"PRAYER FOR QUICKENING" (Pastor Tom Henry) ~ 4/1/25

“Take away mine eye from beholding vanity; and quicken thou me in thy way.” (Psalm 119:37)

The Christian’s new life in Christ began with quickening. “You hath He quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins.” As with the Psalmist David, believers may often find it needful to be quickened anew. The spirit can become lifeless and lethargic and need reviving. David prays for spiritual quickening nine times in this Psalm, our text being one of them. From this petition we can learn two important facts about the matter of spiritual lethargy and its cure. First, a primary cause of the problem is allowing our eyes to behold vanity. We take our eyes off Christ and begin to look upon the things of the world. Rather than to seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, we allow the things that the Gentiles seek after to capture our hearts. (Matt. 6:32, 33) The second important fact the text reveals is that spiritual quickening is vitally connected to the Word of God. Remember that this Psalm is dedicated to the glory of God’s Word.

We can learn from David’s frequent appeals for quickening that it is not an uncommon need with believers. If he, so full of spiritual vigor, needed to pray such a prayer, how much more our own sluggish souls. We have been quickened to life in salvation. In times of affliction, in times of worldly care, we must often pray for quickening. Certainly, in times when overcome by temptation, we desperately need quickening.

We need to be alert to indicators of the need. Are we as energized in spiritual matters as we are in matters temporal? Is your love for Christ and His Word as fervent as it was in the beginning as you “remember the love of thine espousal”?

As the Psalmist put his finger on the cause of his own decline, we must ask ourselves if we are as eager for spiritual progress as we are for secular advancement. Are we as happy for a soul saved as we are over a raise in pay? Are we as eager for the prayer meeting as we are for the business meeting? Are we as faithful to the church as we are to our employer? Do the men and women of the world shame us with their zeal for temporal gain and success? Are we as earnest for Christ as we once were? “Quicken Thou me in Thy way.”

Why ought we to pray for quickening? For the good of our own soul, we must seek its revival. Every true believer knows that a vibrant spiritual zeal and life brings about a soul-satisfying inner joy and peace. Not only this, but our Lord deserves to have quickened followers. Few things are more delightful than a Christian whose love for Christ and the church is lively, whose faith is truly a living faith. We must be quickened because the souls of the lost all around us make it imperative.

The one source of our quickening is the Lord Himself. We cannot find it within. “Why seek ye the living among the dead?” God alone can quicken us. He does this by His Word and through His Spirit. He will quicken us in His way. “Quicken Thou me in Thy way.”