HEBREW WORD STUDY – THE LOST SHEEP – KESH  ‘OVED  – כשׁה אבד   

Psalms 119:176: “I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek thy servant for I do not forget thy commandments.”

David had been a shepherd, he knew all about sheep and their tendency to get lost. There are a number of different words in the Hebrew for sheep. Whatever is important in a culture will be reflected in the language. For instance, snow is important to an Eskimo, they observe many different types of snow, one type, powder-like snow is good for tracking another, damp snow is used for building igloos, and hence the Eskimos have something like twenty-five words for snow.  So too, in Hebrew where sheep are very important in their culture, you find many different words for sheep to express the different types of sheep.  In Psalm 119:176 David uses a rather unusual word for sheep. Here he uses the word kesh for the lost sheep. It is interesting that he should use the word kesh in relationship to lost sheep.  

There is an innocence about wandering sheep. Aristotle, writing in Greek, pointed out the similarity of the word for feeding and wandering in the Greek in order to show this innocence. It seems appropriate that God would use the illustration of a wandering sheep to show His loving care. He is not angry with us when we wander, He understands that our wandering is not intentional or rebellious, but just the result of being too focused on our physical needs such as eating. 

We focus on our jobs, our finances, and our health so much that we never stop to look up at our Shepherd and before long he is gone. Not that he has left us but we have left him and lost our way. Once a sheep has gone astray, he will not find his way back to the flock, unless the shepherd comes looking for him, he will remain lost. That is why David says in this verse “seek they servant.” All that little lamb can do is stand in his lost condition and baa, hoping his shepherd will find him. 

This is just how David saw his own wanderings and going astray. He had some lost years but to him, it was a sacrifice that God could use to show many generations the lovingkindness of the Good Shepherd.  Oh, by the way, I never told you the type of sheep a kesh was. The word that David uses for the lost sheep is keseh in the Hebrew. A keseh is really a lamb, but a very special lamb, it is the sacrificial lamb. David didn’t see himself as any old lamb going astray, he was the sacrificial lamb that went astray. If you are one who has lived a life of hardship, pain, heartbreak and misery perhaps you are like David, a kesh, prone to wander, prone to leave the God you love. Perhaps you too are a lost kesh and cannot find your way back to God.  All you can do is baa, but the Good Shepherd is searching for you and when He finds you He will pick you up and carry you back to His flock.  Those lost years will be a sacrifice to be used to help other lost sheep find the way back to the Shepherd.