Psalm 119:176 I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek your servant; for I do not forget your commandments. Though in the foregoing homily we have spoken of this verse as a confession of sin, yet it is to be much questioned if the meaning of the metaphor in this verse, as in well-nigh all other places where it is found, be not that of helplessness rather than of sin. For in this entire psalm we have no confession of sin, no prayer for its forgiveness, though there be not a few for more of purity and knowledge of God. The prayer of the whole psalm is not that of a penitent returning to God from the paths of sin, but of one who has long known God, but yearns for yet deeper knowledge. We have many declarations of the psalmist's distress, and of the persecution under which he suffers, and of the extremities to which he has been reduced; and we have protestations many of desire after God, of cleaving to God, of delight in God; but have no confession of sin. This is very noteworthy. Not a few godly men deem it right, whenever they approach God, to make confession of sin and to bewail their wickedness. But there is none of this here in this protracted outpouring of the thoughts and desires of the great saint who wrote this psalm. Before he was afflicted he tells us that he had gone astray (ver. 67); "but now," etc. And the whole tone of the psalm is of one who had done with going astray, and was now faithfully walking in the ways of God. In this very verse he declares, "I do net forget thy commandments." If he had been conscious of sin, he would surely have confessed it ere he came to this last stanza of the psalm. It seems, therefore, impossible to put upon the expression here the meaning of ver. 67, or that of the Lord's parable of the lost sheep in Luke 15. But the idea of weakness, defenselessness, helplessness, is meant (cf. Jeremiah 1:6; Matthew 9:36; Matthew 10:16). And so the psalmist protests that he is lost, as a stray sheep would be, unless the shepherd goes and seeks for him. There is no Pharisaism in all this, no coming under the condemnation of 1 John 1:8, 10; but there is, what there ought to be far more of, a simple taking the Lord at his word. He had been sinful (ver. 67), but he had been led to repentance and faith; and now he believed that, according to God's Word, he was forgiven, even as he knew he was an altered man. God had pardoned him and renewed him. Why, then, should he think or speak of himself as if neither of these blessed facts was true? And for ourselves, if the blood of Jesus Christ is keeping me cleansed from all sin - and if I am sincere and walking in the light, I am so cleansed, not once for all, but hour by hour. Then, if I assert this, and confess it, I am not, any more than the psalmist, condemned as a serf-deceiver, and without the truth, because of such confession. And this psalm is a perpetual and precious protestation and assertion of deliverance from sin. This last verse, then, tells of his sad circumstances, and not of sinful character. But it implies these three facts - I. MAN'S HELPLESSNESS. We cannot make one hair white or Mack (Matthew 5:36). "We are crushed before the moth." II. GOD'S LOVING, SHEPHERD-LIKE CARE OF US. He will be sure to come after us when in peril, and see that we come to no real harm. "I am the good Shepherd." III. THE INWARD GUARANTEE AND PLEDGE THAT GOD WILL DO THIS FOR US. I do not forget thy commandments. God has begun a good work in us, or this would not be true. Therefore, etc. (Philippians 1:6) - "His honor is engaged to save The meanest of his sheep." S.C. Parallel Verses KJV: I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek thy servant; for I do not forget thy commandments. |
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