Study 9 "Have a Blessed Day? Part 1"

Psalm 5.12

Blessing* has become a popular concept among believers. We wish for others a "blessed day" (as in, "Have a nice day!"). Someone who does us a favor is a "real blessing," and what they do for us or give us is also a blessing. The meaning of the word bless has become about as blurry as the meaning for the word love. We love our spouses, children, dogs, vacation spot, and peanut butter all with the same fervor. So, how should we believers understand the concept of bless, blessed, and blessing? Is being blessed a material thing, an event in time, or a person?

Probably, we all share some kind of general understanding of what blessed means. When we speak of being blessed or experiencing a blessing, most understand this as having something beneficial happen to us. Yet, are we being faithful to the biblical concept of blessing as we employ the modern concept of the word?

We must be clear and certain on one central point. If a concept is presented in a particular manner in the Bible, we each would be wise to be true to the biblical usage. We are keen to follow the command to witness, gather as worshiping communities, not steal, kill, lie, etc. Should we be any less avid in how we employ bless?

I think we should be as consistent with this word as with any other. As I will hope to show in several articles about bless, we might be denying ourselves great comfort and advantage if we misunderstand the biblical term bless. To water down any biblical concept or principle leads to the polluting and rationalizing of others. Remember, a central truth of stewardship is that faithfulness in small things leads to responsibility in larger ones. To misuse what appears to be a small theological point has implications for our handling of more significant issues. The following illustrates the problem in the most tragic terms.

George Barna reported on-line the following in "The Barna Update" about the results of a post 9-11 survey. He stated, "The groups most likely to endorse the existence of absolute moral truths include Baby Boomers (i.e., people 37 to 55 years of age - 28% of whom embrace absolute truth), adults who attend non-mainline Protestant churches (32%) and born again individuals (32%). . . . Interestingly, when people were further queried as to the source of the principles or standards on which they base their moral and ethical decisions, the post-attack survey discovered that only one out of eight adults - just 13% - cited the Bible. The most common sources of guidance regarding moral decisions trusted by Americans are feelings (25%) and the lessons and values they remember from their parents (14%)."

What can we learn about bless from Psalm 5.12 that will protect us from error? Note the construction of the verse. David used the literary device called parallelism when he wrote this particular poem. "For it is You who bless the righteous man, O Lord, You who surround him with favor as with a shield."

For God to bless is to have him grant favor. The word favor means "to pleasure, to delight." We could say that to favor someone, or as in the Psalm, to surround one with favor, is to grant goodwill. So, God surrounds the righteous person with his goodwill. In the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament, Psalm 5.12 includes an interesting word play with the terms for bless and favor. The word for bless in Greek (as used in Psa. 5.12) would be transliterated into English as eulogia. The word for favor is eudokia.

Both these terms are compound words. In each word, the small Greek adverb eu, meaning well is used. In bless, the second part of the word is logia (similar to logos), meaning words. So, eulogia literally means "good words." To favor uses a Greek word that means either to accept someone or something or to find favor. So, we might say the word means to find favor, or, to favor someone with good. Thus, goodwill.

So, to bless is to grant something good to another person. "O Lord, You bless, You grant goodwill as protection to the righteous person." Interestingly, by the way, favor surrounds as a shield, so when a person experiences the blessing and favor of God, he experiences the protection of God. Psalm 5.11 speaks of God’s care as a shade that provides relief. Psalm 5.12 describes God’s blessing and favor as protection.

What about the Hebrew word for bless? Interestingly, two words for bless are found in the Hebrew Scriptures. A look at these words and their Greek equivalents and the contexts in which they are found is quite revealing and illuminating. In the next study, we will begin our study of these important words.

*I will use blessing, bless, and blessed interchangeably.