the Week of Proper 24 / Ordinary 29
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World English Bible
Psalms 119:176
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- DailyParallel Translations
I have wandered away like a lost sheep; come and find me, for I have not forgotten your commands.
I have gone astray like a lost sheep; Seek your slave; For I do not forget your commandments.
I have wandered like a lost sheep. Look for your servant, because I have not forgotten your commands.
I have wandered off like a lost sheep. Come looking for your servant, for I do not forget your commands.
I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek thy servant; for I do not forget thy commandments.
I have gone astray like a lost sheep; Seek Your servant, for I do not forget Your commandments.
I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek your servant, for I do not forget your commandments.
I erride as a scheep that perischide; Lord, seke thi seruaunt, for Y foryat not thi comaundementis.
I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek thy servant; for I do not forget thy commandments.
I have strayed like a lost sheep; seek Your servant, for I have not forgotten Your commandments.
I am your servant, but I have wandered away like a lost sheep. Please come after me, because I have not forgotten your teachings.
I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek thy servant; For I do not forget thy commandments.
I have gone out of the way like a wandering sheep; make search for your servant; for I keep your teachings ever in mind.
I strayed like a lost sheep; seek out your servant; for I do not forget your mitzvot.
I have gone astray like a lost sheep: seek thy servant; for I have not forgotten thy commandments.
I have wandered away like a lost sheep. Come and find me. I am your servant, and I have not forgotten your commands.
I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek Thy servant; {P}
I haue gone astray like a lost sheepe, seeke thy seruant: for I doe not forget thy commandements.
I have gone from the way like a lost sheep. Look for Your servant, for I do not forget Your Word.
I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek out your servant, for I do not forget your commandments.
I haue gone astraye like a lost sheepe: seeke thy seruant, for I doe not forget thy commaundements.
I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek thy servant, for I do not forget thy commandments.
I wander about like a lost sheep; so come and look for me, your servant, because I have not neglected your laws.
I have strayed like a wandering sheep, O seek thy servant, For, thy commandments, have I not forgotten.
(118-176) I have gone astray like a sheep that is lost: seek thy servant, because I have not forgotten thy commandments.
I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek thy servant, for I do not forget thy commandments.
I haue gone astray lyke a lost sheepe: oh seke out thy seruaunt, for I haue not forgotten thy commaundementes.11
I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek thy servant; for I have not forgotten thy commandments.
I wander like a lost sheep;seek your servant,for I do not forget your commands.
I have gone astray like a lost sheep. Seek your servant, for I don't forget your mitzvot.
I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek thy servant; for I do not forget thy commandments.
I have wandered like a lost sheep; seek your servant, because I do not forget your commands.
I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek Your servant; for I do not forget Your Commandments.
I wandered as a lost sheep, seek Thy servant, For Thy precepts I have not forgotten!
I go astraye, like a shepe that is lost: Oh seke thy seruaunt, for I do not forget thy commaundementes.
I have wandered about like a lost sheep; search for Your servant, For I do not forget Your commandments.
I have gone astray like a lost sheep; Seek Your servant, For I do not forget Your commandments.
I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek Your servant, For I do not forget Your commandments.
I have wandered off like a lost sheep; search for Your slave,For I have not forgotten Your commandments.
Contextual Overview
Bible Verse Review
from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge
gone astray: Isaiah 53:6, Ezekiel 34:6, Ezekiel 34:16, Matthew 10:6, Matthew 15:24, Matthew 18:12, Matthew 18:13, Luke 15:4-7, John 10:16, 1 Peter 2:25
seek: Song of Solomon 1:4, Jeremiah 31:18, Luke 19:10, Galatians 4:9, Philippians 2:13, James 1:17
for I do: Psalms 119:61, Psalms 119:93, Hosea 4:6
Reciprocal: Deuteronomy 26:13 - forgotten Psalms 14:3 - all gone Psalms 23:3 - restoreth Psalms 119:8 - O forsake Psalms 119:10 - O let me Psalms 119:16 - not forget Psalms 119:67 - Before Psalms 119:83 - yet do I Psalms 119:141 - yet do Psalms 119:153 - for I Proverbs 3:1 - forget Proverbs 7:25 - go Jeremiah 50:6 - people Ezekiel 34:11 - search Luke 15:6 - for Romans 7:18 - for to will Romans 7:24 - wretched Galatians 5:17 - the flesh
Gill's Notes on the Bible
I have gone astray like a lost sheep,.... In desert places, as it is the nature of sheep to do o. A sheep he was, a sheep of Christ, given him by the Father; known by him, and that knew him; knew his voice, and followed him; a sheep of his hand, and of his pasture; one of the lost sheep of the house of Israel, who had been lost in Adam, though recovered by grace; and had gone astray before conversion, but now returned to the Shepherd and Bishop of souls; and since conversion had gone astray from the Shepherd and fold, from the word and precepts of it, through inadvertence, the prevalence of corruption, the snares of the world, and the temptations of Satan; which he both deprecates and owns, Psalms 119:10; though it may be understood, as it is by many interpreters, of his being forced, by the persecutions of his enemies, to wander from the courts of God, and from place to place:
seek thy servant; as a shepherd does his sheep when gone astray, which will not return of itself unless sought after: thou art my Shepherd, as if he should say, look me up, restore my soul; suffer me not to wander from thee, and go astray from thy word and ordinances: and when he calls himself his servant, it carries in it an argument for being looked up and sought out; since he was his servant, not by nature, but by grace; not by force, but willingly; he was his and devoted to his service. And another follows:
for I do not forget thy commandments; he retained a knowledge of them, an affection for them, and a desire to observe them; though he had gone astray from them, either in a criminal way, through the power and prevalence of sin, or against his will, through the force of persecution.
o So Aristotle observes, Hist. Animal. l. 9. c. 3. the same word that is used for feeding sheep is also translated "wander", Num. xiv. 33. so "errant" is used by Virgil for feeding with security, Bucolic. Eclog. 2, Vid. Servium in ib.
