05/31/2026
"I will never forget Your precepts,
for by them You have revived me."
Psalms 119:93
Precepts... what are precepts? The precepts of God are His commandments, instructions, and principles which He has given us, that we might walk in them, for our good and His glory.
Notice, the psalmist says that God has "revived" him by His precepts. He doesn't say "saved". He says "revived". To be saved is to be brought from spiritual death to spiritual life. (The theological term is "regenerated".) This is something that the Law of God never does... it never makes a dead man alive. In fact, Scripture says it is there to show us, while we are in our deadness, that we are indeed spiritually dead and are therefore unable to walk in obedience to the precepts of God, because we are enslaved to our sins, because we love them. The Law is there to show us God's holiness and our sinfulness, that we might come to see our desperate need for God, so that we would look to Him alone for our salvation... a salvation that could only be a gift of great mercy and grace, should it be granted to sinners such as us. This here is the explanation of Galatians 3:24, which says, "The Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we might be justified by faith," (and not by our works).
But notice also that it does indeed say that the precepts of the Lord have most certainly "revived me". This is the picture of a spiritually living, but weary, ill, injured, weak, etc. person who has been revived, meaning brought back into the fullness and abundance of life. Revival is not what we've been seeing trending all over the internet in the last few years. Although God is indeed at work in all things at all times, those sorts of "revivals" are nothing more or less than extreme emotional waves passing through a place, bearing no measurable, lasting, good spiritual fruit in the lives of those who participated.
Revival is a work of the Spirit, fur sure, but look at our text here, as we look at how the Spirit works to bring His revival to the believer... it's through the remembrance of the precepts, the commandments, of the Lord. Remembrance, in this case, is not talking about mere intellectual recollection. It is talking about repentance from sin into observance of God's commands. It's about agreeing with the instruction of God's Word with your mind, and then demonstrating that agreement through your hands, feet, mouth, and entire being. It's about growing in your love for Christ and your neighbor, with not only your heart, mind, and soul, but also with your strength. Remembering His precepts is a life lived, not the kind of faith that the demons have, who believe, but shudder before God in what is truly revealed to be unbelief, in the saving sense of the word.
Remembering the precepts of the Lord revives us, truly and radically. His Word transforms us from the inside, out. It conforms us into the image of the Son, Jesus Christ, who always walked according to the precepts of the Word, even though He was tempted in all ways to not walk in obedience to His own holy laws. Heeding the instruction of the Scriptures changes us, matures us, makes us into the men and women He has called us to be. It bears the fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22-25) in our lives.
And here's the kicker... the watching world can't help but notice! And when they do notice, they will always respond to what they see. They might not always respond how we would hope for them to, out of the deep love that Christ puts in our hearts for them, but they will most certainly respond, because a person being revived is supernatural, and no one witnesses the supernatural at work in their midst without being affected by it, and therefore responding to how they were affected.
May all God's people submit to and heed (or remember) the precepts of the Lord, that we would be revived by them, and that the watching world would stand in awe of what they see and (hopefully) bow down in worship before Jesus in response to His work of amazing grace which they have witnessed in us! I pray these things in the name of Jesus Christ, the Author (Regenerator) and Perfector (Reviver) of our faith. To Him be the glory forever! Amen.
