My soul cleaves to the dust;

revive me according to Your word. vs25

The only way we can keep God’s commands is revival, according to His promise, by the Holy Spirit. The Spirit comes because Christ was crucified for our sins and by the hearing of faith. Don’t run to the law. Don’t work yourself up. Make your request known through Christ and look to Him.

This reviving quickens our spirit to enjoy and obey God: it delights our heart, provides strength, and enables us to will and to do of His good pleasure [Phil 2:13].

Look to God, not yourself, as Psalm 119 continually states.

Secondly, the believer wants to learn!

I recounted my ways, and You answered me;

teach me Your statutes. Vs26

He is not hard-hearted or cold against Christ, but he wants to do what He says. This is regeneration. We are not trying to get rebels to live the Christian life: We want you born again and given life from the dead, so that you can love and delight in God. This is not the old man of the flesh in vain hypocrisy. This is the new man of the Spirit. We need gospel preaching to make Christians and to maintain our power. We want to do God’s will because we are of God.

“Anyone born of God refuses to practice sin, because God’s seed abides in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God.” [1 John 3:9]

When God makes it clear, then we meditate on His precepts!

“Make clear to me the way of Your precepts;

then I will meditate on Your wonders.” [Ps 119:27]

We need Him to do something for us, before we can do something for His glory. This is the mind of Christ. He depended on the Father always. He said,

Don't you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me? The words I speak to you I do not speak on My own. The Father who lives in Me does His works. [John 14:10]

He always pleased the Father, being the perfect Man, and He humbled Himself, not obeying by His own strength, but the Father’s faithfulness to Him! Let us learn the lesson: We are adopted to depend on the Father to HELP US. God wants no independent children. He will perform our works.

We need strength.

“My soul melts with sorrow;

strengthen me according to Your word.” vs28

We are grieved at the failures of others, when Christ is not preached. We go up, and then we go down - mighty like Samson, then weak as other men - and we need reviving by the Spirit!

Do not be ashamed to confess your need and KEEP LOOKING to Christ. Never grow weary in Him or of Him. He is there and expects you to come for grace and mercy. Come weary, but come!

God must remove us from deceit: We cannot do it ourselves!

“Remove me from the path of deceit

and graciously grant me Your law.” vs29

Put away human strength and Christless sermons: we need help.

Years ago, I heard a sermon by a gifted evangelist that missed Christ and brought us into bondage. I went home and searched the Scripture, and the Lord revealed that Paul was not ashamed of the gospel, because “it is the” power of God unto salvation [Rom 1:16]. The “it is the,” means that it is the ONLY THING and the only way whereby we’ll live godly. We need the gospel in the Spirit, so we make requests that He revive His word in us, so He can deliver us from religious bondage and licentiousness... from self righteousness and the works of the flesh… from pride and fornication.

Thirdly, we have willingly chosen the way of God.

“I have chosen the way of truth;

I have set Your ordinances before me.” vs30

This is the new man. He is a man of decision by God’s grace and the new birth. We would have chosen evil, but God convinced us of sin and turned us around. We saw Christ the only Savior and took Him by faith, desiring salvation and the Savior more than anything, even on His terms. We didn’t say, “Give me part of Christ,” but we took the whole Savior, willingly and gladly! No man coerced us with fancy words. We were not moved by a speech [1 Cor 2:4-5]. We saw the Son of God saving sinners with absolute power by His resurrection. We saw God pacified through Christ and received Him wholeheartedly. The Holy Spirit made us confess that we are born again.

Blessed are you for this choice! You are loosed from your prison, and you decide day after day... again and again. You choose to read, to pray, and to walk uprightly. God’s way is according to YOUR will.

Finally, Christ is the reason and the reward of our obedience.

“I run in the path of Your commandments,

for You will enlarge my heart.” vs32