Discovery BoxPsalms 119:116-117 
Context119:116 Sustain me as you promised, 1 so that I will live. 2
Do not disappoint me! 3
119:117 Support me, so that I will be delivered.
Then I will focus 4 on your statutes continually.
Psalms 119:176
Context119:176 I have wandered off like a lost sheep. 5
Come looking for your servant,
for I do not forget your commands.
1 tn Heb “according to your word.”
2 tn The prefixed verbal form with vav (ו) conjunctive indicates purpose/result after the preceding imperative.
3 tn Heb “do not make me ashamed of my hope.” After the Hebrew verb בּוֹשׁ (bosh, “to be ashamed”) the preposition מִן (min, “from”) often introduces the reason for shame.
4 tn Or “and that I might focus.” The two cohortatives with vav (ו) conjunctive indicate purpose/result after the imperative at the beginning of the verse.
5 tn Heb “I stray like a lost sheep.” It is possible that the point of the metaphor is vulnerability: The psalmist, who is threatened by his enemies, feels as vulnerable as a straying, lost sheep. This would not suggest, however, that he has wandered from God’s path (see the second half of the verse, as well as v. 110).
