Several familiar themes pervade the final section of the poet’s extended prayer song. (I’m reminded that Psalm 119 is one long prayer.) In verses 169-170, it’s as if the man is seeking permission to be heard (much like Queen Esther, who wondered if she could go before the king with her request). This man is on a continual quest for understanding (169b), deliverance (170b), help (173a, 175b), salvation (174a), soul vitality (175a), and God’s redirection (176a). I’m impressed with the man’s humility, as seen in his request (rather than demand) to be heard (169-170), his constant teachable attitude (171b), his longing for deliverance & salvation (knowing he cannot save himself from his circumstances or his sin), the praise he wants to give God and not get for himself (171, 175), his designation as Yahweh’s “servant,” and his admission to going “astray like a lost sheep” (176).
I suspect that Yahweh’s law, in which this man delighted (174b), had done its intended work – to get him and all people to recognize that everyone has gone astray like sheep (Isaiah 53:6), that God’s commandments are “right” (172b) and we certainly are all wrong – every part of us (as Romans 3:9-20 teaches). This man is more like the tax collector in Luke 18, who could only cry out to God for mercy, than he is the self-righteous Pharisee. But what about me? Am I as humble? Or teachable? Or dependent upon God’s help daily? Or am I a self-righteous know-it-all? I readily admit that I cannot live the Christian life without God’s help, and that help comes from his word, which I must intentionally choose to follow very day (173b). Like the psalmist, I praise God that, though I, too, have gone astray like a foolish sheep and turned to my own way, Yahweh has laid on his Servant, Jesus Christ all my iniquity & the sins of everyone who believe in him (Isaiah 53:6). Now THAT’S a message to delight in and a song to sing!
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