Revive Me

Do you ever feel in need of being revived?  I certainly do!  I'm sure we all have experienced days, or perhaps even seasons, in our lives where we felt weighed down by life, by circumstances around us, by the way we were being treated by others, by.........  You fill in the blank.  As we have journeyed through this Psalm, we have often seen the psalmist ask the Lord to revive him.  In the verses we are currently studying, we see this request several times.  In fact, he asks to be revived more than he asks for anything else in this passage!  As we have seen previously and see again in these verses, he is dealing with "persecutors" and "adversaries"......those who are "treacherous", those who do not keep the Word of God.   This may be the area where we can most relate to the psalmist, as we are living in a culture that has lost its regard for the Word.

But what does it mean to be "revived"?  I'm sure we each have our own mental picture of what that means......perhaps a cold glass of iced tea revives you on a very hot day.....or a visit from a good friend or from your grandchildren might revive you if you're feeling lonely......or you're revived by a really good night's sleep.  Is that what the psalmist means?

Here's your assignment for today.  Use your word study tools (remember you can use on-line tools if you don't have a Hebrew dictionary in your personal library!  Go to http://www.blueletterbible.org/), check the concordance to find out what Hebrew word (or words) is translated "revive".  Then look those words up in your word study dictionary and see what you can learn.  What did the psalmist mean, what was he asking for, when he used that particular word?  Remember that the word "revive" has been used a number of times in this Psalm, not just in these verses.

The closing line of this Psalm says, "The sum of Your word is truth, and every one of Your righteous ordinances is everlasting."  That sums up how the psalmist feels about the Word.  Use your concordance and find other places where Scripture speaks about itself, both in the Old Testament and in the New Testament.  What does it say?

Since you are participating in this study, I think it is fair to say that you have a high regard for the Word of God.  Can you make a summary statement, as the psalmist did, concerning the Word that sums up your attitude toward the Word?  It's OK to use words directly from Scripture!

One final question......how are you going to apply what you have learned today?  What difference will it make in your attitudes today, in the choices you make?