Barnes' Notes on the Bible
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. I have lost the path to true happiness. I have strayed away from my God. I see this; I confess it; I desire to return. It is remarkable that this is almost the only confession of sin in the psalm. This psalm, more than any other, abounds in confident statements respecting the life of the author, his attachment to the law of God, the obedience which he rendered to that law, and his love for it - as well as with appeals to God, founded on the fact that he did love that law, and that his life was one of obedience. This is not, indeed, spoken in a spirit of self-righteousness, or as constituting a claim on the ground of merit; but it is remarkable that there is so frequent reference to it, and so little intermingling of a confession of sin, of error, of imperfection. The psalm would not have been complete as a record of religious experience, or as illustrating the real state of the human heart, without a distinct acknowledgment of sin, and hence, in its close, and in view of his whole life, upright as in the main it had been, the psalmist confesses that he had wandered; that he was a sinner; that his life had been far from perfection, and that he needed the gracious interposition of God to seek him out, and to bring him back.
Seek thy servant - As the shepherd does the sheep that is lost, Luke 15:4-6. So the Saviour came to seek and to save that which was lost, Luke 19:10. So God seeks the wanderer by his word, by his providence, by his Spirit, to induce him to return and be saved.
For I do not forget thy commandments - In all my wandering; with my consciousness of error; with my sense of guilt, I still do feel that I love thy law - thy service - thy commandments. They are the joy of my heart, and I desire to be recalled from all my wanderings, that I may find perfect happiness in thee and in thy service evermore. Such is the earnest wish of every regenerated heart. Far as such an one may have wandered from God, yet he is conscious of true attachment to him and his service; he desires and earnestly prays that he may be “sought out,” brought back, and kept from wandering anymore.
Clarke's Notes on the Bible
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, Luke 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. To no Psalm can its own words be better applied, Psalms 119:18: "Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law."
ANALYSIS OF LETTER TAU. - Twenty-Second Division
In this last section the psalmist seems to sum up all his preceding exercises.
I. He prays.
II. Gives thanks.
III. Confesses his errors.
IV. Craves mercy; and,
V. Promises obedience.
I. In the first two verses he prays for his prayers, begging God to accept them.
1. "Let my cry come near before thee!"
2. "Let my supplication come before thee!" This repetition shows his earnestness, fervency, importunity, and perseverance. See Luke 11:1, c.
That for which he prays is, 1. Understanding 2. Deliverance.
1. "Give me understanding." I want more light.
2. Give me this "according to thy word." In the measure which thou hast promised.
3. And give it to me for this end, that I may know thy law, be obedient to its precepts, and finally, by thy mercy, obtain everlasting life.
4. "Deliver me according to thy word." I want salvation, and that measure of it which thy word promises.
II. He gives thanks.
1. "My lips shall utter praise." I will celebrate thy praises with songs.
2. "My tongue shall speak." I shall set forth thy wondrous deeds.
3. Shall show that all thy commandments are righteousness; just, holy, impartial.
4. But these things I cannot do till "thou hast taught me thy statutes."
III. He proceeds to other parts of prayer: -
1. "Let thy hand help me." My own strength will avail little.
2. "I have chosen thy statutes:" and without thy help I cannot obey them.
3. "I have longed for thy salvation." Thou knowest my heart is right with thee.
4. "And thy law is my delight." A man naturally longs for that which he delights to possess.
Here he notes three things: -
1. I have "chosen thy precepts."
2. I have "longed for thy salvation."
3. "Delighted in thy law;" therefore "let thy hand be with me."
He prays for, -
1. Life: "Let my soul live."
2. "And it shall praise thee." When the soul is dead to God, there is neither gratitude nor obedience.
3. "Let thy judgments help me." Cause the merciful dispensations of thy providence ever to work in my behalf. In this sense the word judgments is frequently taken in this Psalm.
IV. He confesses his errors.
1. "I have gone astray," departed from thee, my Shepherd.
2. "And like a lost sheep too." See the note.
3. My errors, however, have not been wilful and obstinate. I did not sufficiently watch and pray, and my sheep - like simplicity was practised upon by my arch enemy.
4. The consequence, however, has been, I am lost - far from thy fold. But thou didst come to seek and save that which was lost.
5. Therefore, O Lord, seek me. I am in the wilderness; leave the ninety and nine that do not need thee as I do, and seek me; for, by thy grace, I seek thee.
V. I look for thee in the spirit of obedience.
1. Seek thy servant. I am ready to do thy will, though I erred from thy ways.
2. "I do not forget thy commandments," though I have often come short of my duty.
These words may be very suitable to a person who has backslidden, and who is returning to God with a penitent and believing heart.
1. Though he had fallen, the light of God continued to shine into his conscience.
2. He had not forgotten God's way, nor lost sight of his own state. The word of the Lord, applied by his Spirit, 1. When he was slumbering, awakened him. 2. When he was dead, quickened him. 3. When he was in danger, preserved him. 4. When he was wounded, cured him. 5. When he was assailed by his foes, armed and defended him. 6. And by this word he was nourished and supported. It was ever well with the psalmist, and it is ever well with all the followers of God, when they do not forget God's word.
It may be just necessary to note here, that if this Psalm be considered as belonging to the times of the Babylonish captivity, which it most probably does, the psalmist, though speaking in his own person, is ever to be considered as speaking in the persons of all the captives in Babylon.
