My Autumn with Psalm 119 #16

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 November, I hope to cover the next eight verses of the psalm. 

41 Let your steadfast love come to me, O Lord,
your salvation according to your promise;
42 then shall I have an answer for him who taunts me,
for I trust in your word.
43 And take not the word of truth utterly out of my mouth,
for my hope is in your rules.
44 I will keep your law continually,
forever and ever,
45 and I shall walk in a wide place,
for I have sought your precepts.
46 I will also speak of your testimonies before kings
and shall not be put to shame,
47 for I find my delight in your commandments,
which I love.
48 I will lift up my hands toward your commandments, which I love,
and I will meditate on your statutes.

Sermon 51 (Psalm 119:45)

• In the words observe— 1. David’s privilege, and I will walk at liberty. 2. The ground of it, for I seek thy precepts. The points are two:— Doct. 1. To walk in the way of God’s precepts is to walk at liberty. Doct. 2. The more we take care to do so, the more we find this liberty. I seek, that noteth an earnest diligence. Both these points will be made good by these three considerations:— 1. The way of God’s precepts is in itself liberty. 2. There is a liberty given to walk in that way. 3. Upon walking in that way we find it liberty.
• The liberty to do all we please is the greatest bondage. There are three pairs of notions in which men are extremely mistaken—in misery and happiness, wisdom and folly, liberty and bondage. Men think none miserable but the afflicted, and none happy but the prosperous, because they judge by the present ease and commodity of the flesh;
• So that true bondage and liberty is little or nothing at all known and discerned in the world.
• To make this evident unto you, I shall prove— 1. That carnal liberty is but thraldom. 2. That the true liberty is in the ways of God.
• A sinner is under the dominion of sin, as a hired servant and a captive. We first willingly, and by our own default, run into it, and after cannot rid ourselves of it.
• To a renewed heart the divine commandments are not grievous, 1 John 5:3, for by this means they come to enjoy God, and walk to their happiness, and attain to the end for which they were made.
• By grace a man is freed— 1. From the yoke of oppressing fears. 2. The tyranny of commanding lusts.

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible