Psalm 119:8

"I shall keep Your statutes;

Do not forsake me utterly!"

 

Why would the Psalmist cry not to be forsaken?  I can think of 3 reasons.  First, a sense of our sinfulness leads to a sense of unworthiness and Your just condemnation, Your abandonment of us for our unfaithfulness.  Second, and related, is our inability to keep Your law apart from You!  Thirdly, faithfulness is a lonely road with few companions, often with only You.  You draw near to us in Your word (Psalm 119:151).  The fear of abandonment is real.  First from You, then from others.  See Psalm 27:9-10, Isaiah 41:10, Hebrews 13:5.  Even Jesus was abandoned by all but a few earthly companions (John 6:67-69) who then abandoned Him when He needed them the most (Luke 22:1-62), and finally He was abandoned by You so we wouldn’t have to be to accomplish our salvation (Matthew 27:46).  Paul’s life would also reflect this abandonment and salvation, see 2 Timothy 4:16-18.  How precious then it is to have but a few companions in Your word (Psalm 119:74, Psalm 119:79, Philippians 2:1-4), but ultimately and utterly You Who will not utterly forsake me (Psalm 73:25-26).

 

‘We cannot keep them unless we learn them; but we learn them in vain if we do not keep them. Those have well learned God's statutes who have come up to a full resolution, in the strength of his grace, to keep them… Good men see themselves undone if God forsakes them; for then the tempter will be too hard for them. “Though thou seem to forsake me, and threaten to forsake me, and dost, for a time, withdraw from me, yet let not the desertion be total and final; for that is hell.’[1]

 

‘A calm resolve… Feeling his own incapacity he trembles lest he should be left to himself, and this fear is increased by the horror which he has of falling into sin. The “I will keep” sounds rightly enough now that the humble cry is heard with it. This is a happy amalgam: resolution and dependence… To be left, that we may discover our weakness, is a sufficient trial: to be altogether forsaken would be ruin and death… his grace will keep us keeping his law… The two “I wills” needed to be seasoned with some such lowly petition, or it might have been thought that the good man's dependence was in some degree fixed upon his own determination. He presents his resolutions like a sacrifice, but he cries to heaven for the fire. [See 1 Kings 18:30-39]’[2]


[1] Henry, Matthew, Commentary on the Whole Bible, on Psalm 119:8, e-Sword edition

[2] Spurgeon, Charles Haddon, Treasury of David, Psalm 119:8, e-Sword edition

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