Let my soul live, and it shall praise thee; and let thy judgments help me.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
I have gone astray like a lost sheep seek thy servant; for I have not forgotten thy commandments.
Psalm 119 spends 176 verses praising God's word, then ends with a man admitting he has wandered off like a sheep. Why does the longest song of love for God's law close with a prayer to be found?
One writer points out that love for the law and confession of failure run together all through the psalm.
The law is magnified under many different titles, and the spirit of the whole psalm is, "Oh how I love your law!" (v. 97). Yet all through it are confessions of failure judged by its holy standards. There are cries to be made alive — the law never could give life (Galatians 3:21) — and prayers for deliverance.
The picture is exact. A sheep does not plan its escape. It drifts after whatever looks good in front of it.
Sheep are simple. Impulse leads them a great deal, so they are straying creatures (Isaiah 53:6; Psalm 119:176; 1 Peter 2:25). A mouthful of green grass carries the sheep on to a pit, and to the mouth and teeth of lions and wolves. Impulse, rather than faith, is often the guide of weak believers.
The Hebrew word for "lost" here is abad, "to perish." The same word describes a straying animal, and also the righteous man who "perishes" and yet enters into peace (Frederick W. Grant).
A lost sheep cannot retrace its steps. So the prayer is not "help me find You" but "seek me." The sheep is lost, but not disowned.
God says, "Behold, I, I myself will SEARCH for my sheep." They have been scattered, and they have wandered, but they are "mine," says God, and "I will SEARCH for them." May we never forget, whatever the condition of the sheep, they belong to Christ. He thought of them from all eternity... He left His home of glory to seek His sheep... He went as far as the cross to find His sheep.
The last clause is the ground of the appeal. It sets the man's present against his past.
His one desire is to live for the Lord's praise, kept going by the Lord Himself. That is the opposite of his past life, when he followed his own will and went astray like a lost sheep. If he went astray, the Lord sought him. And he can still say, "Seek your servant." Now, unlike in the days when he went astray, he can add, "I do not forget your commandments."
The sheep picture explains the remembering as well as the wandering. A sheep does not forget its proper home (L. M. Grant).
One writer sees this closing verse as the voice of Israel's faithful few, still waiting for God to act.
At the end he admits that he has gone astray. He looks to Jehovah, the Shepherd of Israel, to seek him, for he has not forgotten His commandments. This is the moral state of Israel in the last days. The law is written in their heart, but full deliverance and final blessing have not come.
The same writer does not leave this verse in the future. He turns it on us.
The humbled and repentant remnant — and, I repeat, we too, when we have wandered from God — look for God to seek them, because they were upright in heart and mindful of His commandments.
What the psalm asks for, the New Testament announces as done. Peter writes to believers, "For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls." One writer turns that into a question: "Have we all returned; have you returned? If not, lose no time, but return at once to Jesus, the Overseer of your soul" (W. T. P. Wolston).
- Stray — The longest psalm about God's word ends in an admission of failure, not a claim of success. Love and confession run side by side.
- Sheep — Straying is drift, not defiance. A mouthful of grass at a time, impulse instead of faith, carries the sheep to a pit.
- Seek — The prayer is not "let me find You" but "seek Your servant," because a lost sheep has no power to bring itself home.
- Shepherd — God's answer is "I will search for My sheep"; He owns them, left glory for them, and went as far as the cross to find them.
- Return — A wandering sheep still knows where home is. Peter tells believers the search is over: you "have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls."