Overcoming Spiritual Dryness - Nick Napier

 We are coming to the end of a long couple of years of pandemic, and it doesn't seem to be ending. Perhaps on top of all the upheaval of the pandemic your couple of years has been like many of ours—enough to grind you down. Now, as we face the coming of a new year, a time when many of us are generally filled with hope and are forward looking, your hands hang down and your knees are weak (cf. Hebrews 12:112), and you are not sure how they can be strengthened. 

You are, in a word, dry. Dry spiritually and emotionally. And though you want to be where you have been before in your walk with the Lord, you don’t know that you have it in you to pull along. You already know that any resolution that you might make to this end on January 1, 2022 at 12:00 AM will end by January 1, 2022 at 9:54 AM. What is the answer? Do you need some sort of extraordinary happening to snap you out of it? Enter Psalm 63.

 A Psalm of David, when he was in the wilderness of Judah.

O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee:
my soul thirsteth for thee,
my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty 
land, where no water is;

to see thy power and thy glory,
so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary.

Because thy lovingkindness is better than life,
my lips shall praise thee.

Thus will I bless thee while I live:
I will lift up my hands in thy name.

My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness;
and my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips:

when I remember thee upon my bed,
and meditate on thee in the night watches.

Because thou hast been my help,
therefore in the shadow of thy wings will I rejoice.

My soul followeth hard after thee:
thy right hand upholdeth me.

How can this Psalm be of help here? 

We want to be out of the dry patch and want it sooner rather than later, and yet David gives us the clues we need in order to have a realistic expectation of progressing and coming out of our barren state. We need this, because, often, when it comes to our growth and leaving that sort of dryness, we want it to come to us in some extraordinary way, some spectacular vision or dream or osmosis, and then *poof* greater knowledge of the Lord and His Word and great strides in and growth in holiness.  We want it instantaneously, and the trouble is that we fail to understand that spiritual growth comes in ordinary, plain, and boring ways. We want extraordinary, because if it is plain and boring it possibly involves more time and effort (meaning we won’t feel an end to the dryness right away), so, it can’t really be spiritual can it? Again, let’s look at Psalm 63 and see David’s condition, its remedy, and the result.

David’s Condition

In verse one, we see that David is in the wilderness (that is the desert) of Judah.  And while David is in that wilderness, it is making him think of the barrenness of his own soul and its desperate need for the Lord.  Though we may not enter into an actual desert under the same conditions, we have likely been struck as David was in his with our own desperation. (We have been through this pandemic; we have had to live life, suffer loss, anguish and our own possible diagnoses, and deal with pain…and…and…and…you get the picture.)

Spiritually, David says he is at the brink of collapse; He knows God, but feels far from him.  Which is why he says that he will “earnestly seek” the Lord, and that he “thirsts” and that he “yearns.”  David is in a desert.  He would definitely know of a deep and nearly unquenchable thirst.  He says he thirsts and yearns for God as a man, nearing the end, nearing collapse.  To do so in the wilderness is to die. So, what then is David’s condition? His very real condition of being in the desert physically, made him see his dryness spiritually. 

So, here in Psalm 63 David is in an actual dry place: a desert. He is likely in danger for his life.  Now, this could be any number of events in the life of David.  We are not sure which one it might be, but we know he is in exile of some sort, and in this exile, his very real location of a physical desert, makes him aware of the spiritual desert in his soul.  As we enter into his experience (though not in an actual desert ourselves), we see that in David’s dry spiritual state, he does not ask for “extraordinary” things that might make him “super spiritual.” No, he asks only to see and be part of the very ordinary life of an Old Testament (OT) saint.  So that in this text, from David’s condition we learn, that the remedy for spiritual dryness is not promises of sudden lifting and ease, but in the very ordinary means that God has provided and which work in us by his grace over the course of our life. Which brings us to see the remedy for overcoming spiritual dryness.

Its Remedy

David says, “so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary…”  What does he mean by this? And why does he look to the sanctuary?  Why does he long to return to sanctuary? Because David knows that the sanctuary is where God has promised to meet with His people in a special way.  It is there that He has promised to make His special presence known, in the very ordinary course of OT church life.

