“do not let me wander”
Are you prone to wander?
“Prone to wander” reminds me of the lyrics in an old hymn I sang growing up, Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing. “Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love.” The song captures our heart’s condition as well as summarizes the desires of David’s heart in Psalm 119.
Our hearts are disposed to meander off the best paths for our lives, and like the song, David’s request is for God to bring these wandering tendencies back into alignment with His Word.
“With my whole heart I seek you; let me not wander from your commandments!” (Psalm 119:10, ESV)
The Hebrew word for wander is “saga,” pronounced “shaw-gaw.” The definition is to stray or wander, but it is a causative, misleading kind of stray. The word is not an “oops, I wasn’t paying attention and meandered off the path.” Instead, the Hebrew word is a type of wandering that happens when we glance from the direction we are headed and become distracted by what we see.[i]
Drawn like a magnet, we are dazzled by the lesser god we now behold.
“I seek you with all my heart; do not let me stray from your commands.” (Psalm 119:10, NIV)
David believed himself to be seeking God with all his heart. The NLT says, “I have tried hard to find you.” David intended to pursue the God he loves, and his prayer request, “Do not let me stray from your commands,” reveals his understanding of he had a propensity to drift.
How can one avoid straying from the best path and fight these tendencies to convince ourselves another direction is better?
Within the eight verses categorized under the second letter of the Hebrew alphabet, Beit, David provides a few approaches to staying on the best path.
Psalm 119: 9-16
Staying on the Path of God
- Singularity. Seek God with ALL your heart. Verse 10
- Request. Ask God to keep you aligned with His Word and teach you to walk in His Word. Verses 10 & 12
- Memorize. Hide God’s Word in your heart. Verse 11, 16
- Aloud. Recount God’s Word out loud to yourself. Verse 13
- Meditate. Think about God’s Word. Verse 15
- Rejoice. Find delight in God’s Word. Verses 14 &16
All the above will set us up for success. Out of these ways to stay on God’s path, though, rejoicing or delighting in God’s Word are signs that our knowledge gained from the Bible has made the long trek from our heads to our hearts. When we can rejoice because we perceive and recognize the value of God’s Word in our lives, we can maximize the power God’s truths can have on us.
David calls us to ask for God’s help in our fight against these wandering tendencies. The hymn writer calls us to remember how grace covers our drifting dispositions.
Come, thou Fount of every blessing;
tune my heart to sing thy grace;
streams of mercy, never ceasing,
call for songs of loudest praise.
O to grace how great a debtor
daily I’m constrained to be!
Let that grace now, like a fetter,
bind my wandering heart to thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
prone to leave the God I love;
here’s my heart; O take and seal it;
seal it for thy courts above.
I pray your heart grows more and more drawn to God’s Word. May the Spirit refresh your desire for His Word and give you understanding as you make it a part of your life. May you never veer far from God’s path for you, and may you learn to live in grace when you do. So be it, in Jesus’ name.
Meditate: Do not let me wander from Your Word
Reflect: Where are you prone to wander/What captures your attention and pulls you away from God? Out of the six ways to “Stay on God’s Path” listed above, which one or two do you need to ask God to help you? What is one thing this week you can do to be more in God’s Word? Do you need to rest in God’s grace more? If yes, what would that look like?
Deeper: Psalm 119: 9-16; Psalm 139: 1-10; Psalm 147:11-19,
Summers in Psalm 119 Series will take the eight verse groupings divided by the 22 letters in the Hebrew alphabet, and over the months of June each summer, we will work through the entire 176 verses of Psalm 119. The BLOG will focus on one specific verse in a group, and the PODCAST will discuss the group as a whole, including additional Psalm trivia, and a deeper look at the symbolism in the Hebrew alphabet.
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(Bible References: NLT – New Living Translation, ESV – English Standard Version, NIV – New International Version)
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[i] “H7686 – šāḡâ – Strong’s Hebrew Lexicon (kjv).” Blue Letter Bible. Web. 31 May, 2023. <https://www.blueletterbible.org/lexicon/h7686/kjv/wlc/0-1/>.
