Throughout he utters how he keeps God's law and loves God's law and does not depart from it. Is he here speaking in an eschatological sense (i.e. ultimately will be made perfect)? Because, after saying all that, it's only in the last verse that he seems to confess his straying from God. Just curious.

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It is God that multiplies our sorrows.... God, as a righteous Judge, does it, which ought to silence us under all our sorrows; as many as they are, we have deserved them all, and more: nay, God, as a tender Father, does it for our necessary correction, that we may be humbled for sin, and weaned from the world by all our sorrows; and the good we get by them, with the comfort we have under them, will abundantly balance our sorrows, how greatly soever they are multiplied. - Matthew Henry

Anyone of you fine theologians care to pontificate?

He has not departed from God's judgements so that he has not chosen another rule of life. He accepts God's judgements as they ought to be accepted, as coming from God Himself and our only rule of faith.

If that's not what you were talking about, maybe you could quote some of the particular verses, but that's my general take on it.

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Actually, verse 176 is not the only place in Psalm 119 where the psalmist confesses his weakness and sin. A careful reading of the psalm will reveal two or three other places where he reveals this.

Which shouldn't be surprising. He is, after all, a sinner (just like the rest of us), so we know up front that he does not keep God's Word perfectly. None of us does that - not in this life. What he is stressing is his devotion to, and his commitment to, keeping His Word, to obey it to the best of his ability.

Psalm 119 has always struck me as a wonderful psalm in which the writer shows his utter, though imperfect (again, in this life) devotion to God and His Word. And that's just at the personal level, as regards the writer. Even more fascinating is the way the psalm is structured, not only using the letters of the Hebrew alphabet, but also in the seemingly repetitious, non-linear (the psalm doesn't "go anywhere") style he uses.

But, that's a conversation for another day.

Hope this helps.

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Richard T. Zuelch, M.Div
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Westminster Presbyterian Church, CA (OPC)
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Devout souls do not take offence at the depths and difficulties of God's Word, but are, thereby, drawn to intenser contemplation of them. - Alexander Maclaren (1826-1910)