Often, it is the case that when dryness comes to us, we want to retreat, to get away from it all and “refresh.” We go about thinking that retreat will be the answer for our arid souls. Here, David is away from it all and says, “No. The place to be is in the house of God, among the people of God, making use of the means that God has given.” He longs to be there. (Many of us can relate to this after much of this pandemic has had us away from worship at different times.) David longs to be there because it is not a not spiritual retreat or conference or various other “get aways” where God has promised to work, but in an ordinary way in the ordinary place of worship.

Is David looking only to the sanctuary as if merely showing up at a place is what is needed? No. Here, sanctuary is a sort of synecdoche or shorthand for all of God’s saving promises, purposes, and acts among His people. In the sanctuary, there is the preaching and teaching and sacraments (in OT it would be circumcision and passover and in the ordinary sacrifices). So, what sort of power and glory would David have seen in the sanctuary? Had David seen God come down, and do some great acts and signs in the tabernacle? Is that power  and glory of which he speaks? No. David didn’t see great displays, but only very ordinary workings of the tabernacle.

How would the ordinary things help? To see that, we must see to what those very ordinary workings of the tabernacle would have pointed. For OT saints, the sanctuary pointed to the coming Messiah, and the saving work that He would do. In the sanctuary what David would have seen was his need for the Messiah.  He would have seen that there must be sacrifice to atone for his sins, and he would have seen that the power  and glory of God is that God Himself would provide and be that true and final sacrifice. He would have heard of the promise of God to do so from the Word. He was looking to that One to come, that One who would redeem men from their sins. David longed for the sanctuary because there, he would see the means that God had appointed for saints to draw near and be fed by faith.

So, what about us? Has God given us such things? How do we see the power and glory of God in the sanctuary today? In the same way David did. We see it in the same things that David longed for.  What are they?  The very ordinary means which the Lord has provided to His New Testament church: His Word, sacraments, and prayer. This along with the fellowship of the saints is the very way in which God displays His saving power and glory among the congregation and pulls us out of arid places. The sanctuary is where the congregation gathers in order to declare His praises and to call upon each other to remember His work and promises! It is not through “extraordinary” signs and wonders, but through ordinary preaching and church happenings.

Why are God’s ordinary means of grace important? Why has He promised to work in very ordinary things? Because all of His appointed means point to Jesus, and they are all meant to cause us to rest in and remember His promises.  The OT means (circumcision and Passover) pointed to that One who would deliver people from their greatest enemy which was not a nation (particularly Egypt), but the Egypt  and wilderness of sin.

The Result of the Remedy

If God has promised to work through the ordinary means of grace, what do they provide?  When we make a “due use of the ordinary means,” we will be put in a continual remembrance of all that God has promised. When this is the case we, like David, will be refreshed. Notice, David begins to look to God’s promises, and not at those providences which had, in some sense, brought him to that wilderness. He began to, as Thomas Willcox said, “Judge not Christ’s love by providences, but by His promises.” David is refreshed as he remembers the promises, and longs for them. However, he is refreshed in the desert spiritually—not because he is brought out of it physically. In verses three and four, we  see that David remembers God’s covenant love and knows it is of His grace that all things are brought upon him—even hard things.

Not only do the ordinary means of grace put us in remembrance of God’s promises, they bring us to satisfaction in His person. That’s what verse five sets out. It demonstrates that spiritual dryness comes from looking to anything and everything other than the means God has provided for our growth in grace and satisfaction in Jesus. 

Further, verses six through eight show us that making use of the means of grace, the means which God has provided, produces within the saints a holy resting in His working in every circumstance of our life.

What about you? After two years of pandemic and trying to maintain regular life and having your own hardships, are you dry? Are you in a spiritual wilderness? You don’t need “extraordinary” or “signs  and wonders.” You don’t need a “retreat” or conference or camp. You simply need to make a due use of the very ordinary means of grace, wherein God has promised to work, and to conform you into the image of His Son. Devote yourself to the Word preached, and read in the home. Give yourself over to prayer: closet prayer and prayers offered up during the day.  Give yourself by faith to be fed on the sacraments. And, though it isn’t glamorous or fast, God will work as He has promised, and will begin to refresh you and grow you anew. 

Sometimes our refreshment may come in the midst of the desert other times after we’ve crossed through, but either way it will only be by making use of God’s means of grace and looking to His promises.