Blessed are the people to whom such blessings fall. Blessed are the people whose God is the Lord.
– Psalm 144:15
This is how this Psalm ends, and it’s so triumphant. It’s so… I almost don’t know how to describe it. Overwhelming. The verses that immediately proceed verse 15 are just a prayer for God’s blessing on his people, on the land. “May our sons in their youth be like plants full-grown, our daughters like corner pillars cut for the structure of a palace.”
Psalm 144:15 Portrays the Abundance of God’s Blessing
What imagery that describes just a prayer for God’s blessing on our families, on our sons and our daughters. In verse 13, “May our granaries be full providing all kinds of produce. May our sheep bring forth thousands and ten thousands in our fields”. Just productive land, which obviously in the Old Testament was so important for the people of God as a nation to have sustenance.
“May our cattle be heavy with young, suffering no mishap or failure and bearing. May there be no cry of distress in our streets.” Oh, don’t we all long for that? No cry of distress in our streets. How awesome would it be to open up a news app and hear no cries of distress? So this is just a prayer for God’s blessing, God’s abundance in our lives and on His people and on the land and the peoples around us.
And then you get to verse 15. It says, “Blessed are the people to whom such blessings fall”. Well, that’s obvious in a sense, and even kind of repeats itself. “Blessed are the people to whom such blessings fall.” Yes, they’re blessed. But then notice the last phrase in this Psalm, “Blessed are the people”. So it’s parallel to what we just read at the beginning of verse 15.
Psalm 144:15 Shows God’s Faithfulness Toward His People
“Blessed are the people to whom such blessings fall. Blessed are the people whose God is the Lord” And so it’s obvious that all blessing comes from knowing God as the Lord. Obviously, there are times in our lives where we feel overwhelmed by God’s blessing in all different ways. There are times when it doesn’t seem like things are going awesome, maybe in our families or in the land, or there’s cries of distress in the streets or cries of distress in our hearts.
And yet, Psalm 144:15, this last part of that verse reminds us, “Blessed are the people whose God is the Lord,” because we know the one from whom all blessings flow. And he will bless his people overwhelmingly in abundance as they wait on Him, as they trust in Him. He will turn mourning into dancing. God will turn days of despair into days of hope.
Psalm 144:15 Is a Hope-Inspiring Promise
He will one day bring an end to all distress, to all sin, to all evil, to all pain, to all mourning, to all crying. He will wipe every tear from our eyes. The days of blessing are guaranteed for all those who know God as the Lord. So God, we praise you today. We praise you for all your blessings in our lives. God, we are grateful for every good gift we have.
God, we are grateful for seasons of abundance. We are grateful for your provision, your bountiful provision in our lives in so many different ways and in so many ways, specifically that we are prone to take for granted. God, we praise you for your goodness. You’re the author of everything good, and we praise you for the blessings that you have poured out on us. And at the same time, God, I pray specifically for all of us who are walking through days where we long for your blessings in ways we’re not seeing or experiencing.
Psalm 144:15 Encourages Us to Seek God’s Blessing
God, we ask like Psalm 144, ask for your blessings in our lives, in our marriages, on our families, on our sons and daughters and parents and grandparents and grandchildren. God, we pray for your blessings on our friends. We pray for your blessings in our churches. God, we pray for your blessings in our lands, in our countries. We know it’s a different picture than the people of Israel in the Old Testament.
God, we pray for your goodness, your mercy to abound the places where we live and the cities and communities where we live. We pray for a restraining of evil and distress, for displays of your goodness and your mercy all around us. We pray that for our neighbors and our coworkers. God, we pray for your blessings on them. And in all of this, we pray that you would bring them to know you as the Lord and that you would help us to trust you as the Lord, to wait on you as the Lord, to live in the reality that we are blessed when you are our Lord.
And as long as you are our Lord, we consider ourselves blessed and we await the pouring out ultimately of all your blessing in a new heaven and a new earth to come. Oh God, we pray for the spread of your blessing to people who are far from you and have never heard the good news of your blessing in Jesus, your salvation in Jesus.
Praying for the Tuerke and Lyuli People
God for the Tuerke people of Kyrgyzstan, for the Lyuli people of Kyrgyzstan, God, we pray for these small people groups in Kyrgyzstan to be reached with the blessing of Jesus’ salvation. God, please pour out your blessing on them. We intercede for them that they would be people whose God is the Lord. Oh God, we pray all of this in light of Psalm 144:15, “Blessed are the people to whom such blessings fall. Blessed are the people whose God is the Lord.” In Jesus’ name, we pray, the name of the one who opens the door to all your blessing from heaven. Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
