Psalm 24: The Key to Explosive Revival?

Editor’s Note: Be sure to check out part one of this article: Dreaming at Cane Ridge: A Strategy for Awakening and Reformation.

As I look up from my laptop here at the Cane Ridge Meeting House, I’ve noticed that there’s an old Bible published in 1836 on the pulpit sitting in front of me and its laying open to Psalm 24.  

I’ve paused from writing to reread Psalm 24 and my inner nerd is giggling like a mad scientist whose light bulb overhead just lit up the room. I haven’t thought of it for a long time, but I know from studying history that Psalm 24 happens to be a passage that sparked another great revival in the Hebrides Islands off the coast of Scotland. Maybe the Lord is trying to say something to me.

I remember that they were hungry for God and had been gathering together to pray for months at a time. In one prayer gathering they got a spark from Psalm 24:3-4: “Who may ascend into the hill of the Lord? Who may stand in His holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who has not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully.” 

The Answer From Heaven

While reading Psalm 24 one of the young men stood up in that prayer meeting and said, “It seems to me to be so much humbug to be praying as we are praying, to be waiting as we are waiting, if we ourselves are not right with God.” 

He then lifted up his hands and began to cry out; “God, are my hands clean? Is my heart pure?” The revival was now on, and it changed the whole community. It was reported that God seemed to be everywhere in the Hebrides. Revival spread throughout the islands. 

The answer from heaven came to those on the Hebrides because they answered the question that would open them up to reverential wonder: “Are my hands clean? Is my heart pure?” They each, individually, became rightly related to God. They each began to take seriously Psalm 24 and to seek God’s face, His Presence like Jacob (Ps. 24:6). They got honest in prayer.  Finally, their prayers became real conversations with Yahweh.

Psalm 24 Honesty

“Psalm 24 Honesty” is on this generation. They want what’s real. They crave truth without hype, false motive and exploitation. I’m going to stand in Barton Stone’s Pulpit here today at the Cane Ridge Meeting House and declare Psalm 24 as loud as I can.  

Let the Hebrides Key of authenticity and personal purity unlock corporate displays of God’s power through a governing ecclesia again. Let the Hebrides Key of Psalms 24 Honesty release true worshippers, and let every hidden sin in our hearts be unearthed and brought to Jesus. Let every religious mask be removed, and let every twice-dead microphone be unplugged. God, start with me. Let each of us individually become rightly related to Jesus and share our passion for Him with others.

I believe a historic awakening is here upon us that will birth church and societal reform in some fresh ways. God has called many out of common-sense lifestyles and common-sense churches to be reformers. I’m specifically seeing devotional reformers. In the grace of God, they will change the understanding and expression of devotion to Jesus.  

They will introduce a new normal and a new radical.  

In fact, they have been rejected by the normal and they need to thank God that they’ve been rejected. God saved them for awakening and from the Father’s loving discipline that’s coming upon the sleeping church. These reformers enjoy devotion; it’s not a labor, its not to earn something, its simply their joy to burn for God. Let us learn from Cane Ridge. Let us learn from the Hebrides Islands. Let “Psalm 24 honesty” come to an entire generation.  

Pockets of true revival are breaking out across America. Want to know more about the next great move of God? Click here to see Jennifer LeClaire’s new book, featuring Dutch Sheets, Reinhard Bonnke, Jonathan Cahn, Billy Graham and others. 

Matt Pettry is on the senior leadership team of The Place. He has been teaching at the college level for seven years. He enjoys keeping a pulse on the signs of the times and sharing the lifelong value of devotion to Jesus. He passionately trumpets a call to awakening and reformation through gospel preaching, intercession, and through biblical strategies for the in-breaking of God’s government. Visit him online at mattpettry.com.