The quick and the dead

I am afflicted very much; revive me, O LORD, according to Your word. – Psalm119v107

We all know that affliction is part of life. For some folks the affliction is severe and comes in the form of open opposition and visible conflict. For some folks the affliction is more subtle. It just comes from the everyday ‘stuff’ of life.

Either way affliction is wearying. It just wears you out. If living the Christian life was easy we could just coast along like we were on some great holiday enjoying life without care or concern.

But chances are that most of our life is going to involve affliction. Therefore it is going to involve weariness. If we don’t do something about it we are going to be spiritually asleep or may even appear spiritually dead.

When that happens we need something. We need a ‘relivening.’ The King James translators used a word here that I like. They translated this ‘quicken me according to thy word.’

‘Quick’ in that sense is a neat word. Mercury is sometimes called ‘quicksilver.’ Back before we knew that mercury was poison it was a great toy. We hoped that thermometers would break so that we could play with the mercury.   If you have ever seen mercury on a table top you know why it was called ‘quicksilver.’ It acts like silver that is alive. It seems to move with a life of its own.

It is this kind of quickening or reviving we need. We get our liveliness from the word of God.

There are two kinds of Christians – the quick and the dead. Are we living in spiritual quickness or spiritual deadness? God’s worn will give us that spiritual quickness if we will let it work.