Psalms 119:176

I have gone astray like a lost sheep,.... In desert places, as it is the nature of sheep to do (o).

I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek thy servant; for I do not forget thy commandments.

Ver. 176. I have gone astray like a lost sheep: this is meant either, 1. Of sinful errors. I have too often swerved from the path of thy precepts through mine own infirmity, or the power of temptation. Or, 2. Of penal errors. I have been banished by the power and tyranny of mine enemies from all my friends and relations, and, which is far worse, from the place of thy worship and presence, and forced to wander hither and thither, hiding myself in mountains, and caves, and woods, exposed to a thousand snares and dangers. Seek thy servant, as the shepherd doth his wandering sheep, and bring me back into thy fold.

Psalms 119:176 I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek thy servant; for I do not forget thy commandments.Ver. 176. I have gone astray, &c.] And of myself shall never return. Seek thy servant] Do all the offices of a good shepherd for me, Luke 15:4-7 For I do not forget] The root of the matter is still in me, I am recallable, and ready to hear thy voice, John 10:3.

(176) I have gone astray like a lost sheep.—It would be in accordance with a true religious character that even at the end of a long protestation of obedience to the Divine law the psalmist should confess his weakness and sin. But while this may be a legitimate application of the close of this remarkable composition, and while the LXX. suggest a comparison with our Lord’s parable by their rendering (comp. Matthew 18:11; Luke 19:10), this could hardly have been the intention of the words of this verse. More likely there is a reference to the condition of the community, for the word rendered “lost” (literally, perishing) is used in Isaiah 27:13 of the exiled Hebrews, and is rendered “outcasts;” the emphatic “I do not forget Thy commandments,” which is the real close of the psalm, seems to make this view imperative.

Verse 176. I have gone astray like a lost sheep] A sheep, when it has once lost the flock, strays in such a manner as to render the prospect of its own return utterly hopeless. I have seen them bleating when they have lost the flock, and when answered by the others, instead of turning to the sound, have gone on in the same direction in which they were straying, their bleatings answered by the rest of the flock, till they were out of hearing! This fact shows the propriety of the next clause. Seek thy servant] I shall never find thee; come to the wilderness, take me up, and carry me to the flock. See the notes on the parable of the lost sheep, Lu 15:4, c. The psalmist began with "Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord" and he concludes with "I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek thy servant." And thus, conscious of the blessedness of those who are in the way or righteousness, he desires to be brought into it, that he may walk in newness of life. Ver. 1: "It is a good way, and they are blessed that walk in it." Verse the last, "Bring me into this way, that I may be blessed." And thus the Psalm, in sentiment, returns into itself; and the latter verse is so connected with the former, as to make the whole a perfect circle, like the serpent biting its own tail. There is one extraordinary perfection in this Psalm: begin where you will, you seem to be at the commencement of the piece; end where you will, you seem to close with a complete sense. And yet it is not like the Book of Proverbs, a tissue of detached sentences; it is a whole composed of many parts, and all apparently as necessary to the perfection of the Psalm, as the different alphabetical letters under which it is arranged are to the formation of a complete alphabet. Though there be a continual recurrence of the same words, which would of itself prevent it from having a pleasing effect upon the ear, yet these words are so connected with a vast variety of others, which show their force and meaning in still new and impressive points of light, that attention is still excited, and devotion kept alive, during the whole reading. It is constructed with admirable art, and every where breathes the justest and highest encomiums on the revelation of God; shows the glories of the God who gave it, the necessities and dependence of his intelligent creatures, the bounty of the Creator, and the praise and obedience which are his due. It is elegant throughout; it is full of beauties, and I have endeavoured in the preceding notes to mark some of them; but the number might have been greatly multiplied.

176. I have gone astray like a lost sheep] So apparently the Ancient Versions, but the Massoretic accentuation connects like a lost sheep with seek, and suggests the rendering, If I go astray, seek thy servant like a lost sheep; for &c. It need not surprise us if, after all his professions of fidelity and constancy, even including an explicit declaration that in spite of intimidation he had not gone astray from God’s commandments (Psalms 119:110), the Psalmist concludes with a confession of weakness and failure, actual or possible, and acknowledges that he has “erred and strayed from God’s ways like a lost sheep”; while at the same moment he pleads as the reason why God should not forsake him that he has not forgotten God’s commandments. The confession of failure is not inconsistent with the profession of devotion. As in Psalms 19:12-14, which may have been in the Psalmist’s mind, the thought of the law naturally leads up to the thought of his own frailty and need to be brought back when he wanders. Cp. Isaiah 53:6; Psalms 95:10. If he has erred, it is a temporary and involuntary aberration: his will and purpose to serve God are unchanged, and he prays that God will not abandon him. It seems however more in accordance with the general spirit of the Psalm to suppose that the Psalmist is describing his outward circumstances rather than his spiritual state, the helplessness of his condition rather than his moral failures. He is a wanderer in the wilderness of the world; like a sheep that has been separated from the flock he is exposed to constant dangers, and therefore he beseeches God not to leave him to wander alone, but in accordance with His promise (Ezekiel 34:11 ff.) to seek for him, for amid all these dangers he does not forget God’s law. So Israel in the Dispersion is compared to a strayed sheep, Jeremiah 50:6; Jeremiah 50:17; cp. Isaiah 27:13. lost] The word means ‘strayed and in danger of perishing.’

I have gone astray like a lost sheep - A sheep that has wandered away from its fold, and is without a protector. Compare Isaiah 53:6; Matthew 10:6; Matthew 15:24; Matthew 18:12; Luke 15:6; 1 Peter 2:25. I am a wanderer.

ú, Tav.169-176. Let thine hand help me—Finally, the two great wants of man, strength of soul to live righteously and deliverance from outward evils, are rehearsed. The writer is persecuted for his faith.