I’ve always been a little confused when I hear a person say, “BLESS the Lord.” Maybe it has to do with how we use that word, “BLESS.” When I think of God’s BLESSINGS, I always think of God helping me with His grace and mercy. Yet when you apply that to God, God doesn’t need our blessing. He is totally and absolutely self-sufficient.
Yet if you do a word study on that word BLESS it literally means “to kneel” implying an attitude of praise and worship with THANKSGIVING. So when a person says, “I am BLESSED,” what they are really conveying is that they praise God and are thankful for His many blessings. So in THAT sense it is a good thing to BLESS THE LORD.
Psalm 103:1 says, “Bless the LORD, O my soul; And all that is within me, bless His holy name!” The New Living Translation puts it like this, “Let all that I am praise the LORD; with my whole heart, I will praise his holy name.”
This Thanksgiving take the time to read Psalm 103 and meditate on the Lord’s goodness. In that Psalm there is a whole litany of things to give thanks for.
Let me mention just 5 of them.
- He forgives our sins. (Verse 3)
- He heals us from our diseases. (Verse 3)
- He redeems our life from destruction (Verse 4)
- He crowns us with lovingkindness and mercy. (Verse 4)
- He satisfies our desires with good things. (Verse 5)
Think about it. If you have food in your refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof over your head and a place to sleep, you are richer than 75% of this world. If you have money in the bank… not talking about how much… but if you just have some kind of BALANCE in a bank somewhere…you are richer than 92% of the world!
If you have never experienced the danger of battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture, or the pangs of starvation… you are more BLESSED than 500 million people in the world.
If you can attend a church without fear of harassment, arrest, torture or death… you are more BLESSED than three billion people in the world.
Make no mistake about it… every one of us is BLESSED.
So this thanksgiving rather than focusing on all the things you don’t have… focus on the things you do have and BLESS (Kneel before) the LORD.