让我们继续来思想「复兴祷告」的第六个特点──属灵的绝望。二十世纪一位重要的神学家卡尔巴特（Karl Barth）曾经说过：「除非我们好像那些绝望的人那样读圣经，否则我们并没有正确地阅读圣经。」我认为他的意思是，除非我们懂得在属灵上深深渴望神，否则我们不能体会圣经所描述的人物他们内心的渴求。

我在想，你读今天的诗篇时，心里有没有感受到诗人的那种绝望？鲁益思（C.S. Lewis）在评论这首诗篇的时候，说：「开始的十一节是在令人流泪的张力中写成的。诗人明显是在极度的绝望中。」当然，诗人在这里祈求个人复兴而不是国家复兴，但我们所要掌握的原则是：绝望的祷告带来有力和正面的结果。

请容许我再次向你提出一个问题：你对周围的道德和属灵情况有没有感到绝望，以致你愿意花几天的时间来祷告和禁食呢？大部分人对禁食的想法的回应是：「唔，事情还没有绝望到需要那么做的地步！」有一句古老的话是这样说的：「绝望的处境需要孤注一掷的措施。」我不知道你怎么样看世界的状况，但我明显感到事情已经到了绝望的地步。只有当世界的绝望与信徒内心那神圣的绝望相遇时，事情才会有转机。

We continue looking at the characteristic of spiritual desperation which, we have been saying, usually makes its presence known in all "revival praying". I believe it was Karl Barth who once said: "We do not read our Bibles aright until we read them like desperate men." He meant, I think, that until we become spiritually desperate ourselves we will not be able to recognise the desperation that flowed in the hearts of the men and women who are portrayed in the Scriptures.

I wonder, as you read the psalm that is before us today did you feel the desperation that is present in the heart of the psalmist? Commenting on this psalm, C.S. Lewis said: "The first eleven verses were written in a strain that brings tears to the eyes. He is obviously a desperate man." Of course, the psalmist here is praying for personal revival and not national revival, but the principle to get hold of is this: desperate praying brings powerful and positive results.

Permit me once again to ask you a personal question: Have you ever felt desperate enough about the moral and spiritual conditions around you to spend a few days praying and fasting? Most people's response to the idea of fasting is: "Well, things are not desperate enough to demand that!" There's an old saying that goes: "Desperate situations demand desperate measures," I don't know how you view the world situation, but it seems obvious to me that things are in a desperate state. And they will only change as the desperation in the world is met and countered by a holy desperation in the hearts of the men and women who constitute the Christian Church.