Will you not revive us again that your people may rejoice in you?
– Psalm 85:6
Oh, this is a really good prayer to pray for revival. What does that mean? God, revive us again?
Psalm 85:6 Reminds Us that We Need Revival
Well, the picture there is God breathe life into us. God bring the dead to life or bring those who are struggling to breathe to life. Revive us that we may rejoice in you. Don’t you love that imagery? When God brings life, we experience joy. I just want us to think together as we meditate on this verse and pray according to it. Let us think about our need for revival, our need for God to revive us.
I look around at the churches in my country, and there are many good things and many evidences of God’s grace, for sure. At the same time, I see desperate need for revival for new life. So many people who have grown content and are content with monotonous religious motion that passes as Christianity. People who come to church and maybe even are very involved in church, but there’s not real hunger for God and longing for God, and life in God and His word, where we’re talking about it all the time and where we’re spreading it to people around us, which then leads to life less spirituality.
In my country, so many people who don’t know Jesus and don’t desire to know God, for whom God is an afterthought or a relic of the past. We need God in my country to revive His church and to bring revival in my country, and in this way, to bring rejoicing. Only God can do this. God alone can bring life to that which is lifeless. Only God can breathe life into His people and breathe life into my country. And then, as we pray for other countries to breathe life into the church around the world and bring life to the nations, we need God to revive.
Psalm 85:6 Reminds Us only God can Bring Spiritual Awakening
So, can we right now just unite our hearts and minds together and pray: “God, revive us again. Please revive us. Open our eyes, our hearts, our minds, our lives, to the fullness, to the wonder of who you are. God, we pray that you’d help us to leave behind in every sense of monotonous religious motion, nominal Christianity, in name only. God, we want to experience you and your fullness. Revive us. We pray that we may rejoice in you. We pray this over your church. I pray this over your church, in my country and for all of us, wherever we live. God, we pray for this kind of revival in your church, and we pray for this kind of revival in the countries where we live.
Lord, we pray for a turning to you for spiritual awakening. God, for a spiritual softness wherever we live, and a spiritual boldness in your people to share the gospel. We pray that you would bring life through the proclamation of the gospel, that many people would turn to you. God, I pray this over my city. We pray this over each of our cities and our countries and over the nations, and especially, oh God, over nations that are unreached by your gospel.
Praying for the Jewish People
And God, we pray specifically today for Jewish people all around the world, many of whom have never heard the truth about who Jesus is and how Jesus is the Messiah who came to save. He is the one who alone can bring new life to souls. God, we pray, revive the Jewish people again, that they may rejoice in you. We pray that you would help us, wherever we live, as Jewish men, women, children, and families are spread out all around the world. God, wherever we live, help us to share the gospel with Jewish people, that you might revive them again, that they might rejoice in you. God, we pray all of this directly according to your word in Psalm 85:6. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
