- Make Alive
Psalm 71: 20
Thou, which hast shewed me great and sore troubles, shalt quicken me again,
And shall bring me up again from the depth of the earth.
God promises to quicken, revive, make me alive again; He promises to bring me up again from the depth of the earth, from Sheol, from death and hell. This He has done: I was dead in trespasses and sins but He has made me alive in Christ; my spirit was dead within me but He has forgiven the sin that killed it and made my spirit alive again; by faith the Holy Spirit lives in my human spirit; I was heading directly for eternal death and hell was my definite destiny but He has brought me up again from the depths. All this miraculous new life creation happened when Jesus died on the cross and rose from the tomb; life was given to me when I was baptized and believed. The promise of quickening has been fulfilled and finished, but there is more.
Christ has earned, and the Holy Spirit has given, new life once for all eternity; however, it means so much more: I die daily when I remember my Baptism and drown and die and a new man comes forth and walks in newness of life; Sin and I myself get me in great and sore troubles and He makes me alive again; many words and events in my life bring me close to the depths of death and He brings me up again. These things happen every day as I sink and rise; I cause the fall while the Lord cause the raising to life.
God made me see these troubles and calamities but I am the one who brought them on, being the sinful, guilty and dead-in-sin human. He has graciously allowed afflictions to attend me because I needed the discipline, but He is always there to lift me up and give me life. Every affliction is a bit of sin and death; every deliverance from affliction is a bit of forgiveness and life.
Both life and death are going on all the time at the same time; living and dying are both present but at some times we may feel closer to life or to death than at other times. For example, a harsh word tends to bring me closer to death while forgiveness for that word brings me up and restores me to life again. We may turn to the Lord many times a day for a quickening injection of new life. So He promises.