July 25 Daily Devotional

Bible Verse

"My soul clings to the dust; revive me by your Word" (Ps. 119:25).

Devotional

The argument that urges this holy petition is powerful and prevailing—"revive me by your Word"—according to the promise of the Word and by the instrumentality of the Word. Both are engaged to revive the soul.

The promise is most precious: "I will heal their apostasy; I will love them freely, for my anger has turned from them. I will be like the dew to Israel; he shall blossom like the lily; he shall take root like the trees of Lebanon; his shoots shall spread out; his beauty shall be like the olive, and his fragrance like Lebanon. They shall return and dwell beneath my shadow; they shall flourish like the grain; they shall blossom like the vine" (Hos. 4:4–7). This precious promise to revive and renew you—to shed the dews of his grace upon your soul, thus moistening and nourishing the roots and fibers and fruits of the new and heavenly life within you—God stands ready to fulfill in your holy and happy experience. "I will be like the dew to Israel; he shall blossom... he shall take root... his shoots shall spread out... they shall flourish..." Jesus Christ is our dew! The dew of his love, the dew of his grace, the dew of his Spirit, is prepared—silent and unseen, but effectual and vivifying—to fall upon the renewed powers of your nature, reviving the work of God in your soul.

But it is by the instrumentality of the Word that the Lord revives the soul. The Word of Christ is "spirit and life" (John 6:63); therefore it is a life-giving Word. "This is my comfort in my affliction, that your promise gives me life" (Ps. 119:50). Again, "I will never forget your precepts, for by them you have given me life" (Ps. 119:93). Therefore did Jesus pray to his Father in behalf of his church, "Sanctify them by the truth; your Word is truth" (John 17:17). Thus does the Word quicken.

This suggests an inquiry. Could it be that the prevalent decay of spiritual life in the church of God—the low standard of spirituality, the alarming growth of soul-destroying error, the startling discovery which some modern teachers appear to have stumbled upon that doctrines which Christ's church has always received as revealed truth, which councils have authorized, and which creeds have embodied, and which the sanctified intellects of the giants of polemic theology and divine philosophy have contended for and maintained, are the invented dogmas of a bygone age—we say, could it be that these prevalent evils are mainly attributable to the contempt thrown upon the Word of God? We truly and solemnly believe that it is so.

We need constantly to be reminded that the great regenerator and emancipator of the world is the Bible. Nothing short of God's Word can disturb the spiritual death which universally prevails! Nothing short of God's Word will free the human mind from the shackles of error and superstition which at this moment enslaves nearly two-thirds of the human race! This "sword of the Spirit" (Eph. 6:17)—like that of Goliath, "there is none like it" (1 Sam. 21:9)—has overcome sin and error and unbelief, and, unimpaired by the conflict, it is ready to overcome them yet again.

Oh, that in this day of sad departure from the Word of God, we may rally round the Bible in closer and more united phalanx! Firm in the belief of its divine inspiration, strong in the conviction of its divine power, may we go forth into the great conflict of truth and error wielding no weapon but the "sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God" (Eph. 6:17).

In all our spiritual relapses, too, may the Word of the Lord revive us. May it, like a mighty lever, lift our souls from the dust to which they so much cling.

Thy Word is a lamp to my feet,
a light to my path alway,
to guide and to save me from sin,
and show me the heav'nly way.

(adapted by E. O. Sellers, 1908)

Be sure to read the Preface by Octavius Winslow and A Note from the Editor by Larry E. Wilson.

Larry Wilson is an ordained minister in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. In addition to having served as the General Secretary of the Committee on Christian Education of the OPC (2000–2004) and having written a number of articles and booklets (such as God's Words for Worship and Why Does the OPC Baptize Infants) for New Horizons and elsewhere, he has pastored OPC churches in Minnesota, Indiana, and Ohio. We are grateful to him for his editing of Morning Thoughts, the OPC Daily Devotional for 2011.