Psalm 119:169-176

¹⁶⁹ Let my cry come before You, O Lord;
Give me understanding according to Your word.

¹⁷⁰ Let my supplication come before You;
Deliver me according to Your word.

¹⁷¹ My lips shall utter praise,
For You teach me Your statutes.

¹⁷² My tongue shall speak of Your word,
For all Your commandments are righteousness.

¹⁷³ Let Your hand become my help,
For I have chosen Your precepts.

¹⁷⁴ I long for Your salvation, O Lord,
And Your law is my delight.

¹⁷⁵ Let my soul live, and it shall praise You;
And let Your judgments help me.

¹⁷⁶ I have gone astray like a lost sheep;
Seek Your servant,
For I do not forget Your commandments.

This stanza contains a lot about the psalmist’s prayer life.

Unlike the last division this one is a series of petitions. They all breathe the same spirit of earnest desire to know and do the will of God. … Side by side with the sense of need, there is evident throughout a profound conviction of the sufficiency of the will of God. — Morgan, page 248.

__________

“I have wandered about as a lost sheep” … “but I have not forgotten They commandments” [v.176]. These statements are not contradictory but complementary. To wander as a lost sheep here expresses defenselessness and loneliness, not moral defection. This is plain from Messiah’s declaration that even under such circumstances He had not, and did not, forget God’s commandments. — Williams, page 398.