Understanding for a Lost Sheep

Psalms 119:169-176

ת TAU

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.

Prayer cries out to God for understanding, and the answer echoes back mightily from the pages of His word to us.  The words were breathed through the hands of chosen men to be stored as treasure in the pages of scripture, and it is again by His breath (that is, the Holy Spirit of God) by which we gain understanding as the words come to life in our hearts and minds according to His working in us.  When the psalmist cries for understanding according to His word, this is how He answers lost sheep like us, and wandering sheep along life’s narrow way after having been found at last.  We then bring our supplications, our requests for grace which burden our hearts and minds, brought to Him to beg for deliverance from the adversity and circumstances of life.  We ask these things according to His word, however, and not contrary to all He says; not for personal misuse or demanded as if owed, but humbly as servants desiring relief or as children desiring the good already desired by their Father.  Then we find ourselves also uttering praises as He teaches us by His word of grace and mercy, wonderful things (Isaiah 25:1, Psalm 139:6) beyond ourselves and all our own reasoning.  Having been taught these things, the response is to tell others, since these are righteous words of grace which everyone needs for life and godliness.  We submit to God’s leading and instruction to help us as we choose to hear and follow what we learn from Him (John 6:45).  Apart from God’s word there is no help or hope.  This desire leads to our deliverance as we delight in His word.  We live to praise God because He has saved us with so great a salvation, and are helped then through life by that same word of the scriptures.  Though we stray like simple sheep, His love seeks us out to deliver, and therefore we do not forget or neglect His commandments of grace and saving mercy, not one day of our lives as we meditate on these things from His word.  This is great understanding for a lost or wandering sheep, knowing we have such a Shepherd!