I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek thy servant; for I do not forget thy commandments.
The verse is David's confession that he has wandered like a lost sheep and his plea for God to seek him as His servant. To have strayed in this way means to be like a lost sheep, helpless to find the way back to God by oneself. The plea for God to seek His servant shows that rescue must come when divine love comes to the sinner, since the sinner cannot return alone.
Though David had fallen into deadly sin, one who has wandered from God is not forgotten, for God longs with compassion to rescue the lost. Its appeal to not forgetting God's commandments belongs to a psalm that exalts God's law, teaching that God's Word guides life and defines righteousness. Set together with Psalms 126 and 127 before a large assembly, the verse testifies that the world's bold and defiant wickedness against God's holy law has reached the point where His great forbearance and long-suffering end and He will surely arise to interfere and punish.
The verse is David's confession that he has wandered like a lost sheep and his plea for God to seek him as His servant. To have strayed in this way means to be like a lost sheep, helpless to find the way back to God by oneself. The plea for God to seek His servant shows that rescue must come when divine love comes to the sinner, since the sinner cannot return alone.
Though David had fallen into deadly sin, one who has wandered from God is not forgotten, for God longs with compassion to rescue the lost. Its appeal to not forgetting God's commandments belongs to a psalm that exalts God's law, teaching that God's Word guides life and defines righteousness. Set together with Psalms 126 and 127 before a large assembly, the verse testifies that the world's bold and defiant wickedness against God's holy law has reached the point where His great forbearance and long-suffering end and He will surely arise to interfere and punish.