1 Chronicles 17:27 Now therefore let it please you to bless the house of your servant, that it may be before you for ever: for you bless, O LORD… David puts his desire and prayer into the one expressive word "bless," and that because he has such a full apprehension of what God's blessing is to his people. "For thou blessest, O Lord, and it shall be blessed for ever." Men ask for the summum bonum. David finds it in the enrichment and the satisfying of the Divine goodness. "The blessing of the Lord maketh rich." As the verse on which we are dwelling reads in 2 Samuel 7:29, "With thy blessing let the house of thy servant be blessed for ever." The word "bless is used with great frequency in the Old Testament, and evidently with a variety of meanings. It is difficult to fix upon a definition of the term which will express the essential idea that underlies the diversity of its forms. A distinction, however, is made in Psalm 145:10, All thy works shall praise thee, O Lord; and thy saints shall bless thee." From this choice of different terms we may learn that "bless" carries the idea of the intelligent agent who knows and loves the object with which he deals, and seeks for gracious adaptations to feeling as well as to need. If saints bless God, it means that they intelligently and lovingly apprehend the goodness of his dealings, and express their feelings of thankful love. If God blesses saints, it means that he intelligently considers their conditions, and finds and adapts grace precisely to their needs; and that whatsoever he does for them turns out to be for their ultimate good. We have come to use the term without due consideration, and as a mere formality. It often hides the fact that we have no precise petitions to present; and so we fall back upon the general prayer for blessing. We should be placed in extreme difficulty, if God were to say in reply to our prayer for blessing, "Say precisely what it is you want. Translate your word. Use exact terms. Ask for the very things which press upon your heart. For my blessing is this - 'the supply of all your needs out of my riches in glory.'" It may be well to show further what God's blessing would be to a royal house or dynasty, and to a nation or people, noting the special features of that blessing as applied to David's house and kingdom. I. "BLESS" STANDS FOR ALL KINDS OF REAL GOOD - without venturing to specify any. It may fittingly be used in prayer when we have no specific desires, and only want to run into the shadow of God's goodness. And it may be used when we are in difficulty, and do not even know what things we ought to ask. Sometimes we are afraid to ask definitely lest we should ask amiss; and then we may leave the form of the answer with God, only asking him to bless. II. "BLESS" THROWS THE MATTER WHOLLY BACK ON THE PERSON FROM WHOM THE GOOD IS SOUGHT. Compare the cry of Esau, "Bless me, O my father!" He could not tell what to ask, but left the matter with his father, and with full confidence in the fatherly love. So for us to ask God to bless us should be the expression of our full submission and entire surrender to his wisdom and grace in fixing the form which the good shall take; so it may be - and should be - a fitting expression of the right attitude and spirit of God's people, who trust the whole matter of their temporal and spiritual good to him, and will not even seem to dictate to him. Enough for all true hearts to pray with David, "Let it please thee to bless us," "for with thy blessing shall the house of thy servant be blessed for ever." III. THE BLESSINGS WHICH GOD FINDS, FOR THOSE WHO THUS FULLY TRUST HIM, MUST MAKE THEM INFINITELY BLESSED. The things God sends will make them blessed, and their gracious moral influence on such recipients will make them double blessings. Christ's miracles of healing were Divine blessings, and the healed ones were doubly blessed, in body and in soul. God's gifts and providences now become double blessings; they order and hallow our lives; they help to meeten us for the "inheritance of the saints in the light." God still blesses with the eternal blessings. - R.T. Parallel Verses KJV: Now therefore let it please thee to bless the house of thy servant, that it may be before thee for ever: for thou blessest, O LORD, and it shall be blessed for ever. |
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