“For since the beginning of the world

Men have not heard nor perceived by the ear,

Nor has the eye seen any God besides You,

Who acts for the one who waits for Him.” vs4

If we wait upon the Lord Jesus Christ, then He will act for us. We cannot cause revival ourselves, nor can we deliver ourselves from sin. It is sinful folly to put into the hands of man WHAT ONLY GOD CAN DO.

Let us wait, and He will act. He will give us power over sin and deliver us from the bondage of its tyranny. Let us confess our sins, expecting mercy, in full repentance, trusting Him to sin no more [2 Cor 7:11]. Let us glorify God in His grace by relying upon Him.

True religion is not something man does; it is the supernatural work of the Spirit. We are to believe, but we’re never to go in the flesh. We look to Him in hope.

“We have all become like one who is unclean,

and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment.

We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.” vs6

We have been taken away from God’s blessing by our iniquities. We have been removed from the place of favor, and there is nothing that we can do. We have no righteousness of our own, so we must be saved by imputed righteousness, which is not by what we’ve done, but according to His mercies. Phil 3:9, “And be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith.” We have no leg to stand on. We can only hope in forgiveness and cleansing.

The believers HELPLESS ESTATE is the place of pity and compassion [Heb 11:11-12]. He is not better than others. He can simply look to God’s love, saying, “God, be merciful to me the sinner.” He cannot boast that he’s one bit more righteous than the vilest criminal. He leans on Jesus alone, confessing his sins, and we never have any other righteousness before God.

We must do away with all attempts to deserve mercy, and self-righteousness must die the death. The sinner's hope is in the Lord, not in himself.

“But now, O LORD, you are our Father;

we are the clay, and you are our potter;

we are all the work of your hand.

Be not so terribly angry, O LORD,

and remember not iniquity forever.” vs8-9

Be merciful, Lord, and show us pity, even though we have sinned. We plead Your kindness and compassion. Look upon us with love.

We confess our sins and wait! We don’t try to stir it up, and go without Him. We have not lost hope in the promise - that a great God will come down and help us. We are at the PLACE OF MERCY, because we’re looking to Him in expectation, and this pleases God, that we’d walk by faith and wait [Hos 2:15].

No longer are we blaming everyone else; it is our iniquities [vs6]. No longer do we think that the day is too dark. We are calling upon Him to come down, and He will answer. Let us live all of our lives in this expectation. Revival can’t be something of the past: it must be our present hope, and He must answer, or we have nothing but the shell of religion. Yet, if we call upon Him as sinners, He will be faithful. If we look to Him by imputed righteousness, then He will hear. If we know that we need Him to work, then He will do it.

“Will you restrain yourself at these things, O LORD?

Will you keep silent, and afflict us so terribly?” vs12

No, He will not! The problem, He says, is when He comes will He find faith on the earth? Luke 18:7-8, “And shall God not avenge His own elect who cry out day and night to Him, though He bears long with them? I tell you that He will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?” If we are at the end of the end, then it is on us to do the believing, because we don’t know God’s calendar, and He will do the reviving. The church is in a bad state, not because the world is wicked, but because of unbelief in the church. We may be persecuted for believing, but our lack of power is OUR FAULT!