Titus 2 Men And Women

I Can Bless God?
by Sharon Merhalski

I Can Bless God?

By Sharon Merhalski

As a child of God I so often pray for God to bless me and I so often tell others how God has blessed me.  As I was reading in the book of Psalms a verse seemed to leap off of the page, "O bless our God, ye people, and make the voice of his praise to be heard:" (Psalm 66:8).  And then a question filled my heart: How often do I think about blessing God? I always want to praise God for His goodness and provision but I don’t think I have ever thought of my doing so as a blessing to God.

How can I bless God?

Psalm 66

Vs. 1  "....Make a joyful noise unto God, all ye lands:

Vs. 2  Sing forth the honour of his name: make his praise glorious.

Vs. 3  Say unto God, How terrible art thou in thy works! through the greatness of thy power shall thine enemies submit themselves unto thee.

Vs. 4  All the earth shall worship thee, and shall sing unto thee; they shall sing to thy name. Selah.

Vs. 5  Come and see the works of God: he is terrible in his doing toward the children of men.

Vs. 6  He turned the sea into dry land: they went through the flood on foot: there did we rejoice in him.

Vs. 7  He ruleth by his power for ever; his eyes behold the nations: let not the rebellious exalt themselves. Selah.

Vs. 8  O bless our God, ye people, and make the voice of his praise to be heard:

Vs. 9  Which holdeth our soul in life, and suffereth not our feet to be moved.

Vs. 10  For thou, O God, hast proved us: thou hast tried us, as silver is tried.

Vs. 11  Thou broughtest us into the net; thou laidst affliction upon our loins.

Vs. 12  Thou hast caused men to ride over our heads; we went through fire and through water: but thou broughtest us out into a wealthy place.

Vs. 13  I will go into thy house with burnt offerings: I will pay thee my vows,

Vs. 14  Which my lips have uttered, and my mouth hath spoken, when I was in trouble.

Vs. 15  I will offer unto thee burnt sacrifices of fatlings, with the incense of rams; I will offer bullocks with goats. Selah.

Vs. 16  Come and hear, all ye that fear God, and I will declare what he hath done for my soul.

Vs. 17  I cried unto him with my mouth, and he was extolled with my tongue.

Vs. 18  If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me:

Vs. 19  But verily God hath heard me; he hath attended to the voice of my prayer.

Vs. 20  Blessed be God, which hath not turned away my prayer, nor his mercy from me."

Verse five, six and sixteen made me stop and think for a long time.  God says we are to ask those people that fear (fear/reverence) God to give us an audience—to "come and see"and hear—as we declare "what He hath done for my sou". Verse two says we are to make "his praise glorious" which (defined with the Strong’s Concordance) means weighty, copious, glorious, honorable.  Hmmmm  these definitions make me realize my blessing God is to take more than two to three sentences or seconds.  Verses five through seven says we are to speak "the works of God" and relate great things He has done and Who He is.  And verse twenty tells us we are to share our answers to prayer. In doing all these things verse eight says we bless God by making "the voice of His praise to be heard." 

I often give a testimony in church but I cannot remember ever thinking I was blessing God by doing so.

I have thought much about my being able to bless God and considered many verses of scripture  I will share with you at the end of this article.  I have wondered many times why I have never considered that anything I could to could actually bless God.  I believe it is because I have never heard this thought taught before.

I have heard much taught and preached about praising God.  Often the teaching and preaching has been done in admonition because generally many Christians in many denominations don’t do much—or at least enough—of it. I have heard the words "thanksgiving" and "praise" linked and extolled as everything from my duty to the cure for sadness, anxiety, depression...even some physical illnesses.  But I cannot remember anyone telling me that if I want to bless God--be a blessing to my Abba Father—I need to praise Him before men.

It makes me sad to say that I don’t hear a majority of Christians blessing God by verbally praising Him.  And I include me in this statistic.  Oh, often I have said what flooded over from my heart and I remember facing the blank stares—or worse—the looks of "what planet are you from?"  Sadder yet, I don’t see a majority of Bible-believing Christians blessing God with their countenance and/or lifestyle.  It is not a blessing to God for His children to live in anxiety, fear, depression, scornfulness and pessimism...or in acts of sin.

The Bible says we are a living epistle: 

"Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men: Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.  And such trust have we through Christ to God-ward:"  II Corinthians 3:2-4

Today may we each look at what others are reading in our book...our lives.  Do they read a life that blesses God? Or are men reading a life that shows them a God incapable of taking care of His children and incapable of fulfilling the promises He made in His Word/the Bible?

I am going to let God speak and teach through the following verses of scripture.  I pray you will read through these with a searching and open heart.  I hope you will ask God to teach you how to bless the God of your salvation for He blesses us every day with a promised home in Heaven, the air we breathe, the water we drink, the sunshine for warmth and every thing we need to live for Him and others.

