Day 39 with David - There is power in blessing.

“May the Lord answer you in the day of trouble; May the name of the God of Jacob defend you; May He send you help from the sanctuary, And strengthen you out of Zion; May He remember all your offerings, And accept your burnt sacrifice. Selah May He grant you according to your heart’s desire, And fulfill all your purpose. We will rejoice in your salvation, And in the name of our God we will set up our banners! May the Lord fulfill all your petitions. Save, Lord! May the King answer us when we call.”

‭‭Psalms‬ ‭20:1-5, 9‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

Once upon a time there were twin boys born to a very important man. These twins couldn’t have been more different: one was a rough hunter, the other, more of the business type, cleaner cut. One day the hunter twin became extremely hungry. He had been on a long hunt and now thought he was to the point of dying if he didn’t eat soon (chances are he was not as near death as he thought). Suddenly, he comes upon his brother who had prepared a pot of lentils. The hungry hunter asked the lentil cooker for a bowl of the soup. “Well,” the lentil cooker said, “I will do that if you will give me your birthright.” Now you may be wondering what a “birthright” is and why the lentil cooker desired it. The birthright was the blessing given to the first born of a family. With the birthright came a better inheritance. Since the hungry Hunter was the first to emerge into the world, he would necessarily have the greater blessing of the father. Well, the hungry Hunter decided that the birthright would be nothing to him if he starved to death (a decision he later greatly regretted), therefore he “sold” his birthright to the younger twin for a bowl of lentils. Well, the time came when it looked like the father was close to death so that the blessing would need to be soon bestowed. So, the lentil cooker colluded with his mother to deceive the father. The truth was that the father actually favored the hungry hunter because he liked the food he provided. Knowing that the father now was basically blind, the mother fashioned hairy covers for the arms of the smooth lentil cooker and sent him in to get the blessing from the father. The father was successfully deceived and blessed the younger twin.

Of course, there is much more to that story; and—as you might’ve guessed—we’re talking here about Jacob and Esau. Jacob was the lentil cooker, Esau, the hungry hunter, and Isaac, the father. This story, alone, indicates how important the blessing was to the Lord, and, by extension, to His people.

Consider this: the Lord thought that the blessing was important enough that He instructed Moses exactly how the priests were to bless the people:

“And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: “Speak to Aaron and his sons, saying, ‘This is the way you shall bless the children of Israel. Say to them: “The Lord bless you and keep you; The Lord make His face shine upon you, And be gracious to you; The Lord lift up His countenance upon you, And give you peace.”’ “So they shall put My name on the children of Israel, and I will bless them.””

‭‭Numbers‬ ‭6:22-27‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

So, here we have the people whom the Lord had blessed, now being instructed to bless the people. In this case, the priests were to be dispensers of God’s favor to the people.

It’s very sad to deal with people who have never felt the favor of those whose approval they so desperately seek. It seems that they flounder through life, looking for approval to fill the hole in their souls produced by what was not given: the blessing.

Now, I don’t clutch my pearls at every four-letter word I hear. I watch what comes out of my mouth; but I’m not trying to police everybody else. However, the one thing that is difficult for me to hear is when people invoke the name of God while damning other people. It may be said out of anger; it may be said without thinking about what is really being said. But, damming other people is very, very serious. Whether we “mean” it or not, to take the words of cursing into our mouth, is not pleasing to the Lord (to say the least). Now, we know that there are people who will be damned because of their rebellion against God. But, it is not our place to run around damning everybody.

On the other hand, we should not bless what God would not bless. We often invoke the words, “Bless you,” superstitiously when someone sneezes. In so doing, we may be blessing what is not blessed by God. I mention that just to make us more aware of what we’re saying, and the meaning of what we are saying. With that, I will repeat: a blessing is a very serious thing. Additionally, God wants us to be conduits of the blessings we have received by extending that blessing to others.

In our portion from Psalms today we see that David understood the importance of a blessing. It seems that verses 1 - 5 and 9 (Psalm 20) were actually spoken by the congregation to the king as a request for the favor of God on him as he went into battle. Can’t you just see David in his battle array, standing or kneeling there, as the people spoke the blessing over him before he went into battle? God was pleased with this; and, He is pleased when we bless one another.

For today let us know and understand what David knew:

There is power in blessing.

#100dayswithdavid