One Hundred and Ninety Sermons on Psalm 119

3. There wants eternity. An Immortal soul must have an eternal good, pleasures for evermore, Psal. 16. ult. In this world we have but a poor changeable happiness. Luk. 12. 19. 'twas said to the rich fool, This night thy soul shall be required of thee.

Thus much for the first Branch, Blessed art thou, O Lord.

II. I come from the Compellation to the Supplication, Teach me thy statutes. And here observe, (1) The person teaching, he speaks to God, Do thou, O God, teach. (2) We may consider the person taught, Teach me; I that have hid the word in my heart. David that was a Prophet, is willing to be a Disciple. Those that teach others have need that God should teach them: the Prophet saith, Teach me, O Lord. David a grown Christian, he desires more understanding of Gods will. Certainly we should still follow on to know the Lord, Hos. 6. 3. Heathens that only knew natural and moral things, yet they saw a need of growth; and the more they knew, the more they discovered their ignorance; and always as they grew elder, they grew wiser. How much more sensible would they have been of their defects in the knowledge of spiritual things, if they had in a little measure been acquainted with the mysteries of godliness, that pass all understanding, and are so much from humane sense, and above the capacities of our reason? Prov. 30. 3. Agur said, I neither learned wisdom, nor have the knowledge of the holy. There is very much yet to be learned of God, and of his ways. Many think they know all that can be taught them; David a great Prophet, a man after Gods own heart, yet is earnest that God would teach him his statutes. (3) The lesson or matter to be taught, Thy Statutes, so he calls the Word, because the Doctrines of it have the force of a Law published, they do unalterably bind, and that the soul and conscience; and therefore the Precepts, Counsels and Doctrines of the Word are all called statutes.