1/27/2012 9:34:10 AM
SPIRITUAL DIARY
My Worship Time Focus: Psalm 34 Part Two
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Psalm 34:9-22
Message of the verses: As I begin this second part of Psalm 34 I began to wonder exactly what it means to “bless the Lord” which is found in the first verse of this psalm. This is something that I have struggled with the understanding of for a long time and when I looked up the word in the Hebrew/English dictionary I was even more confused by it because the Hebrew word “barak” is actually translated as curse five times in the KJV of the Bible. I began to look to the internet for some answers and came across an article that was written in 1978 by John Piper that helped me to understand what “bless the Lord” is all about. I am going to put this article on this SD and hopefully it will be a help to others who have struggled with this.
“What Does It Mean to Bless God?
November 1, 1978| by John Piper| Topic: Prayer
My thesis is that in the Scripture when God "blesses" men they are thereby helped and strengthened and made better off than they were before, but when men "bless" God he is not helped or strengthened or made better off. Rather (with C. A. Keller in THAT, I, 361) man's blessing God is an "expression of praising Thankfulness" (ein lobendes Danksagen), when the OT speaks of blessing God it does not "designate a process that aims at the increase of God's strength" (THAT, I, 361). It is an "exclamation of gratitude and admiration" (THAT, I, 357).
This is not at all a strange semantic phenomenon. If God is the primal and inexhaustible "blesser," then he must be above all others in a "blessed" state—the fullness and source of all "blessing." If this is so, then a most natural burst of praise would be "You are blessed!" That this recognition and joyful exclamation of God's blessedness should then be described as "blessing God" is not unusual. Other analogies, though not exact, would be our expressions like: "I magnify the Lord" or "Let us exalt his name." Both of these expressions properly recognize and give joyful expression to God's magnificence and his exalted status. They do not mean that we make God larger or higher. So to bless God means to recognize his great richness, strength, and gracious bounty and to express our gratitude and delight in seeing and experiencing it.
Here are some texts that have led me to these conclusions:
Deuteronomy 8:10 And you shall eat and be full, and you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land he has given you.
Here "bless" is virtually identical to "thank" or "gratefully recognize as the giver of blessing."
Psalm 100:4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless his name!
Psalm 145:10 All your works shall give thanks to you, O Lord, and all your saints shall bless you!
Psalm 103:2 Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits,
Psalm 96:2-3 Sing to the Lord, bless his name; tell of his salvation from day to day. Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all the peoples!
Here bless probably means: joyfully announce all these good things about God.
Psalm 104:1 Bless the Lord, O my soul! O Lord my God, you are very great! You are clothed with splendor and majesty,
This psalm begins and ends with "Bless the Lord, O my soul!" This probably means that the psalm is meant as the blessing. Therefore blessing God means heartily saying things like "God, you are very great!"
2 Chronicles 29:10 Therefore David blessed the Lord in the presence of all the assembly. And David said: "Blessed are you, O Lord, the God of Israel our father, forever and ever."
This is a clear example of what one does when one blesses the Lord: he calls him blessed! The same thing is seen in comparing Gen. 24:27 and 48.
Psalm 34:1 I will bless the Lord at all times; his praise shall continually be in my mouth.
Psalm 145:1-2,21 I will extol you, my God and King, and bless your name forever and ever. Every day I will bless you and praise your name forever and ever. My mouth will speak the praise of the Lord, and let all flesh bless his holy name forever and ever.
Psalm 113:1,2 Praise the Lord! Praise, O servants of the Lord, praise the name of the Lord! Blessed be the name of the Lord from this time forth and forevermore!”
Fear the Lord (vv. 9-16): “9 O fear the LORD, you His saints; For to those who fear Him there is no want. 10 The young lions do lack and suffer hunger; But they who seek the LORD shall not be in want of any good thing. 11 Come, you children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the LORD. 12 Who is the man who desires life And loves length of days that he may see good? 13 Keep your tongue from evil And your lips from speaking deceit. 14 Depart from evil and do good; Seek peace and pursue it. 15 The eyes of the LORD are toward the righteous And His ears are open to their cry. 16 The face of the LORD is against evildoers, To cut off the memory of them from the earth.”
