Revive Us Again

Will you not revive us again, so that your people may rejoice in you?

✙ Ps 85:6

Eugene Peterson said that "nothing suffers from time quite so much as religion. The skeletal structure of obedience becomes arthritic, and the circulatory system of praise becomes sluggish."*

Such was the case in ancient Israel, and such is the case in the church and the people who comprise it. When I realize my own forgetfulness or when I fall into sin, I as an individual need to pray for my own quickening. The community as well needs to pray for revival, so that we as a people will not lack responsiveness to God's goodness, but may instead be dead to sin.

We praise Thee, O God, for the Son of thy love,
for Jesus who died and is now gone above.

Hallelujah! Thine the glory. Hallelujah! Amen.
Hallelujah! Thine the glory. Revive us again!

All glory and praise to the Lamb that was slain,
who hat taken our sins,and has cleansed every stain.

Hallelujah! Thine the glory. Hallelujah! Amen.
Hallelujah! Thine the glory. Revive us again! 

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! 

In the Name of Christ, who taught me to pray: Our Father...

Bill and Gloria Gaither

*Praying with the Psalms (HarperSanFrancisco 1993), June 22.