Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
The noun "blessing" means something that gives happiness. The verb "to bless" means to make someone happy. But in Psalm 103 it all seems turned around: we are told to "bless the Lord, O my soul" (vs. 1). How could any of us mere mortals, sinful at that, make the great Lord of heaven and earth happy?
The Psalm tells us how--remember all the wonderful things He constantly does for us: "forget not all His benefits" (vs. 2). We were created in the image of Him; we are created to be like Him, and He is therefore like us in this particular: it makes Him happy when we appreciate Him for what He is.
The story of Barzillai in 2 Samuel, chapter 19, is one of the happiest little narratives in the Bible. King David had sinned and ruined his own security and happiness; Absalom had rebelled against him; and the king had to flee for his life.
Barzillai did all he could to care for King David during this crisis. "Barzillai was a very aged man, 80 years old. And he had provided the king with supplies" while the king was in flight from his enemy. The old man said he could no longer "discern between the good and bad," or "taste what I eat or what I drink," or "hear any longer the voice of singing" (vss. 32, 35).
But Barzillai found for himself forever an honorable place in the Holy Bible because he chose to be unselfish and to help "the Lord's anointed" in a time of need. This old man was living under the glorious New Covenant, for God had promised that under it, wherever you go throughout the world, "you shall be a blessing" (Gen. 12:2, 3).
Yes, under the New Covenant, everywhere you go you will leave behind the memory of making people happy (in the eternal sense). That in itself is reward enough for anybody.
--Robert J. Wieland
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: April 8, 2008.
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