“Blessed be the Lord from Zion, he who dwells in Jerusalem. Praise the Lord.”
– Psalm 135:21
Now, the reason I chose this verse for us to think about and pray today is in light of what we prayed yesterday. The end of Psalm 134 said, “May the Lord bless you.” What’s interesting is at the end of Psalm 135, it’s totally switched around, not just this verse, but the verses right before this. Like verse 19 says, “Oh, house of Israel, bless the Lord. Oh house of Aaron, bless the Lord. Verse 20, “Oh, house of Levi, bless the Lord. You who fear the Lord, bless the Lord.” Then verse 21, which I read just a second ago, “Blessed be the Lord from Zion.”
Responding to God’s Blessing with Praise
In response to God’s blessing of us, we ascribe honory, glory, and praise to Him.
The whole picture in Psalm 134 is may the Lord bless you from Zion, from his dwelling place. Now, the picture is blessed to be the Lord from Zion in his dwelling place. God blesses us and we, get this, have the privilege, opportunity, in a sense duty, responsibility to bless the Lord.
Now, think about that. How can we bless the Lord? Like we talked about how God blesses us, by saving us, delivering us, leading us, guiding us, protecting us, providing for us. We don’t save God. We don’t lead God. No, we don’t guide God. We don’t direct God. We don’t deliver God. So how do we bless him?
Psalm 135:21 Expresses Praise and Love to God
This is the picture of us in response to his blessing in our lives, pouring out blessing on him. What’s the picture here? It’s pouring out praise to him, honor to him, glory to him, expressing love for him. As we do this, like let this soak in, it is a blessing to God.
We talked about with Psalm 134 how blessing is happiness, like full, lasting happiness, delight. There is delight that God experiences in some way as we worship him, as we praise him, as we honor him, as we express love to him. We are blessing God. Don’t let a day go by without blessing the Lord. Like we get to do this to God. We get to bless God’s, so let’s do this. Not just don’t let a day go by. Like all throughout the day, just pause and look to God in your heart. Maybe even just lift your hands and just say, “God, I bless you. I praise you, I thank you, I glorify you. I love you, I adore you, I worship you.” Like do this all the time. Bless the Lord. Bless the Lord. You who fear the Lord, bless the Lord.
Psalm 135:21 Thanks God for the Goodness of His Grace
God, we do that right now. We as sinners saved by you, blessed by you in so many abundant ways, we bless your name. God, we worship your name. We praise you. Yes, we glorify you. We honor you, oh God. We adore you. God, we worship you. There is no God like you, no God but you. You are incomparable in your beauty. You are incomparable in your holiness. God, you are awesome beyond our comprehension. You are loving beyond our imagination. You are wonderful, infinitely, eternally wonderful, and we bless you. We worship you.
We thank you for all your blessing in our lives that we don’t deserve. Nothing good in us do we deserve. Everything good in us comes from you by your grace, and we give you glory. We give you honor. Oh God, we give you praise. We praise you right now, and we will praise you all day long, all night long. God, we bless your name. We pray that you would make us a people who realize all throughout the day the wonder of your blessing in our lives and that we would flow in blessing to your name, that our lives would be a blessing to you. May it be so, we pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.