Thoughts on Psalm 119:5

5 Oh, that my ways were directed

To keep Your statutes!

Desire. Longing. Yearning. Passion.

There is a fire in that statement that is infinitely deeper than a casual prayer.

I find a similar statement in Genesis. When Jacob wanted to leave his uncle Laban, but Laban asked him to continue working for him, and said, “What do you want me to pay you?” Jacob said, “I’ll just take the spotted and speckled sheep and goats. You can have all of the pure white ones.”

If they had a car dealership together, it’s like Jacob had said, “I’ll take all the old rusty beat up junker trade-ins. You keep all the brand new cars.” Quite the deal for Laban.

And Laban said, “Oh, that it were according to your word!” Gen 30:34

As if to say, “Are you kidding? This sounds too good to be true!” Fueled by greed, it was a declaration of intense longing. It was his heart’s desire. And is there not a godly force that is more powerful than greed? A holy covetousness, so to speak, toward the Word of God that would cause the psalmist, contrasted to Laban, to cry out, “Oh! That my ways were directed...”

Mary said the same as Laban when the angel said that she would be the mother of the Christ: “Let it be to me according to your word.” (Luke 1:38) That really is one of the best prayers we can ever pray. The promises that God makes us in His word are far better than what we could ever conjure up for ourselves.

It’s not as if Mary was sitting there one day thinking, “It sure would be nice if God used me in some spectacular way. Let’s see - God did say a Messiah would come one day. Maybe I could give birth to Him! Without ever having known a man! Lord, could I have that please?”

That would have been ridiculous. She could have never conceived such an idea. But in fact, she was presented with the word of God - a plan for her life that was from the heart of the Father (Jer 29:11), drawn up in the blueprints of creation before the world even existed (Eph 2:10).

So as we read the word of God, and that moment comes when the words come alive; they jump off the page and into our heart. We hear it and keep it. Something inside of us says, “really?! this sounds too good to be true! This is so amazing! It sounds impossible! I could have never dreamed this up!”

That is the moment we enter into blessing.

And this is the proper response: “Let it be to me according to Your word.”

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.