Readers find faith and fortitude in Dovid Hamelech’s timeless words
My favorite pasuk within this perek is actually the last one. No, not because it means I’ve accomplished saying it — I practically have the whole thing memorized by now. It’s that after reading through this entire odyssey of Dovid Hamelech’s life, framed by his love for Torah, we read, “Ta’isi k’seh oveid, bakeish avdecha — I have strayed like a lost sheep, seek out Your servant.” After all this, after 175 pesukim, is it still possible to stray and beg Hashem to seek us out? Yes. But: “Ki mitzvosecha lo shachachti — For I have not forgotten Your mitzvos.”
It’s not an ending of despair. It’s an ending of hope. We must keep trying. We must keep doing mitzvos. We must keep Torah at the forefront. And Hashem will seek us out. Just like that lost sheep, He’ll find us and bring us in wherever we are.
L’zecher nishmas Sara Miriam bas Reuvain Leibel, for whom I first started saying 119
There’s an empty place where my heart should be — it must have fallen into my stomach. Something keeps fluttering around down there.
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