Bless the Lord: Meditation on Psalm 34:1{0}
I read Psalm 34 today. The words flowed through my brain one after another creating sentences. These sentences were God speaking to me, changing me. There are times when I get so busy prepping things to teach that I don’t just wrap my mind and heart in the Word of God for the sheer joy of knowing God. I know I’m not the only one who gets busy, in fact busy is never the issue at all. I find great joy in music and various soccer teams; I love entertainment, I love stupid conversations, I obsess over food more than I should.
But like I said I read Psalm 34 today. It reminded me that I don’t know God like I want to. It reminded me that I have been munching on cold soggy french fries when fresh baked goodness is available to me. So it only makes sense that I wouldn’t relate with King David when he was inspired by the Holy Spirit to choose these words that make these sentences that express this truth.
The Psalm begins, “I will bless the LORD at all times” That word bless is a bit obscure in currently language. We ask God to bless people who sneeze, but we don’t really know what we are asking God to do in this expression. We ask that God would bless our food. In the south you might hear, “God bless your heart” which of course translates to, “You are so dumb.”
In Psalm 34 it comes from the Hebrew work Barakh. Yes, remove the “h” add a “c” and you get our president’s name, surprised me too. His name is based on the Arabic version of this same word meaning “blessed.” The Hebrew word Barakh/Blessed has various meanings depending upon how it is used. Here it means, “adore with bended knees.” So when we read that King David will bless the Lord at all times, this is no simple expression of mere words. This is much more engaging, more consuming, it’s a love for God that sidesteps selfish pride because really love compels you to.
The second half of verse one continues this idea, “His praise shall continually be in my mouth.” We don’t need to look up the Hebrew to know what this means. My mouth will praise God. When I am satisfied in all that Jesus Christ is for me my lips do praise God. However much too often my lips whine. They whine because things don’t go the way I would like them to go, they whine because someone was rude or selfish, or just better than me at something. In these moments out of my mouth come subconscious accusations that God has not satisfied me.
From time time our two year old Berkley will ask for a drink in the car and I’ll notice her drink is sitting right next to her. She’ll be really upset, ticked off that she is thirsty and has nothing to drink. But really her problem isn’t that she has nothing to drink, it’s that she’s not drinking the water she already has. I guess that’s really how I feel. I have no lack of nourishment in the Words of the Bible, I’m just not drinking it.
What is really great though is I’m still alive. And my eyes work, and my mind is able to read. So I can read the Word of God alone in my office. Not only that, but God put me in this time period and has given me so much money that I have a Bible on my phone allowing me to read when I’m waiting for someone to show up for a meeting or any other place. What’s great is the impact 16 words making up verse 1 can have on the life of a sinner redeemed by the blood of Christ. What’s great is that because of this text I’ll be mindful to bless the Lord and praise Him continually.
What’s great is there are 756,984 more words for me to meditate on that reveal who man is and more importantly who God is. For that, I praise God.
I would highly encourage you to read the rest of Psalm 34. Today.
