Bible Strands
Psalms 119:176
I have strayed like a lost sheep; seek Your servant, for I have not forgotten Your commandments.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The psalmist addresses YHWH directly, in the final line of Psalm 119, claiming both failure and continued allegiance.
The words — תָּעִ֗יתִי (ta'īṯî, "I have gone astray") carries the same root as Isaiah 53:6's "we all like sheep have gone astray," making the speaker's self-description a deliberate echo of the nation's collective waywardness.
The thread — The lost-sheep image recurs in Luke 15:4 (the shepherd who leaves the ninety-nine) and Luke 19:10 ("seek and save the lost"), while Isaiah 53:6 supplies the corporate "gone astray" the psalmist individualizes.
Why it lands — The verse holds two claims in tension: "I have strayed" and "I have not forgotten Your commandments," asking the reader to accept that failure does not sever the bond to God's law and that the plea to be sought is itself an act of faith.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek thy servant; for I do not forget thy commandments.
Cross-references
- Luke 19:10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”
- Isaiah 53:6 We all like sheep have gone astray, each one has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid upon Him the iniquity of us all.
- Luke 15:4 “What man among you, if he has a hundred sheep and loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the pasture and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it?
- John 10:16 I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them in as well, and they will listen to My voice. Then there will be one flock and one shepherd.
- Matthew 15:24 He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”
- 1 Peter 2:25 For “you were like sheep going astray,” but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.
- Psalms 119:93 I will never forget Your precepts, for by them You have revived me.
- Ezekiel 34:6 My flock went astray on all the mountains and every high hill. They were scattered over the face of all the earth, with no one to search for them or seek them out.’
- Matthew 18:12 What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them goes astray, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go out to search for the one that is lost?
- Psalms 119:61 Though the ropes of the wicked bind me, I do not forget Your law.