actually a prayer for revival: “Return, we beseech You, O God of hosts; look down from heaven and see, and visit this vine . . . Then we will not turn back from You; revive us, and we will call upon Your name. Restore us, O LORD God of hosts; cause Your face to shine, and we shall be saved!” (vv. 14, 18-19).
This prayer sounds familiar to me and I know why. The gospel group Phillips, Craig and Dean, in their song “Shine on Us,” once pleaded, “Lord, let Your light, light of Your face shine on us. That we may be saved. That we may have life; to find our way in the darkest night. Let Your light shine on us.” And may this be our prayer for the United States of America and this church.
Time of Reflection
I want to close by looking at verse 17, which says, “Let Your hand be upon the man of Your right hand, upon the son of man whom You made strong for Yourself.” Asaph believed that Israel’s salvation would arrive by one who sat at God’s right hand – one known as “the son of man.” The one who meets this description is Jesus Christ. The term “son of man” is ascribed to Him in the Old Testament, as well as being a description of Jesus used by all four gospel writers.
There is something we should note about the position where He is seated? But let me first mention how on the Day of Pentecost, the world experienced the greatest revival of all time as the Holy Spirit was poured out on believers, and they began to do signs and wonders, and speak boldly in the name of Jesus. Now, listen to what Peter said on that very same day: “Therefore being exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He [or Jesus] poured out this which you now see and hear” (Acts 2:33). So, “the man of God’s right hand” – the son of man, or Jesus – was the one responsible for pouring out the Holy Spirit and sending a great revival on the Day of Pentecost, and it happened when He was seated in authority on high.
But between His being seated on high and pouring out His Spirit, there was a season of prayer that occurred in the upper room. Check out Acts 1:8-14. The Scripture teaches us that Jesus is the baptizer (Matthew 3:11); and from His position at the right hand of God, He will pour out His Spirit and send revival when people get serious about prayer. But He will also revive and restore an individual soul when someone offers up a prayer of repentance and confession of faith in Jesus Christ. Romans 10:9-10 says, “If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”
I want to close by extending an opportunity for you to come forward and pray for God to send revival into your heart and save you from your sins, and to publicly confess Jesus as Savior and Lord – that is, if that’s what God has laid on your heart. I also want to offer an opportunity for you to come to the altar and pray for revival for this church and community, as we have our hymn of invitation.
NOTES
(1) Robert J. Morgan, Then Sings My Soul (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2003), p. 147.
(2) Warren Wiersbe, “The Complete Old Testament,” The Wiersbe Bible Commentary (Colorado Springs, CO: David C. Cook, 2007), p. 962.
(3) Ibid., pp. 962-963.
(4) Keith Thomas, “If My People Who Are Called: Carrying God’s Heart for Revival,” Group Bible Study: https://www.groupbiblestudy.com/if-my-people-who-are-called?gclid=Cj0KCQjwwY-LBhD6ARIsACvT72PJbyn-XpeH1mSn1b3MIWUKl-40t9s1f5JFyVjJNlnU1hpTOCT20NsaAk_GEALw_wcB (Accessed October 12, 2021).
(5) Ibid.
(6) Ibid.
(7) Ibid.
(8) Ibid.
(9) Michael P. Green, Illustrations for Biblical Preaching (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1997), pp. 305-306.
(10) Thomas.
