I will keep your statutes: O forsake me not utterly.
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Augustine of Hippo
AD 430
8. Next he addeth: "I will keep Thy ordinances" (ver. 8). ...But what is it that followeth? "O forsake me not even exceedingly!" or, as some copies have it, "even too much," instead of, "even exceedingly." But since God had left the world to the desert of sins, He would have forsaken it "even exceedingly," if so powerful a cure had not supported it, that is, the grace of God through our Lord Jesus Christ; but now, according to this prayer of the body of Christ, He forsook it not "even exceedingly;" for, "God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself." ...
Beth.
Utterly. Hebrew nimis, as ver. 4. (Haydock)
It may be advantageous to us to be left awhile, that we may know our own weakness. (St. Gregory, Mor. xx. 21.) (Worthington)
He does not beg never to be tempted, or in tribulation; (Haydock) but only that he may not yield to sin. (St. Hilary)
He may always at least have recourse to prayer, 1 Thessalonians v. 17.
The neglect of this duty occasions so many falls. (Berthier)
