Psalm 40 - Asbury and Aslan

 



God, the beaver in the Chronicles of Narnia says it well, "They say Aslan is on the move - perhaps has already landed." 

God, as I write this on February 22, 2023, the Asbury chapel has been going on for two weeks. You decided to use an ordinary chapel, an ordinary chapel speaker, and a few ordinary students who stayed to pray and confess to pour out your Spirit in ways we have not seen in America in decades.

You have been pleased to visit that little campus in that little chapel in little Wilmore, Kentucky numerous times over the last 125 years - 1905, 1908, 1921, 1950, 1958, 1970, 1992, and 2006. Most of these were 3 or 4 days of continuous prayer and confession. Only in 1908 did it continue for two weeks. But what you did in the week of February 3, 1970, so closely parallels what is happening today, 53 years later.

And God, I hear that these revivals were precipitated by students begging you to show up. As Psalm 40 expresses, they waited for you to show up. Prayed, waited, prayed, and waited. And, after 53 years, you decided to visit that chapel again. This time, maybe even more powerfully, as now tens of thousands have come from around the country to experience your presence.

God, you are doing what Psalm 40 says,


He inclined to me and heard my cry.

He drew me up from the pit of destruction,

out of the miry bog,

and set my feet upon a rock,

making my steps secure.

He put a new song in my mouth,

a song of praise to our God.

Many will see and fear,

and put their trust in the LORD.


You have multiplied, O LORD my God,

your wondrous deeds and your thoughts toward us;

none can compare with you!

I will proclaim and tell of them,

yet they are more than can be told.


I have told the glad news of deliverance

in the great congregation;

behold, I have not restrained my lips,

as you know, O LORD.

I have not hidden your deliverance within my heart;

I have spoken of your faithfulness and your salvation;

I have not concealed your steadfast love and your faithfulness

from the great congregation.


As for you, O LORD, you will not restrain

your mercy from me;

your steadfast love and your faithfulness will

ever preserve me!

For evils have encompassed me

beyond number;

my iniquities have overtaken me,

and I cannot see;

they are more than the hairs of my head;

my heart fails me.


Be pleased, O LORD, to deliver me!

O LORD, make haste to help me!


But may all who seek you

rejoice and be glad in you;

may those who love your salvation

say continually, “Great is the LORD!”

As for me, I am poor and needy,

but the Lord takes thought for me.

You are my help and my deliverer;

do not delay, O my God! (ESV)


God, continue to do it. Let your people cry out to you. Make us poor and needy. Visit your church in profound, intimate, and mercifully gracious ways. Restore us. Revive us.

Amen

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