Charles Ellicott Commentary Psalms 119:176

"I have gone astray like a lost sheep; Seek thy servant; For I do not forget thy commandments." — Psalms 119:176 (ASV)

I have gone astray like a lost sheep. —It would be in accordance with a true religious character that even at the end of a long protestation of obedience to the Divine law, the psalmist should confess his weakness and sin.

But while this may be a legitimate application of the close of this remarkable composition, and while the Septuagint suggests a comparison with our Lord’s parable by their rendering (Luke 19:10), this could hardly have been the intention of the words of this verse.

More likely, there is a reference to the condition of the community, for the word rendered “lost” (literally, perishing) is used in Isaiah 27:13 of the exiled Hebrews and is rendered “outcasts”; the emphatic I do not forget Thy commandments, which is the real close of the psalm, seems to make this view imperative.