Blessed are the people to whom such blessings fall. Blessed are the people whose God is the Lord.
– Psalm 144:15
This is the last verse in this Psalm. The verses right before this are just a prayer for God’s blessing on sons, daughters, land, and the people of God.
Then you get to verse 15. It says, “Blessed to the people to whom such blessings fall.” It’s just this picture of God pouring out his blessing on his people in a way that leads to blessing. In a way that leads to happiness. And the last phrase in the Psalm is “blessed or happy are the people whose God is the Lord.”
Psalm 144:15 challenges us to change our outlook on life.
And I read this and I think about Mr. Lussie, a man who has had a huge impact on my life in so many different ways. But one of the ways just praying for me ever since I was a kid, praying for me. He calls me every year on my birthday. And not just me, but so many others. And there’s a lot I could tell you about Mr. Lussie. But one thing that I think about when I read Psalm 144:15 is if you were to meet Mr. Lussie, and he is an older saint now… If you were to meet him and ask him how he’s doing, the first word out of his mouth, guaranteed would be blessed. He says it all the time. This is his outlook on life.
And when I think about Psalm 144:15, I think about this reality for all of us who are in Christ. And it’s not that Mr. Lussie has had everything go well for him in his life. He’s experienced sorrow and trials and tragedies in different ways, and yet he knows God is his Lord. And so he lives in a constant recognition that he is blessed. That he knows the one who is sovereign over the trials, that he knows the one who has conquered death and sin in his own life and in this world, and that one day he’s going to be face-to-face with him, and he has a hope in him and he belongs to God. God is his Lord.
Psalm 144:15 reminds us that God is our source of true well-being.
And I just want to encourage you today, no matter what is going on in your life. And to be clear, this is not a verse, and there is no verse in Scripture that calls us to just pretend like everything’s perfect in this world. Everything is going great and we’re blessed. No. Scripture is full of pictures over and over and over again of the fallenness of this world, of the fact that not everything in this world is going great, and not everything in our lives is going great.
But when God is your Lord, when Jesus, the one who died on the cross for your sin, rose from the dead and victory over the grave, ascended to heaven, is that the right hand of God, interceding for us right now, sovereign over all things, working all things together for the good of those who love him, his children, the men and women who are sons and daughters of God himself. You are, I am blessed. We are happy, ultimately not because of everything going well around us, but because God is our Lord.
This verse challenges our perspective on what it means to be blessed.
I just want to encourage you with that today. And maybe when somebody asks you today how you’re doing, give them an authentic Mr. Lussie, “I’m blessed.” And believe it in your heart. And maybe as a result of saying that you’ll have an opportunity to encourage someone else who is either in the Lord, to see what it means to know God as your Lord, that it means blessing. And maybe God will use that as an opportunity for you to lead someone else to know God as their Lord.
Oh God, we praise you for this reality that for all who are in you, Lord Jesus, that we are blessed beyond what we could ever deserve or fathom. God, I shudder to think where I would be without your grace, your mercy, your blessing in my life. I’d be in hell right now. And it’s true for all of us.
We praise you, God, for your mercy, for your grace, for your love for us, for your blessing in our lives. And even as we press in and we cry out for help and all the things that are hard in our lives and in this world, if we praise you, even for the blessing of being able to cry out to you, to come to you, to stand on your promises, to find in you our refuge and our strength and an ever-present help and trouble, what a blessing.
Prayer for the Guhayna People
Oh God, help us to see and to talk about your blessing in our lives today. We pray for the spread of your blessing through us, around us today, and to people around the world. Lord, we pray for the Guhayna people of Sudan. Almost two and a half million of them who don’t know your blessing in Jesus, don’t know what it means to know you as the Lord. God, we pray that the Guhayna people of Sudan would be reached with the good news of your blessing in Jesus. God may it be so we pray. All this according to your Word in Psalm 144:15. We praise you for our blessings. In Jesus’ name, amen.
David Platt serves as a Lead Pastor for McLean Bible Church. He is also the Founder and Chairman of Radical, an organization that helps people follow Jesus and make him known in their neighborhood and all nations.
David received his B.A. from the University of Georgia and M.Div., Th.M., and Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. Some of his published works include Radical, Radical Together, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, and Don’t Hold Back.
He lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area with his wife and children.
