Come Bless The Lord

Come Bless The Lord

Oh, bless the LORD, all you servants of the LORD, you who serve as night watchmen in the house of the LORD. Lift your hands in holiness, and bless the LORD. May the LORD, who made heaven and earth, bless you from Jerusalem. –Psalm 134

I jumped at the chance to take author Richard Foster around the Dallas area for a day of book signings and interviews, because his writing had influenced me so significantly. When we stopped by my house for some breakfast, Matt, who was about fifteen months old at the time, was anxious to show his toys to our guest. And before I knew it, I turned around to find Richard Foster sitting on my kitchen floor playing with Matt and his race cars—and loving it.

This is a picture of the way God blesses us. You see, rather than staying far off and ruling by remote control, he bends down to our level, generously and graciously sharing himself with us. The blessing of God is that he enters into our need, gets under our skin, understands us better than we understand ourselves, and gives himself to us. The term blessing describes that which we most prize in God’s dealings with us and what is best about living under his care.

And because God blesses us, we bless God. We can’t help ourselves. We want to participate in what God is doing. In Psalm 134, the last in a series of ascent psalms (which Hebrew pilgrims sang as they went up to Jerusalem for worship festivals), the psalmist offers this invitational command: “Bless the LORD. . . . Lift your hands in holiness, and bless the LORD.” He’s inviting those of us who are weary and worn from the uphill journey of life to bless the Lord. He’s reminding us why we made the trip in the first place. This is what we were created for and redeemed for, what we long for in eternity—to bless the Lord with our hearts full of joy and our hands lifted upward. On our journey we may feel like doing anything other than lifting up our hands to bless the Lord, and we hesitate to be hypocritical. But as we lift our arms in blessing, our hearts begin to get the message and are also lifted up.

Blessing on every step of our journey and blessing at the end of the road. What a pleasant path God leads us on as he brings us home to himself. Will you lift your hands and bless the Lord? Enjoying him is true blessing.

Lord, I lift up my hands and my heart to you, not to seek a blessing but seeking to bless you. You have blessed me abundantly with your very presence, and I can’t help but seek to bless you in return.

DIGGING DEEPER