God Seeks Us

169 O Lord, listen to my cry;
give me the discerning mind you promised.
170 Listen to my prayer;
rescue me as you promised.
171 Let praise flow from my lips,
for you have taught me your decrees.
172 Let my tongue sing about your word,
for all your commands are right.
173 Give me a helping hand,
for I have chosen to follow your commandments.
174 O Lord, I have longed for your rescue,
and your instructions are my delight.
175 Let me live so I can praise you,
and may your regulations help me.
176 I have wandered away like a lost sheep;
come and find me,
for I have not forgotten your commands.

It should come as no surprise that in this last section of Psalm 119—which starts with the last letter of the Hebrew alphabet—the psalmist offers up one last lament. What may surprise us, though, is the psalmist’s confession of his own guilt.

Although the writer has hinted about failing to keep God’s Word, he has not openly admitted it until now. What’s more, with his fiery condemnation of people who have violated God’s Word, it would be easy to dismiss the psalmist as self-righteous. But here, at the very end of his psalm, the author compares himself to a wandering sheep. By his own admission, he stands guilty of failing to keep God’s instructions. He needs help.

Throughout the psalm, we have seen the psalmist passionately crying out in desperate situations. Often he asks for God’s rescue, and repeatedly he finds peace and joy in meeting God in his Word, even when God may seem silent. The irony, of course, is that the psalmist hasn’t been searching for God so much as God has been seeking the psalmist all along—from the very start. By providing his precious Word, which we all desperately need, God has shown beyond the shadow of a doubt his mercy and his love. God seeks us first and continues to provide for us.

God has sought us. Are we seeking to please him through obeying his Word?

May our lips overflow with praise, Lord, for you teach us your Word. Amen.