Daily Devotions

Psalm 119: 176
I have strayed like a lost sheep. Seek your servant.

Here is the longest psalm in the bible written by king David and after he has praised God for practically delivering him from every evil and danger in his life and in this last verse David confessed that ‘I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek thy servant; for I do not forget they commandments.

David was once a shepherd boy who looked after his father’s flock and he had on many occasions to look out and search for a lost sheep which would have become prey to the predators which would catch and destroy it. A lost sheep is helpless without the shepherd’s protection. It may also never find its way home.

David was using this as a metaphor to describe his own lostness without God. He could remember how he had fallen into sin and could have been lost in sin had it not been for God who had rescued him through the prophets who gave him warning and restoration.

David remembered the many occasions that he could have lost his salvation and severed from God if not for God’s grace and mercy. Now he wrote and humbles himself before God asking that God would continue to give him the grace and mercy so that he would not be lost.

This is something that we can learn from David who God describes as a man who is after His heart. David would spend the better part of the day and night in worshiping God. We know that as a psalmist, David would be singing psalms and praises to God with his harp. We see the many pictures of David always with his harp and is continually in praise and worship of God. Can we imagine that such a devoted person to God could confess that he had strayed away from God, then how much more for ordinary men like us?

It is an easy thing for us to forget our prayers and devotions once in a while and when we missed that, soon we will form a habit of forgetting to praise and worship God, and before we know it we stop completely from worshiping God and would have gone astray from Him.

This is exactly how David realised it and he humbled himself before God and asked for god’s grace and mercy. Therefore we too must learn from David that we must also humble our hearts and reflect on our position with God, are we walking close with Him or are we walking further and further away from Him.