我们已经讨论过「复兴祷告」的两个特点是热诚和持久；而「复兴祷告」的第三个特点是大胆和坦率。在阅读和研究这个课题时，对于神的百姓祈求祂赐下复兴时，用那么大胆和坦率的说话，我实在感到十分惊讶。

我们可在今天的经文中看到这个特点，诗人好像责怪神在工作时睡觉，试看一下摩法特（Moffatt）译本所用的生动语言：「永恒者啊，振作一下吧！为何睡觉？醒来吧！啊，不要永远抛弃我们！为何你要隐藏你的脸，忘记我们的哀伤和沮丧？我们的灵魂要伏向尘土。」诗人这种语言是何等的强烈和坦率，然而说服神正是需要这种态度和语言。

请注意我是说态度和语言，你和我都可以来到神的面前用类似的语言，但若没有诗人所感受到的那种神圣的绝望，反倒会显得虚假和空洞，甚至是鲁莽无礼。由于诗人意识到周边属灵力量正在退减，令他感到神是睡着了，需要被唤醒，诗人对周遭衰败的情况是那么关切，以致他就算使用这么强烈的语言也变成恰当和蒙应允。当我们与诗人对周围道德和灵性的衰败有同样深刻的感受时，我们也可以像诗人一样用如此强烈的话语来表达。不过，除非我们亦预备仿傚诗人那股对属灵关注的深刻之情，否则便不能模仿诗人的说话。

A third characteristic of "revival praying" is boldness or directness. Here again I have been struck, as I have read and researched this subject, by the daring and direct language used by God's people when pleading with Him to send revival.

We can see something of this in the verses that are before us today. The psalmist appears to be accusing God of sleeping on the job. Listen to the graphic language used in the Moffatt translation of this passage: "Bestir thyself, Eternal one! Why sleep? Awaken! ah discard us not for ever! Why art thou hiding thy face, forgetful of our woe and our distress? For our soul is bowed to the dust." This language of the psalmist is forceful and direct but it is the kind of attitude and language that prevails with God.

Notice I say attitude as well as language. You and I can come before God and use similar language but if it is not accompanied by the kind of holy desperation that the psalmist felt, then it will sound false and hollow - even impertinent. Such was the spiritual decline around him that it looked to the psalmist as if God was asleep and needing arousing. His deep concern over the declining conditions with which he was surrounded made his language appropriate and permissible. When we feel as strongly about the moral and spiritual bankruptcy that surround us as the psalmist felt in his day, then we can speak as strongly as he did. We dare not copy the words unless we are also prepared to copy the psalmist's deep spiritual concern.