Psalm 119:17-32

Points of Interest
Psalm 119:17-32
I. Call to Worship:  Psalm 40:16,17
II. Offering passage:  I Cor. 16:1,2
III. Scripture references:    

• Matt. 5:10 we read – “Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
• Heb. 13:14 -‘For here we do not have a lasting city, but we are seeking the city which is to come.’
• John 15:19,20 - “If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you. “Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they kept My word, they will keep yours also.’
• Matt. 4:4 - ‘man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God’
• Heb. 12:1  - “…let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us”
• Rom. 12:2 - ‘And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind’

IV. Quotes:

• Augustine - ‘You have formed us for Yourself, and our hearts are restless till they find rest in You’
• Alexander Maclaren  - ‘in v. 22 he prays that reproach and shame, which wrapped him like a covering, may be lifted from him; and his plea in v. 22b declares that he lay under these because he was true to God’s statues. In v. 23 we see the source of the reproach and shame, in the assembly of men in authority, whether foreign princes or Jewish rulers, who were busy slandering him and plotting his ruin; while, with wonderful beauty, the contrasted picture in v. 23b shows the object of that busy talk, sitting silently absorbed in meditation on the higher things of God’s statues.’
• William Cowper - ‘and truly, many times are God’s children brought to this estate that they have nothing to uphold them but the Word of God; no sense of mercy, no spiritual disposition; but     on the contrary, great darkness, horrible fears and terrors. Only they are sustained by looking to the promise of God and kept in some hope that He will restore them to life again, because it is His praise to finish the work which He begins.’

• Warren Wiersbe  - ‘the eyes have an appetite and we must be careful where we focus them. Eyes that feast on the vanities of this world will never see the wonders in     God’s Word.’
• John Piper says - ‘God is most glorified in us when we are more satisfied in Him’
• John Piper - ‘life is wasted if we do not grasp the glory of the cross, cherish it for the treasure it is, and cleave to it as the highest price of every pleasure and the deepest comfort in every pain’

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