To quicken is to rouse someone from lethargy. You may need to quicken your teenage son because he is still sound asleep well past the alarm. And why else would we head for the coffee pot, except that we need to be quickened. It’s an old word, and it means to animate, enliven, arouse, stimulate, revive.

The psalmist in psalm 119 prays three times in succession that God would quicken him. “Quicken me according to thy word” (vs. 154); “Quicken me according to thy judgment” (vs. 156); “Quicken me, O Lord, according to thy loving kindness” (vs. 159).

It seems to me, not being a Hebrew scholar and all, that he is speaking of spiritual lethargy here. He is asking God to wake him up and revive him so that he is spiritually enlivened. Often we are in need of a personal revival, and the source of such reviving is God Himself. We can’t pour ourselves a cup. But we can and should ask God to quicken us.

The psalmist asks God to do this according to three things: His word, His judgment, and His loving kindness. Don’t we find refreshment in God’s Word? Don’t we find encouragement and stimulation in contemplating His good judgments, His sweet doctrine, and all by His good and loving grace?

So I think we should make this request for quickening part of our regular prayers: Quicken me, O God, according to your standards of righteousness and holiness and goodness, that I may serve you with fresh resources and new resolve.

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