O that my ways were directed to keep thy statutes!
Parallel translations
- WEB Oh that my ways were steadfast to obey your statutes!
- BSB Oh, that my ways were committed to keeping Your statutes!
- NKJV Oh, that my ways were directed To keep Your statutes!
- NASB Oh that my ways may be established To keep Your statutes!
- NLT Oh, that my actions would consistently reflect your decrees!
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
The psalmist longs that his ways would be firmly directed to keep God's statutes. It matters because godly obedience is something we must earnestly desire and depend on God to produce.
Overview
This heartfelt cry reveals the gap between the psalmist's desire to obey and his actual steadfastness, prompting a prayer rather than a boast. He recognizes that consistency in keeping God's statutes is a gift to be sought from God. Such honest longing for holiness is answered in the new covenant, where God writes His law on the heart and steadies the believer's walk.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- Ps 51:10Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.
- 2 Th 3:5And the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God, and into the patient waiting for Christ.
- Heb 13:21Make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is wellpleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
- Jer 31:33But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.
- Ps 119:36Incline my heart unto thy testimonies, and not to covetousness.
- Rom 7:22–24For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:
- Ps 119:32I will run the way of thy commandments, when thou shalt enlarge my heart.
- Ps 119:173Let thine hand help me; for I have chosen thy precepts.
- Ps 119:159Consider how I love thy precepts: quicken me, O LORD, according to thy lovingkindness.
- Ps 119:44–45So shall I keep thy law continually for ever and ever.
- Ps 119:131I opened my mouth, and panted: for I longed for thy commandments.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
The Psalms are Christ's own prayer book and a gallery of his portraits — the suffering one of Psalm 22, the risen Lord of Psalm 16, the priest-king of Psalm 110, the Son to whom the nations are given.
How Psalms 119:5 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.