THURSDAY
Yesterday, we finished our two days of looking at the overwhelming blessing God bestows upon his people. On this topic of blessing, we see three dimensions of blessing in Scripture:
- God blesses his people
- God’s people bless God
- God’s people bless one another
In two of the texts we read, we saw the proper response to being a recipient of God’s blessing—to bless God in response.
Ephesians 1:3 3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places,
Luke 24:50–53 50 And he led them out as far as Bethany, and lifting up his hands he blessed them. 51 While he blessed them, he parted from them and was carried up into heaven. 52 And they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, 53 and were continually in the temple blessing God.
1 Peter 1:3 3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
Blessing, here, is essentially synonymous with praise. Remember, the Greek word for bless is a combination of a prefix meaning good and the root word meaning to speak or say. So it can be used to mean to say something commendatory, to speak well of, praise, extol.
The Psalms are full of these examples:
Psalm 34:1–3 1 I will bless the Lord at all times; his praise shall continually be in my mouth. 2 My soul makes its boast in the Lord; let the humble hear and be glad. 3 Oh, magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together!
Psalm 103:1–5 1 Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name! 2 Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, 3 who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, 4 who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, 5 who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.
Again, in the Psalms we see the same theme as in the New Testament—we respond with blessing to God because he has so richly blessed us first.
This is the proper use of our words. What could be better for us than to speak blessing, praise, adoration to God in response to the great blessings he has spoken over us and given to us in his grace and mercy.
Last week we saw James describing the power of the tongue, and at the same time the duplicitous nature of the tongue.
James 3:9 9 With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God.
The positive, powerful use of our words is to bless God. Hopefully this week has added deeper meaning to this verse. Tomorrow we will talk about blessing and cursing in the sphere of our communication with one another.
Additional Content
Reflection
Take some time today to bless the Lord. Repeat the words of Psalm 103:1-5 and make them your own.