Translations
Psalm 119:8 (ESV) – I will keep your statutes; do not utterly forsake me!
Psalm 119 LXX
τα δικαιώματά σου φυλάξω μη με εγκαταλίπης έως σφόδρα
Your ordinances. I will keep you should not. abandon me. unto an exceeding (amount).
Psalm 119:8 Interlinear from the Hebrew – Your statutes I will keep not Oh do forsake me utterly utterly.
Connections
Psalm 38:21 [ESV] Do not forsake me, Oh Lord! O my God, be not far from me.
Psalm 71:9 [ESV] Do not cast me off in the time of old age; forsake me not when my strength is spent.
Psalm 71:18 [ESV] So even to old age and grey hairs, O God, do not forsake me, until I proclaim your might to another generation, your power to all those to come.
εγκαταλίπης [egkatalipes] – abandon
ἐγκαταλείπω [egkataleipo] to forsake, abandon, leave behind, desert.
Matthew 27:46 [ESV] And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is “My God, My God, why have you forsaken (ἐγκατέλιπες) me?
To be forsaken by God is the worst possible thing that can happen to anyone, at any age, and in any situation. I can think of no worse situation, no illness, no poverty, no harm, that could come close to the concept of being forsaken by God. There is a prophetic edge to Psalm 119:8 as we think of Jesus who is the only person to have truly kept all of God’s statutes, and yet who was the only person on record that we know was truly forsaken by God.
Reflections
Jesus was forsaken by his. Father, so that I would not be. For so many people alive today, the sense of being abandoned by their father is a real concept. They have experienced the pain of their earthly father abandoning them completely. This was never God’s plan for anyone. We do live in a very broken world, where the one thing that God was dealing with on the cross, the connection between men and women and their heavenly father, is so brutally and constantly attacked in the natural world we live in.
But none of that dispels the truth. The truth is that God is my heavenly father, that He loves me, that He will never abandon me, and that, in fact, He has prepared a place in eternity where we can always be together. I will know firsthand his love and His acceptance. And, today, right now, in light of this eternal truth, I can and do know his love today – just as I am, a broken and sinful man, saved only by His great mercy and grace.
Strength Coaches comment – The talent of Connectedness understands that all things are linked and has faith that there is purpose. In this arrangement all events have meaning, and as a Christian therefore the Advent carries significant importance.
Blessings
Allan