My Autumn with Psalm 119 #19

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 54 (Psalm 119:48)

• Doct. 1. That it is not enough to approve or commend the commandments of God, but we must carefully set ourselves to the observance of them.
• 1. Hearing without doing is disapproved:
• 2. Knowledge without practice is not right:
• 3. Our love is not right unless it endeth in practice.
• 4. Our delight is not right; the pleasure is but an airy, idle, and speculative delight, unless it set us about the practice of all holy obedience unto God, making it the design and business of our lives to exercise ourselves unto godliness.
• 5. Our commendation is not right unless it endeth in practice.
• Doct. 2. Whosoever would do so must use great study and meditation.
• Every Christian must bend the powers of his soul, and lay out the first of his care and labour, in his obedience unto God:
• To lift up our hands now and then is not enough, to do a good thing once, or rarely. No; we must make religion our business. The lifting of the hands to God’s commandments is not a thing done accidentally, occasionally, or in a fit of zeal, but our trade and course of life:
• The person or Christian is judged not only by what is believed, but what is done; not by what is approved, but what is practised. Many profess faith and love; but if it be not verified in practice, they are not accepted with God.
• That which will approve you to God is not a sharp wit, or a firm memory, or a nimble tongue, but a ready practice. God expecteth to be glorified by his creatures both in word and deed; and therefore heart, and tongue, and hand, and all should be employed.
• Meditation is necessary to enkindle our affections. Affections are stirred by thoughts, as thoughts by objects.
• No; the heart of man must be besieged with frequent and powerful thoughts before it will yield to God and give entertainment to his truth and ways.
• There is no coming at the heart but by the mind; and the mind must be serious in what it represents to gain the heart; that is, we must meditate.
• As thoughts stir affections, so affections stir up thoughts;
• Truths never go to the quick of the affections but by serious and ponderous thoughts.
• The greatest things will not move us if we do not think of them:

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible