Psalm 119:169-176

Points of Interest
Psalm 119:169-176
I. Call to Worship:  Psalm 73:23-26
II. Offering passage:  Heb. 13:15,16
III. Scripture references:    

• Is. 53:6 ‘we all, like sheep, have gone     astray, each of us has turned to his own way …’
  
• Rom. 7:15  - “For what I am doing, I do not     understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate.”
  
• Is. 53:6 – “… But the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him.”
  
• Rom. 7 - ‘For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin. For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate … For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not … Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? vv. 14, 15, 18, 24
  
• Rom. 7:25 – “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!”
  
• Eph. 2:8,9 – “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.’
  
• Rom. 8:30  – “and these whom     He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.”
  
• Phil 1:6 – “For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of  Christ Jesus.”
  

IV. Quotes:

• Derek Kidner  - ‘the note of urgent need on which the psalm ends … is proof enough that the love of Scripture … need not harden into academic pride. This man would have taken his stance not with the self-congratulating Pharisee of the parable, but with the publican who stood afar off, but     went home justified’
  
• RC Sproul - ‘if left to ourselves, we would not only gravitate toward, but would be swept into idolatry’
  
• Augustine - “'Thou hast made us for thyself,     O Lord, and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in thee.”
  
• Martin Luther - ‘this verse is extremely emotional and full of tears, for truly we are all thus going astray …’
  
• John Calvin - ‘it is a very profitable doctrine, when things in the world are in a state of great confusion, and when our safety is in danger amid so many and varied storms, to lift up our     eyes to the judgements (ordinances) of God, and to seek a remedy in them’
  
• Charles Bridges - ‘I cannot forbear to plead, that although a rebellious prodigal, I am still Thy servant, Thy child. I still bear the child’s mark of an interest in Thy covenant … let me then lie humbled and self-abased. But let me not forget my claim – what He has done for me.’