Discovery BoxPsalms 119:5 
Context119:5 If only I were predisposed 1
to keep your statutes!
Psalms 119:173-176
Context119:173 May your hand help me,
for I choose to obey 2 your precepts.
119:174 I long for your deliverance, O Lord;
I find delight in your law.
119:175 May I 3 live and praise you!
May your regulations help me! 4
119:176 I have wandered off like a lost sheep. 5
Come looking for your servant,
for I do not forget your commands.
1 tn Heb “if only my ways were established.”
2 tn The words “to obey” are not in the Hebrew text, but have been supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons and for clarity.
3 tn Heb “my life.”
4 tn God’s regulations will “help” the psalmist by giving him moral and ethical guidance.
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).