The Bible says God blesses His children:

Genesis 26:24 "And the Lord appeared unto him the same night, and said, I am the God of Abraham thy father: fear not, for I am with thee, and will bless thee, and multiply thy seed for my servant Abraham's sake."

Genesis 28:3 "And God Almighty bless thee, and make thee fruitful, and multiply thee, that thou mayest be a multitude of people;"

Deuteronomy 24:

19. "When thou cuttest down thine harvest in thy field, and hast forgot a sheaf in the field, thou shalt not go again to fetch it: it shall be for the stranger, for the fatherless, and for the widow: that the Lord thy God may bless thee in all the work of thine hands.

 20.  When thou beatest thine olive tree, thou shalt not go over the boughs again: it shall be for the stranger, for the fatherless, and for the widow.

 21.  When thou gatherest the grapes of thy vineyard, thou shalt not glean it afterward: it shall be for the stranger, for the fatherless, and for the widow.

22. And thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in the land of Egypt: therefore I command thee to do this thing."

Deuteronomy 30:16 "In that I command thee this day to love the Lord thy God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his judgments, that thou mayest live and multiply: and the Lord thy God shall bless thee in the land whither thou goest to possess it.

Acts 3: 26 "Unto you first God, having raised up his Son Jesus, sent him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities."

Psalms 67

1. God be merciful unto us, and bless us; and cause his face to shine upon us; Selah.

2. That thy way may be known upon earth, thy saving health among all nations.

3. Let the people praise thee, O God; let all the people praise thee

4. O let the nations be glad and sing for joy: for thou shalt judge the people righteously, and govern the nations upon earth. Selah.

5. Let the people praise thee, O God; let all the people praise thee.

6. Then shall the earth yield her increase; and God, even our own God, shall bless us.

7. God shall bless us; and all the ends of the earth shall fear him.

The Bible says we are to bless God:

Deuteronomy 8:

7 "For the Lord thy God bringeth thee into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and depths that spring out of valleys and hills;....

10. When thou hast eaten and art full, then thou shalt bless the Lord thy God for the good land which he hath given thee."

I Chronicles 29: 20 "And David said to all the congregation, Now bless the Lord your God. And all the congregation blessed the Lord God of their fathers, and bowed down their heads, and worshipped the Lord, and the king."

Nehemiah 9:

5  "Then the Levites, Jeshua, and Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabniah, Sherebiah, Hodijah, Shebaniah, and Pethahiah, said, Stand up and bless the Lord your God for ever and ever: and blessed be thy glorious name, which is exalted above all blessing and praise.

6.  Thou, even thou, art Lord alone; thou hast made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth, and all things that are therein, the seas, and all that is therein, and thou preservest them all; and the host of heaven worshippeth thee." (And they remembered their landmarks.)

Psalm 68:26  "Bless ye God in the congregations, even the Lord, from the fountain of Israel."

Psalm 104:

1 "Bless the Lord, O my soul. O Lord my God, thou art very great; thou art clothed with honour and majesty.

33. I will sing unto the Lord as long as I live: I will sing praise to my God while I have my being.

34. My meditation of him shall be sweet: I will be glad in the Lord.

35. Let the sinners be consumed out of the earth, and let the wicked be no more. Bless thou the Lord, O my soul. Praise ye the Lord."

Psalm 145

1. I will extol thee, my God, O king; and I will bless thy name for ever and ever.

2. Every day will I bless thee; and I will praise thy name for ever and ever

3. Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; and his greatness is unsearchable.

God tells us to praise Him:

Hebrews 13:

15. By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name.

16. But to do good and to communicate forget not: for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.

Psalm 42:

4. Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted in me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance.

5. O my God, my soul is cast down within me: therefore will I remember thee from the land of Jordan, and of the Hermonites, from the hill Mizar.

Luke 18:

42. And Jesus said unto him, Receive thy sight: thy faith hath saved thee.

43. And immediately he received his sight, and followed him, Glorifying God: and all the people, when they saw it, gave praise unto God.

Luke 19:

36.  And when he was come nigh, even now at the descent of the mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen;

37. Saying, Blessed be the King that cometh in the name of the Lord: peace in heaven, and glory in the highest.

God tells us we are to glorify Him.  May we do so through our praise:  Through our words and manner of living may we each tell Who God is, what He is doing in our lives, and what He has done in the past.

Psalm 50: 23 "Whoso offereth praise glorifieth me: and to him that ordereth his conversation aright will I shew the salvation of God."

Psalm 86:12 "I will praise thee, O Lord my God, with all my heart: and I will glorify thy name for evermore."

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