I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek thy servant;
For I do not forget thy commandments.

Imagine a silly sheep that somehow has gotten separated from the flock and has even, for the moment, escaped the shepherd’s watchful eye. Now this one sheep is alone and vulnerable to predators. Suddenly he realizes that something is wrong and begins to bleat pitifully. He has turned aside but still has the nature of a sheep, uneasy in isolation. He has a weak memory and little sense of direction, so all he can do is cry out and wait for the shepherd. He has become familiar with that warm voice and will follow him when it is heard once again, but that will very probably not prevent similar distresses in the future.
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Let my cry come near before thee, O LORD:
Give me understanding according to thy word.
Let my supplication come before thee:
Deliver me according to thy word (Psa 119.169-170).

This verse begins the last of 22 eight-verse sections in Psalm 119’s 176 verses, with the verses of each section all beginning with the same letter, the next in the Hebrew alphabet, here, “tau” or “taw.” Besides being stylistically elegant, this arrangement facilitated memorization and meditation upon the text. While an English translation loses the alliteration advantage, one could choose to memorize a good rhyming version like the Scottish Metrical Psalter (1650) which is extremely accurate, or the Trinity Psalter (1994, Crown and Covenant Publications), modern and also very good. These have the advantage of being set to music, and singing can be a great help to memorization. I say to my middle-aged and older friends, isn’t it amazing how you can still remember the lyrics of songs you heard on the radio forty or more years ago?
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Hear my voice according unto thy lovingkindness:
O LORD, quicken me according to thy judgment (Psa 119.149).

It should sober us to realize that God rejects much of the so-called prayer going on in the world today. Jesus implied that by saying of the “vain repetitions” of the heathen, for example, “They think that they shall be heard for their much speaking,” clearly intimating that they shall not be heard by God, despite their expectation (Matt 6.7). Even religious people with a knowledge of Scripture sometimes pray in vain, as the Pharisee who “prayed thus with himself,” boasting of his supposed righteousness, and then went down to his house unjustified before God, without saving grace and forgiveness, though he knew it not (Luke 18.9-14).
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It is time for thee, LORD, to work:
For they have made void thy law (Psa 119.126).

The 176 verses of Psalm 119 weave together a beautiful tapestry of spiritual teaching and experience constantly referring to Holy Scripture. With a relatively limited list of words, the psalmist evokes many moods, concerns, hopes, and prayers, all without being repetitious.
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I intreated thy favour with my whole heart:
Be merciful unto me according to thy word (Psa 119.58).

We should not pray only for ourselves, but we must not neglect praying for ourselves, whether through some false view of piety, presumption on God’s grace, or any other spiritual pitfall. God has implanted in the soul of every man a legitimate self-interest. “For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church” (Eph 5.29). Otherwise the requirement to love your neighbor as yourself would be irrational. We need not worry about inadequate self-love, but inordinate self-love. I don’t know of any place where Scripture warns us of thinking too lowly of ourselves, but only too highly (Rom 12.3). Our problem is not that we lack self-esteem, but God-esteem and others-esteem.
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Remember the word unto thy servant,
Upon which thou hast caused me to hope (Psa 119.49).

Many people pray for many things without any rational justification for it. They seem to think that it is just God’s job to give them whatever they want, because that is just the way God is. To them He is their personal genie in the bottle, with the exception that they don’t have to stop with three wishes. If they think at all about why God should grant their requests, most likely they would insist that they have been pretty good—not perfect, mind you, but good enough that God owes it to them. We might call this “Santa Claus theology,” and it dishonors God and grossly flatters its adherents. God is not a genie or Santa Clause. He does not owe sinners anything except condemnation and punishment. If people who think otherwise ask God for things and then receive them, it is only to harden them in their sins if they are among the reprobate, or to lead them to repentance, if they are one of His elect.
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