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Psalm 119:5
Oh that my ways were steadfast to obey your statutes!
3Yes, they do nothing wrong. They walk in his ways.
4You have commanded your precepts, that we should fully obey them.
5Oh that my ways were steadfast to obey your statutes!
6Then I wouldn’t be disappointed, when I consider all of your commandments.
7I will give thanks to you with uprightness of heart, when I learn your righteous judgments.
Notice
“Oh that” expresses a longing for steadiness, exposing the distance that can exist between wanting to obey God’s statutes and having ways established in them.
Questions to write on. Each one opens a new entry with this verse already attached.
Where in your week would steadfast obedience look different from a single good intention?
Write on thisWhat would you name before God after praying, “Oh that my ways were steadfast to obey your statutes!”?
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Where else Scripture says this
12 passages readers most often link with this verse, and the thread each one shares with it.
This verse's connections, by chapterThe Bible's strongest chapter linksHover or tap a book to trace it
Psalm 51:10Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a right spirit within me.Both prayers express a desire for change before God: steadfast ways in Psalm 119 and a clean heart with a right spirit in Psalm 51.
2 Thessalonians 3:5May the Lord direct your hearts into God’s love and into the perseverance of Christ.Steadfast obedience and the perseverance of Christ share a concern for endurance, expressed in words directed toward God.
Hebrews 13:21make you complete in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory …Both passages express the desire for a life that does God’s will, with Hebrews naming God’s work through Jesus Christ.
Jeremiah 31:33“But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” says the LORD: “I will put my law in their inward parts, and I will …Both passages concern God’s law shaping his people’s lives; Jeremiah specifies his promise to write that law in Israel’s heart.
Romans 7:22–24For I delight in God’s law after the inward person,The longing to obey God’s statutes shares an inward desire for his law with Paul’s stated delight in it.
Psalm 119:36Turn my heart toward your statutes, not toward selfish gain.Both verses address God about his statutes, seeking steadfast ways in one and a heart turned toward them in the other.
Psalm 119:32I run in the path of your commandments, for you have set my heart free. HEBoth verses describe obedience as a way of life, using ways and a path to speak of following God’s commands.
Psalm 119:173Let your hand be ready to help me, for I have chosen your precepts.Both verses address God with a desire to follow his instruction, and verse 173 makes the request for help explicit.
Proverbs 4:26Make the path of your feet level. Let all of your ways be established.Steadfast ways in the psalm share the image of established ways with Proverbs, where attention to the path of one’s feet is urged.
Philippians 3:12Not that I have already obtained, or am already made perfect; but I press on, that I may take hold of that for which also I was taken hold of by Christ Jesus.Both speakers express desire for something still unreached: steadfast obedience in the psalm and the perfection Paul says he has yet to attain.
Proverbs 14:8The wisdom of the prudent is to think about his way, but the folly of fools is deceit.Both texts attend to a person’s way, though the psalm voices longing for obedience and Proverbs commends prudent thought.
Proverbs 11:23The desire of the righteous is only good. The expectation of the wicked is wrath.Both passages speak of desire directed toward good, with the psalm naming obedience to God’s statutes as its object.
Where this verse fits
Wanting a steady prayer habit. temptation.
One step
Something small to carry out of this verse
Encouragement
Your desire for steadfast obedience has a place in prayer, even where your habits remain uneven. The psalm speaks that longing to God, whose statutes govern the way.
Now put it in your words.
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Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY). Scripture from the World English Bible (public domain). Arc diagram after Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild (2007).