Psalm 119:110 | “The wicked have laid a snare for me, but I do not stray from your precepts.”

The psalmist now speaks with greater clarity about the danger he faces. Wicked people have deliberately set a trap for him. The Hebrew word translated “snare” refers to a bird trap, one designed to spring suddenly and capture its prey. Their aim is not just opposition, but ruin, or at least the erosion of his integrity. Faithful obedience has made him a target, but the trap does not succeed. Though the wicked scheme and carefully set their devices, they are unable to make the psalmist wander from God’s precepts. The danger is real, but so is the sustaining grace of God. Matthew Henry offers encouragement here: “He has not yet erred from God’s precepts, and therefore it is to be hoped he will not. He had stood many a shock and kept his ground, and surely that grace which had helped him hitherto would not fail him, but would still prevent his wanderings.” The psalmist’s confidence is not in his own resolve, but in the grace that has preserved him thus far. That same grace meets us today, holding us steady when obedience is costly and keeping our feet on the path when temptation urges us to step aside.