Living By Faith Blog

Bless The Lord

We often say “bless the Lord.”  But what does that mean?

That’s important, because if we don’t understand what we are saying, our worship won’t be heart-felt.

And the more we understand what we are saying, the more meaningful our worship will be.

So what do we mean when we say “bless the Lord”?

Old Testament Clues

To answer that I looked up Old Testament passages which talk about blessing the Lord.  Then I looked in the context to see if I could find clues showing what it meant.

Notice how many times blessing the Lord is restated as praise, exalt, and extol —

The LORD lives, and blessed be my rock, and exalted be the God of my salvation (Psalm 18:46)

I will bless the LORD at all times; his praise shall continually be in my mouth. (Psalm 34:1)

Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you.  So I will bless you as long as I live. (Psalm 63:3-4)

Bless our God, O peoples; let the sound of his praise be heard (Psalm 66:8)

Bless the LORD, O my soul! Praise the LORD! (Psalm 104:35)

I will extol you, my God and King, and bless your name forever and ever. (Psalm 145:1)

Every day I will bless you and praise your name forever and ever. (Psalm 145:2)

What This Means

Even though praise, exalt, and extol are different words, they all involve expressing the infinite greatness of God.

So if you were going to bless the Lord, that means you would sing or speak or shout of His infinite greatness.

You’d say things like —

• You have always been (Psalm 90:3).
• You are infinite in power (Revelation 1:8).
• You are perfect in goodness (Psalm 34:8).
• You are sovereign over everything (Ephesians 1:11).
• You are infinitely merciful — becoming a man to suffer for us (Galatians 2:20).
• Your perfections set you infinitely above everything else that exists (Exodus 15:11).
• You are my exceeding joy (Psalm 43:4).

What Happens When We Bless The Lord?

Here’s what David experienced —

Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you. So I will bless you as long as I live; in your name I will lift up my hands.  My soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food, and my mouth will praise you with joyful lips, when I remember you upon my bed, and meditate on you in the watches of the night. (Psalm 63:3-6)

Late at night David would praise God, bless God, lift up his hands in adoration of God, remember and meditate upon God.

And when he did that — his soul was satisfied.

Why?  Because we are wired to have our highest satisfactions in beholding greatness, and God is the greatest greatness.

So if you want soul satisfaction — bless the Lord.  And let this powerful worship song help —

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtAmlO4cdhc

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