I woke up this morning as usual with a song in my mind and thanking God. I was reminded of what the psalmist wrote:<\/p>\n
\u201cBless the Lord, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name.\u201d\u2014 Psalm 103:1<\/p>\n
Are we truly blessing the Lord God when we merely say, \u201cBless the Lord\u201d? It is not possible to speak a blessing upon the Lord God. I mean, if your car was broken beyond repair, and someone gave you a new car, you would feel blessed and give abundant thanks to and praise God. But the blessing materialized to you as a new car. How does the mouthing of blessing become a blessing to God?<\/p>\n
I can tell you how it does not become a blessing. When speaking the phrase, \u201cBless the Lord,\u201d is rote or does not come from a faithful soul. The same applies to people that thank God as a rote practice or an off-the-cuff remark when they find their missing glasses.<\/p>\n
God is not blessed by our mouthing a \u201cBless the Lord\u201d no more than you are blessed when someone knows your car went kaput and says, \u201cI\u2019ll think about you.\u201d So?<\/p>\n
God is blessed when our \u201cBless the Lord\u201d comes from a deeply grateful soul that is poignantly aware of his or her benefits from God. People pick out the phrase \u201cBless the Lord,\u201d but most do not read the rest of what the psalmist wrote.<\/p>\n
\u201cBless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits: who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases; who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies; who satisfieth thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle\u2019s.\u201d \u2014 Psalm 103:2-5<\/p>\n
It is not difficult to realize that the psalmist had spent some time thinking of all God\u2019s benefits in his life. The phrase, \u201cBless the Lord\u201d was not just a casual utterance or something he uttered because it seemed the religious thing to do.<\/p>\n
It was an eruption of gratitude from his soul. The words mean little to God, but when compelled and empowered by deep and near speechless gratitude, they convey a pleasing sacrifice of praise.<\/p>\n
Therefore, it is not our words that bless God, but our words that are soaked with gratitude blesses or pleases Him.<\/p>\n
I am grateful today. Although the world may groan, complain, and bemoan its state, I take time to assess my condition. Spiritually and physically I am bestowed with many of God\u2019s benefits. All around me today there may be many calamities. People will be in angst, or angry, depressed, or their spirits crushed or enraged, but as the psalmist wrote:<\/p>\n
\u201cHe maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still.\u201d \u2014Psalm 107:29<\/p>\n
Godly Thomas Zimmerman, whom I greatly admired, once remarked, \u201cRemember, when you\u2019re in the storm, the storm doesn\u2019t have to be in you.\u201d<\/p>\n
In this time of turmoil in politics and evil shenanigans, when people are obsessed with things they cannot control, It is time to put our hope fully in God. I do not want the storm in me\u2014and life is full of storms.<\/p>\n
There is no greater way to have a grateful heart than to search the treasure chest of your soul and realize all of God\u2019s benefits. Then you can do something truly marvelous. You can bless the Lord.<\/p>\n
Can you imagine what He is hearing from the majority of people in our nation right now? Is it a blessing to Him? Would we rather be a blessing than receive one?<\/p>\n
\u201cOh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!\u201d \u2014 Psalm 107:31<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I woke up this morning as usual with a song in my mind and thanking God. I was reminded of what the psalmist wrote: \u201cBless the Lord, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name.\u201d\u2014 Psalm 103:1 Are we truly blessing the Lord God when we merely say, \u201cBless the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2034","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","post-preview"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paIm2N-wO","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2034"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2034"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2034\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2035,"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2034\/revisions\/2035"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2034"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2034"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}