We have spoken about the fear of the Lord in past SD’s but if one fears the Lord then he does not need to fear anything else. Dr. Wiersbe writes some interesting comments on this subject: “God promises to give us what is good for us and to cause all things to work together for good (Romans 8:28). If we don’t receive what we think we need, it means it isn’t good for us and we don’t need it at this time.” He goes on to write: “At this point, David may have gathered the children and youths around him to teach them the secret of real living. Peter quoted verses 12-14 in 1Peter 3:10-12, and his instructions are wise and workable.”
Desire what is good (v. 12): “12 Who is the man who desires life And loves length of days that he may see good?” What does David mean when he writes “desires life” or “love life?” Does it mean that one has to have a lot of possessions to love life, for that is what the world would teach us. Solomon who was probably the richest man ever to live as far as possessions wrote in Eccl. 2:17-20 “17 ¶ So I hated life, for the work which had been done under the sun was grievous to me; because everything is futility and striving after wind. 18 Thus I hated all the fruit of my labor for which I had labored under the sun, for I must leave it to the man who will come after me. 19 And who knows whether he will be a wise man or a fool? Yet he will have control over all the fruit of my labor for which I have labored by acting wisely under the sun. This too is vanity. 20 Therefore I completely despaired of all the fruit of my labor for which I had labored under the sun.” This does not sound to me like possessions are the answer. Character is certainly part of the answer, along with faith, and a desire to honor God. Jesus ways in John 10:10 “"The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” That word abundantly means “beyond measure.”
Speak what is true (v. 13): “13 Keep your tongue from evil And your lips from speaking deceit.” Both James and Solomon have something to say about the tongue: “5 So also the tongue is a small part of the body, and yet it boasts of great things. See how great a forest is set aflame by such a small fire! 6 And the tongue is a fire, the very world of iniquity; the tongue is set among our members as that which defiles the entire body, and sets on fire the course of our life, and is set on fire by hell. 7 For every species of beasts and birds, of reptiles and creatures of the sea, is tamed and has been tamed by the human race. 8 But no one can tame the tongue; it is a restless evil and full of deadly poison. 9 With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the likeness of God; 10 from the same mouth come both blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be this way (James 3:5-10).” “He who guards his mouth and his tongue, Guards his soul from troubles (Pr. 21:23).” Paul writes in Ephesians 4:15 these words, “but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ.” I must say that this 34th Psalm actually sounds to me like how the Proverbs are written.
Pursue what is right (v. 14): “14 Depart from evil and do good; Seek peace and pursue it.” David, one would think, is not exactly the man who would write “seek peace and pursue it” for he was a man of war, a man who was not allowed to build the temple because he had shed so much blood. As Christians we are not to seek peace at any price, because peace depends on purity. “13 ¶ Who among you is wise and understanding? Let him show by his good behavior his deeds in the gentleness of wisdom. 14 But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, do not be arrogant and so lie against the truth. 15 This wisdom is not that which comes down from above, but is earthly, natural, demonic. 16 For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every evil thing. 17 But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy. 18 And the seed whose fruit is righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace (James 3:13-18).” As Christians we are to make every effort not to make enemies, and yet when we look at the life of Jesus and the things that He said to the Pharisees and the Scribes we know that there is a time to stand up for what is right as Jesus did when talking to these people. Dr. Wiersbe says that the word “pursue” means that we have to work at it, with the help of the Lord, and this makes perfect sense because we are to seek the help of the Lord in all we do.
Expect what is best (vv. 15-16): “15 The eyes of the LORD are toward the righteous And His ears are open to their cry. 16 The face of the LORD is against evildoers, To cut off the memory of them from the earth.” We see the entire face of the Lord including His eyes and His ears in these two verses and this should give us confidence God sees us and hears us when we pray and God is against evildoers. There is a great example of this in the 12th chapter of the book of Acts where we see Peter in prison, sent there by Herod who was king at that time. The church began to pray to God so He would have Peter released and God answered their prayer and had Peter released using a miracle. A little while later Herod was killed because he did not honor God, thus taking care of that evildoer.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: Today the 27th of January in the year of our Lord 2012, by the grace of God I begin my 39th year in serving the Lord, and my prayer is that I will bring honor and glory to His name.
Character is something that has spoken to me as I did this SD, and having good character is important to me and one of the ways to accomplish this is to continue to, not only read and study the Word of God, but to put the things into practice what I have learned. Difficult at times because of the enemies that we all face, the world, the flesh and the devil are all against us, but God is for us and that is all we need.
My Steps of Faith for Today:
1. By the help and grace of God I desire to put into practice what I am learning.
2. Continue to learn contentment.
1/27/2012
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