FLOWERS IN THE DESERT

(Psalm 126)

"Restore our fortunes, O LORD, like streams in the Negeb." (v4)

Sleeping sickness, a disease of tropical Africa, is caused by a parasite introduced into the human blood stream by the bite of the tsetse fly. The effects of sleeping sickness are drowsiness and overwhelming lassitude. Ultimately it causes death. Its spiritual equivalent is much deadlier, however. Spiritual sleeping sickness leads to eternal death. And it's not confined to tropical Africa but infects our entire planet. Its effects are amply evidenced in our own Parish where regular attendance at Christian churches represents less than 3% of our community. Is there a cure? If there was, it would be the most valuable thing in our world - more valuable than cures for AIDS or cancer could ever be.

Well there is a cure to spiritual sleeping sickness. It's called revival. And it's the subject of Psalm 126. Revival describes a spiritual reveille, a rousing from languor, an awakening from listless, dreamy inertia, a recovery from drowsy disinterest. How badly our world, our nation, our Parish needs revival! How do we get it?

Our text (verse 4) tells us to pray for it. And in praying for revival, the psalmist recognizes that he is asking the impossible. The Negeb (the desert of South Sinai) is one of the most inhospitable and lifeless areas on earth. The word "Negeb" means 'dry' or 'parched'. The Negeb is an arid sun-scorched wasteland. There are no streams there and no possibility of life. Yet when the winter rains fall, the impossible happens. Dry wadis suddenly fill. Water flows. And the desert blooms. Grass and flowers appear in profusion. That's what the psalmist is asking God to do in our spiritual wasteland: to make the impossible happen.

In making this request, the psalmist remembers what God has done in the past (vv1-3). God had previously blessed his people in ways that were unbelievable. It was like a dream (v1). And those blessings filled the mouths of God's people with laughter and shouts of joy - so much so that it was noticed by the nations around them (v2). And in our own Christian Era God's people can look back on similar extraordinary blessings of God's supernatural revival movements. Revivals are part of church history and our own land has had its share. Revival is no stranger to our shores. For example, Britain was turned upside down by the 18th Century Evangelical Awakening. Men like George Whitefield and John Wesley preached in the open air before tens of thousands of our citizens the length and breadth of our country. The course of our national history was changed by what God did through such people. God has done it before. He can do it again. That's the message of vv1-4. So is the answer simply to pray? Is that what we should be doing to bring back much-needed revival?

Unfortunately, Psalm 126 doesn't end at v4. There are two more verses to go! And they tell us that there is a human element to revival. God's blessing through revival cannot be separated from the tearful slog of his church. What are vv5-6 describing?

1 A Word Ministry. The sowing of seed represents the prayerful preaching, teaching and witnessing of God's Word (see, for example, Mark 4:1-34). Only God's voice will awaken a land in the grip of spiritual sleeping sickness. And God chooses to make his voice heard through the Word ministry he has appointed his church to carry out.

2 A Heart Commitment. Sowing seed is replete with hardship and sadness. The weather may be inclement, the soil hard and unresponsive, the birds, thorns and rocks disastrously frustrating. Such work may show little or nothing for its efforts. Long periods of waiting are required while discouragements and failures multiply. Word ministry is heart-breaking toil. This is the authenticating sign of genuine Christian witness.

3 A Supernatural Harvest. Yet the season of harvest will come, however far off it may seem now. Reaping will follow sowing, a plentiful crop will eventually fill empty despairing hands, shouts of joy will follow tears and weeping.

Revival is described here as the restoration of fortunes (vv1 & 4). Such a restoration is referred to elsewhere in the psalms as salvation (Ps 14:6, 53:6). Psalm 85:1 is particularly clear in this respect, defining the restoration of fortunes as forgiveness of iniquity, the covering of sin, the withdrawal of God's wrath, the absorption of God's anger. These things happened at the cross, not costing Jesus tearful slog but inflicting upon him the pain of Hell magnified many times. Revival was born in the saving work of the cross. That work is done. But its message has to be carried to every generation through the tearful hard labour of the church's Word ministry. When that is being done, the church has the right to pray for revival. It is in these circumstances that we can call upon God to work the impossible and to make the desert wastelands bloom.

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