April 28, 2020 -- Psalm 119:159 -- Be revived

Consider how I love your precepts!

Give me life according to your steadfast love.

Psalm 119:159 English Standard Version

The Psalmist is calling out to the Living God, “See this, perceive it and know this I love Your statutes and precepts”. What we adore we stare at. What we long for we gaze at longingly. The point is this, the more we think about the laws of God, the more we realize how right they are, how good they are, how perfect they are. (Remember verse 96—”To all perfection I see a limit, but your commands are boundless”—its perfections, its wisdom, its instruction is without limits.) Knowing the precepts and commands of God inevitably draws us to see Jesus and His perfections.

The world has such a different perspective about law and freedom. Here is a stark example. While reading on the incredible pull of pornography and the work it takes to break men and women free from this, I came across something that stopped me cold. There is pornography called “adoration”. The whole point is that people watching it are in fact adoring or worshiping those whom they look at. The perpetrators of this great sin call such pornography what it is: “worship” or “adoration” of the human body. People who view such pornography are in fact engaging in worship of what is sinful. Note carefully what I am saying—human sexuality is not sinful. When sex has no boundaries, such as is defined by the law of God, it becomes great slavery. God gives the gift of sex for the context of marriage. When a man and a woman are married, excluding all others, and delight in the gift of sex it is a great blessing.

The attendant prayer is so important. King David, the writer of this Psalm, cries out “Revive me” according to your steadfast love. There are so many things which are pulling me towards sin so that my taste for all that is holy and good is dying within me. Unless the LORD of Glory should revive us, literally breathe life into us, we will die to all that is holy. The Spirit of God is called the Breath of God. The Spirit of God gives life to our lungs so that we breath life in Jesus Christ. The Spirit of God gives us oxygen so that our eyes are revived and we see and delight in Jesus and His perfect ways.

Father in heaven, with the psalm-writer we are crying out: revive us! We long for the breath of Your Spirit to bring life to our lungs so that filled with the freshness of Your steadfast love we will see Jesus for Whom He truly is and worship Him alone. We confess how our eyes have looked longingly at things, or people, or money and wanted to have all things serve us. We confess our misplaced worship and adoration. Stop us. Change us from the inside out so that Jesus and His Word and His ways will be precious to us. Revive us, giving us life according to Your immeasurably great love. Amen.