My Autumn with Psalm 119 #6

I will be continuing on in my study of Psalm 119 this autumn. I have spent months reading Thomas Manton's exposition of Psalm 119. In October I hope to cover the next eight verses of the Psalm.

³³ Teach me, O Lord, the way of your statutes;    and I will keep it to the end.
³⁴ Give me understanding, that I may keep your law    and observe it with my whole heart.³⁵ Lead me in the path of your commandments,    for I delight in it.³⁶ Incline my heart to your testimonies,    and not to selfish gain!³⁷ Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things;    and give me life in your ways.³⁸ Confirm to your servant your promise,    that you may be feared.³⁹ Turn away the reproach that I dread,    for your rules are good.⁴⁰ Behold, I long for your precepts;    in your righteousness give me life!

Sermon 41 (Psalm 119:36)

• Doct. 2. That covetousness, or an inordinate desire of worldly things, is the great let or hindrance to complying with God’s testimonies.
• Master your love to the world, and temptations lose their strength. 1. What is covetousness. 2. How it hindereth from complying with God’s testimonies. 
• First, What is covetousness? I shall give the nature, the causes, the discoveries of it. First, the nature of it. It is an inordinate desire of having more wealth than the Lord alloweth in the fair course of his providence, and a delight in worldly things as our chiefest good.
• Not only this greedy thirst discovereth covetousness, but a complacency, delight, and acquiescency of soul in worldly enjoyments.
• When we set up our rest here, and look no further, we are guilty of this sin.
• But now, because we may delight in our portion, and take comfort in what God hath given us; let us see when our delight in temporal things is a branch of covetousness. I answer—When we delight in them to the neglect of God, and the lessening of our joy in his service, and our hopes of eternal life are abated and grow less lively; when we so delight in them as to neglect God and the sweet intercourse we should have in him.
• Secondly, Let us come to the causes of it, and they are two—distrust of God’s providence, and discontent with God’s allowance.
• Distrust breeds discontent with our present portion, and discontent breeds ravenous desires, and ravenous desires breed distrust; for when we set God a task to provide for our lusts, certainly he will never do it.
• When once men transgress the bounds of contentment prescribed by God, there is no stop or stay.
• Secondly, I am to show how it hindereth us from complying with God’s testimonies. I shall do it by these arguments. 1. It disposeth and inclineth the soul to all evil, to break every command and law of God: 1 Tim. 6:10, The love of money is the root of all evil.’
• As it doth dispose and incline the soul to evil, so it incapacitates us for God’s service, both in our general and particular calling. In our general calling, it makes us incapable of serving God. Why? It destroys the principle of obedience, is contrary to the matter of obedience, and it slights the rewards of obedience.
• If covetousness be the great let and hindrance from keeping God’s testimonies, then let us examine ourselves, Are we guilty of it?
• Let the men of the world, whose portion and happiness lieth here, scramble for these things; but you, that profess yourselves children of God, follow after all the gifts and graces of the Spirit; let that be your holy covetousness, to increase in these things.

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible