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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Psalms 119:169 - 119:169
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The eightfold Tav. May God answer this his supplication as He has heard his praise, and interest Himself on behalf of His servant, the sheep that is exposed to great danger. The petitions “give me understanding” and “deliver me” go hand-in-hand, because the poet is one who is persecuted for the sake of his faith, and is just as much in need of the fortifying of his faith as of deliverance from the outward restraint that is put upon him. רִנָּה is a shrill audible prayer; תְּחִנָּה, a fervent and urgent prayer. עָנָה, prop. to answer, signifies in Psa 119:172 to begin, strike up, attune (as does ἀποκρίνεσθαι also sometimes). According to the rule in Psa 50:23 the poet bases his petition for help upon the purpose of thankful praise of God and of His word. Knowing how to value rightly what he possesses, he is warranted in further supplicating and hoping for the good that he does not as yet possess. The “salvation” for which he longs (תָּאַב as in Psa 119:40, Psa 119:20) is redemption from the evil world, in which the life of his own soul is imperilled. May then God's judgments (defective plural, as in Psa 119:43, Psa 119:149, which the Syriac only takes a singular) succour him (יַעְזְּרֻנִי, not יַֽעַזְרֻנִי). God's hand, Psa 119:173, and God's word afford him succour; the two are involved in one another, the word is the medium of His hand. After this relationship of the poet to God's word, which is attested a hundredfold in the Psalm, it may seem strange that he can say of himself תָּעִיתִי כְּשֶׂה אֹבֵד; and perhaps the accentuation is correct when it does not allow itself to be determined by Isa 53:6, but interprets: If I have gone astray - seek Thou like a lost sheep Thy servant. שֶׂה אֹבֵד is a sheep that is lost (cf. אֹבְדִים as an appellation of the dispersion, Isa 27:13) and in imminent danger of total destruction (cf. Psa 31:13 with Lev 26:38). In connection with that interpretation which is followed by the interpunction, Psa 119:176 is also more easily connected with what precedes: his going astray is no apostasy; his home, to which he longs to return when he has been betrayed into by-ways, is beside the Lord.