Enjoying God: Part 2 (5)
Bless the LORD, O my soul;
And all that is within me, bless His holy name!
Bless the LORD, O my soul,
And forget not all His benefits:
Who forgives all your iniquities,
Who heals all your diseases,
Who redeems your life from destruction,
Who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies,
Who satisfies your mouth with good things,
So that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s. Psalm 103.1-5
Bless the Lord?
“Bless the LORD!”
We encounter this command not infrequently in the Scriptures, and not—if we’re honest—without a little confusion.
How can we possibly “bless” the Lord? Isn’t He the source of all blessings, of every good and perfect gift (1 Cor. 4.7; Jms. 1.16, 17)? Didn’t Paul clearly say that God needs nothing from us (Acts 17.24, 25)? And did not the Lord Himself say that, even if He did need something, He would not seek it from us (Ps. 50.9-12)?
All this is true, of course. But if we’re thinking that, these things notwithstanding, we have nothing with which to bless the Lord, we need to look a bit closer at the word “bless” to discover whether there might be meanings other than what most often come to mind.
And this is in fact just what we find, especially in the book of Psalms. For example, Psalm 34.1-3 equates “blessing” God with giving Him praise—boasting in the Lord, magnifying His Name, and exalting Him to the highest place.
Psalm 96.1-3 explains that we bless the Lord when we sing to Him and proclaim His glory among all nations and His wonders among all people.
Psalm 104 is devoted from the first verse to the last to enumerating and celebrating the marvelous and ongoing works of the Lord as a way of blessing Him.
Psalm 115 pictures the praise we give to bless the Lord as an ongoing practice and legacy.
And Psalm 134 enjoins us to bless the Lord together with other worshipers, lifting our hands to reach out and receive the blessings of the Lord, even as we bless Him with joy.
Thus, we bless the Lord as we praise Him, singing and rejoicing in Him, declaring all His works, celebrating His high and exalted status, magnifying His Name, and rejoicing to mention in detail all His blessings and works. As improbable as it seems, we can bless the Lord. And we should do so as often as we can.
The greater our joy, the more we bless.
But why should we do this? I mean, other than that the Scriptures command us to do so?
Because God knows what’s good for us, what we were made for, and how best to enable us to realize that most perfect goal and state. We were made for joy, and, as we have seen over and over, joy is to be found in the Lord alone. We may enjoy Him in many ways, for He is our joy and the Source of it. When we are present with Him, and He is present with us, we enter His joy, and this elicits from us words and songs and postures and tears of joy.
So here’s the good news about that: “But You are holy, inhabiting the praises of Your people” (Ps. 22.3, my translation). God inhabits the praises—the blessings—of His people. Feeling a little down? Depressed? Under the weather? Go get yourself some joy! Go directly to God, do not pass Go, do not collect $200, get yourself to God by bending your soul and opening your mouth in praise. Because that will connect you with the Presence of God Who inhabits your praise.
Praising the Lord is where the joy awaits you for enjoying the Lord by blessing Him.
And as you are enjoying God in times of praise, a wonderful mystery may occur: The more you enjoy the Lord as He makes His Presence known amid your blessings and praises, the more you will bless and praise Him. No wonder those saints in heaven seem to be doing nothing else but blessing and praising the Lord (Rev. 4, 5). God’s Presence accompanies and fills everything they do.
The more we bless, the greater our joy.
And you’ve no doubt already reasoned your way to what comes next: The more we bless and praise the Lord in prayer and worship and singing, the more we know His Presence with us and the more our joy increases, leading to more and more continuously blessing and praising the Lord, and, yes, more joy. We have the potential for a continuous and increasing ratcheting up our enjoyment of God by blessing and praising Him in all we do.
Having been made for joy, our greatest privilege is to enjoy the Lord Himself—being in His Presence, pouring out our love for Him, rehearsing His abundant blessings and works, and reaching to elevate and be blessed by Him even more. We know the joy of the Lord as we bless Him with sincere hearts and unimpeded love. The joy we know in blessing Him is but a foretaste of the enjoyment we will have in His Presence forever.
So bless the Lord and as you bless Him, enjoy His Presence with you.
Search the Scriptures
1. Look up and read aloud the psalms mentioned in the first part of this article. Do you feel the joy of the Lord welling up from within you as you do?2. Read through Psalm 104. If you were to have written that psalm as a way of blessing the Lord, which of His good works would you have cited?
3. What can keep us from rising ever higher in enjoying God through blessing and praise? How should you deal with those hindrances?
Next steps—Preparation: Set aside an extended time to do nothing but praise the Lord, using the psalms mentioned in this article, and the catalog of good works you created in question 2, to guide you as you bless the Lord.
T. M. Moore
If you have found this meditation helpful, take a moment and give thanks to God. Then share what you learned with a friend. This is how the grace of God spreads (2 Cor. 4.15).
How should joy affect our lives as Christians? Our booklet, Joy to Your World!, can show you how both to know more of the Lord’s joy and to invite others into it as well. Order your copy by clicking here.
Support for Scriptorium comes from our faithful and generous God, who moves our readers to share financially in our work. If this article was helpful, please give Him thanks and praise.
And please prayerfully consider supporting The Fellowship of Ailbe with your prayers and gifts. You can contribute online, via PayPal or Anedot, or by sending a gift to The Fellowship of Ailbe, P. O. Box 8213, Essex, VT 05451.
Except as indicated, all Scriptures are taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
