Psalms 119:8 I will keep thy statutes: O forsake me not utterly.
Zero in on those first two words: “I will.” In order to truly keep God’s statutes, you must exercise your will. If obedience to God is something you do on a wave of emotion, you will not stick with it. As soon as the emotion dies down, and it will, you will be on to something else. Rather, obedience to God must arise from an act of will, a determination to do it, a determination that will transcend all the ups and downs of your emotions through all the changing circumstances of life. It behooves each of us to adopt this resolve as the driving impulse of our life, the single most important goal we seek to attain. Whatever else we may do or not do, whatever of life we may experience or not experience, this one thing we will do, we will keep God’s statutes. And firmly resolving to do this will provide a grid for sorting out everything that comes into our lives demanding our time and attention.
But having made this firm resolution, the psalmist immediately follows up with the request that God not forsake him utterly. Commenting on this prayer, Charles Bridges wrote: “Firm in his purpose, but distrustful of his strength, instantly upon forming his resolution, he recollects that the performance is beyond his power.” How true! We cannot keep God’s statutes without Him. Hence, we beg God to not forsake us utterly. Now guess what comes next. You got it! To fully grasp what the psalmist is requesting, we must define our terms.
Forsake – To abandon, leave entirely, withdraw from; esp. to withdraw one’s presence and help or companionship from; to desert.
Utterly – In a complete or utter manner; to an absolute or extreme degree; altogether, entirely, absolutely; fully, thoroughly, out and out.
The psalmist is asking God not to withdraw His presence and help, at least not completely and entirely. That the prayer begins with the interjection O indicates that the psalmist was in earnest in his request. He realized how desperately he needed God’s presence and help.
Now God does indeed forsake His people at times for various reasons. The Lord may forsake us because we have forsaken Him.
2 Chronicles 15:1 And the Spirit of God came upon Azariah the son of Oded:
2 And he went out to meet Asa, and said unto him, Hear ye me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin; The LORD is with you, while ye be with him; and if ye seek him, he will be found of you; but if ye forsake him, he will forsake you.
God might forsake us if we become overconfident in our prosperity. David experienced this.
Psalms 30:6 And in my prosperity I said, I shall never be moved.
7 LORD, by thy favour thou hast made my mountain to stand strong: thou didst hide thy face, and I was troubled.
Or the Lord might forsake us to try us, to bring to light some corruption lurking in our hearts. This happened to Hezekiah after God healed him of a life-threatening sickness.
2 Chronicles 32:24 In those days Hezekiah was sick to the death, and prayed unto the LORD: and he spake unto him, and he gave him a sign.
25 But Hezekiah rendered not again according to the benefit done unto him; for his heart was lifted up: therefore there was wrath upon him, and upon Judah and Jerusalem.
Hezekiah’s heart was lifted up and he behaved unwisely in showing off the riches of his kingdom to the ambassadors of Babylon. Babylon later proved to be a formidable enemy. The Lord forsook Hezekiah for a time; He left him so as to expose this pride in his heart.
2 Chronicles 32:31 Howbeit in the business of the ambassadors of the princes of Babylon, who sent unto him to enquire of the wonder that was done in the land, God left him, to try him, that he might know all that was in his heart.
In such cases God forsakes us to correct us, to get us back on the track of keeping His statutes. But if God should forsake us utterly, we would fail utterly. We would never be able to find our way back. Hence we pray: “O forsake me not utterly.” In dealing with my own personal weaknesses I have sometimes said to the Lord in my prayer: “Keep working with me, Lord. Do what You need to, but don’t give up on me.” In essence I was saying to the Lord, “O forsake me not utterly.”
Now the wonderful thing about it is that we have a promise from God that He will not forsake His children utterly even though they disobey Him.
Psalms 89:30 If his children forsake my law, and walk not in my judgments;
31 If they break my statutes, and keep not my commandments;
32 Then will I visit their transgression with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes.
33 Nevertheless my lovingkindness will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail.
We are actually pleading this promise when we pray to God to not forsake us utterly. Thanks be to God that though He may at times forsake His children, He only forsakes them for a little while rather than completely and forever.
Isaiah 54:7 For a small moment have I forsaken thee; but with great mercies will I gather thee.
8 In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment; but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the LORD thy Redeemer.
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