Psalms 119:5 O that my ways were directed to keep thy statutes!
In this verse the psalmist expresses a desire to God. We know that it was expressed to God from the second person singular possessive pronoun thy in “thy statutes.” We noted in the last meditation that we use pronouns in the second person when we are talking to someone. The Psalmist is saying to God that he desires that his ways were directed to keep God’s statutes.
Let us next consider the definition of the word direct so that we may know precisely what the psalmist desired.
Direct – To cause (a thing or person) to move or point straight to or towards a place; to aim (a missile); to make straight (a course or way) to any point; to turn (the eyes, attention, mind) straight to an object, (a person or thing) to an aim, purpose, etc.
The psalmist longed that his ways would be aimed straightly at keeping God’s statutes without any diversion or misdirection. He wanted his ways, the train of his thoughts and desires, his actions, and the events of his life to be directed to keep God’s statutes. And as we saw from the definition of the word keep used in verse two, to keep God’s statutes means to pay attention to them, to dutifully believe and practice them.
That the psalmist earnestly desired this can be seen from that simple one-letter interjection o at the beginning of the verse. So back to the dictionary we go for the definition of this word. I’ll be done with the grammar and definitions in a minute. So just hang with me and I’ll get cranking into how this all fits together.
O – In other connexions, or without construction, expressing, according to intonation, various emotions, as appeal, entreaty, surprise, pain, lament, etc.
The psalmist’s desire to have his ways directed to keep God’s statutes was so strong that it stirred his emotions. It is, therefore, quite fitting that this sentence ends with an exclamation point further stressing the emotion of the writer. Since the psalmist is addressing this desire to God, we discern an earnest appeal in the word o. We can also detect a grief that his ways were not more directed to keeping God’s statutes. These are emotions we would all do well to cultivate.
Anyone who sincerely tries to keep God’s statutes can relate to the longing of this verse. Try as we may, there are a thousand things pulling us in all kinds of directions away from keeping God’s statutes. First of all, there is the pull of our own fleshly lusts warring against the soul.
Romans 7:23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.
1 Peter 2:11 Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul;
You become keenly aware of the pull of your fleshly lusts when you discover God’s statutes aiming directly at the correction of some of your greatest weaknesses, weaknesses such as pride, anger, envy, hatred, evil sexual desires, evil surmisings, gluttony, slothfulness, covetousness, and backbiting, to name a few. In fact, the more you try to keep God’s statutes the more you will experience resistance against it. In his excellent work Mere Christianity C.S. Lewis wrote:
“No man knows how bad he is till he has tried very hard to be good. A silly idea is current that good people do not know what temptation means. This is an obvious lie. Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is. After all…you find out the strength of the wind by trying to walk against it, not by lying down.”
I could not have said it better. It stands to reason that the adversary has to put up his toughest fight against those who mount the toughest resistance.
And then there is the pull of a thousand distractions all vying to so occupy our minds and emotions that the focus on keeping God’s commandments gets shoved aside. There is the glut of media sounding everywhere calling for our attention: news clips; advertisements; campaign ads from more candidates than we can keep up with; scores of television channels to choose from; preachers and televangelists of all kinds; a barrage of movies released to the public for consumption; the internet with its offer and allure of endless information; email; facebook, twitter, and the like; two or three telephones ringing; athletes, teams, and events in more kinds of sports than you can count at all levels from elementary school through college to the professional level; entertainments galore; a vast myriad of ideas on how to stay healthy, and how to best manage your money, your time, and your relationships; not to mention well-intentioned friends who insist that you have to read this book, see this movie, hear this speaker, etc. All these are so many siren sounds beckoning for your attention. And add to all of this the cares of daily life that must be attended to. If you are a person who finds most everything fascinating and interesting, you do have your work cut out for you to come through this maze and still keep your focus where it belongs. Those with fewer and more focused interests will find it easier to sort through this pile and disregard a lot of these distractions. But even they will have to work at maintaining balance in the limited things they allow themselves to become involved with. So that in the end we must all cry: “O that my ways were directed to keep thy statutes!”
What might we want and expect from God in response to this longing expressed to Him? First of all, we pray that He so order the events of our lives that we not be tempted above our ability to resist. We want Him to close doors to opportunities that would too much distract us from keeping His statutes. Secondly, we earnestly desire that He would give us strength to resist the evil lusts of our flesh that we might keep His statutes. Third, we pray that God would give us good judgment so as to weigh the cost in time and energy of every thing that beckons for our attention. Never forget, every interest you choose to pursue comes with a price and if the payment of that price takes away time and energy better spent on those things most important to God, then you had best let that opportunity pass you by. Never forget this commandment given through our beloved apostle Paul:
Ephesians 5:16 Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.
To redeem the time you are going to have to make the choice to let some things go that you might otherwise like to pursue. You are just going to have to settle for going through this world without experiencing everything it has to offer. And that is no great loss when you consider what our Lord Jesus Christ said:
Matthew 16:26 For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?
Bishop Fulten J. Sheen wrote the following about the son of Confucius that fits so well what I am talking about:
“The son of Confucius once said to him: ‘I apply myself with diligence to every kind of study, neglect nothing that could render me clever and brilliant; but I do not advance.’ ‘Omit some of your pursuits,’ replied Confucius, ‘and you will get on better.’”
How true! Try to do everything and you won’t be that good at anything.
Speaking for myself personally, I am a very curious person. There are so many things I would like to learn and learn well, but I know that if I devote time to all of that, I will suffer loss in that one thing most needful for me to know as a man of God, and that is God’s statutes. And as time fast passes by me and age eats away at my mental and physical energy leaving me with less than I had before, how much more must I weigh the cost of everything that beckons for that time and energy. So I just have to choose to remain ignorant and inexperienced about a lot of things so as to be more directed toward and more focused on what I need to know and to do in order to be the best that I can be at what God calls me to be. God grant me wisdom to never lose sight of this and strength to apply that wisdom in every choice that I must make. But, oh, the powerful allurement of so many other things coupled together with my own personal weaknesses forces this lamentable cry from my heart: “O that my ways were directed to keep thy statutes!” Is it thus with you, dear reader?
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