A couple of weeks ago I got to listen in on a Q&A session. The Qs were coming from a group of pastors who all serve faithfully in small communities and churches in rural Southwest America. The A’s were humbly provided by two of their peers who had just retired from rural ministry. One of those A’s came to mind this morning as I read and hovered over the twentieth stanza of Psalm 119.

Consider my affliction and rescue me,
for I have not forgotten Your instruction.
Champion my cause and redeem me;
give me life as You promised. . . .

Your compassions are many, Lord;
give me life according to Your judgments. . . .

Consider how I love Your precepts;
Lord, give me life according to Your faithful love. . . .

(Psalms 119:153-154, 156, 159 CSB)

Give me life . . . Give me life . . . Give me life.

Quicken Thou me (AV). Revive me (NASB, NLT). Preserve my life (NIV). Give me life (CSB, ESV).

Repeated three times in these eight verses. The last three times of nine times found throughout the psalm. Each translation quoted above picking up something of the original intent.

So, the repetition grabs my attention as the psalmist cries:

Give me life as You promised. . . .
Give me life according to Your judgments. . . .
Give me life according to Your faithful love. . . .

Give me life, Lord — preserve and revive me — according to Your intent, Your instruction, and Your intrinsic nature.

Help me to keep on keepin’ on just as You’ve promised to complete the work You’ve begun in me (Php. 1:6). Help me not to “lose heart” but renew me in the inner man (2Cor. 4:16 ESV) as I purpose to feed on Your word even in a barren land. “Get me on my feet again . . . invigorate me” (MSG); not because of who I am, but because of who You are — God is love (1Jn. 4:16).

Don’t know the season of struggle the songwriter specifically had in mind as he penned this verse, but which of us doesn’t know the type of season? In fact, can I suggest that such seasons are inevitable for those determined to follow Christ, to serve Christ, and to even pour themselves out for Christ? Kind of like missionary pastors in small, rural communities.

And that’s what sparked the remembrance of a brother’s words from a couple of weeks ago.

I won’t burn out,
I won’t rust out,
But, I will wear out.

We need to be wise and self-attuned to steward the right amount of self-care to avoid running out of gas as we run the race God’s given us to run. We need to also be on guard against self-reliance, coasting, and effectively burying in the ground what the Lord’s given us to steward for Him. Yet shouldn’t our desire be to wear out for Jesus? Paul said he’d consider it “success” if in following Jesus he were to be “poured out” as a drink offering in serving others for Jesus (Php. 2:17, 2Tim. 4:6-7).

Inevitably then, in our desire to wear out for Jesus, we should also expect that there’s gonna be seasons where we’ll need some reviving, we’ll need some preserving, we’ll need a little invigorating here and there.

So, Lord even as we wear out give us life. As You promised You would; through the Word You breathed-out; and, according to the love You abundantly and faithfully source.

By Your grace. For Your glory.