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Blessing

             Blessed is everyone who fears the Lord, Who walks in His ways.

When you eat the fruit of the labor of your hands, you will be happy and it will go well for you.
Your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house, your children like olive plants
around your table.
Behold, for so shall a man who fears the Lord be blessed.

            The Lord bless you from Zion, and may you see the prosperity of Jerusalem all the days of your life.

            Indeed, may you see your children’s children.  Peace be upon Israel! (Psalm 128)

 

            Baruk (Blessing): favor, happiness, living according to God’s ways of approval. It was tied to God leading the children of Israel forward and taking refuge in the Lord.

 

            I’m going to approach today’s blog a little differently because in today’s chapter in A Long Obedience in the Same Direction, Eugene Peterson says things that I think deserve to be quoted and considered.

“The easiest thing in the world is to be a Christian. What is hard is to be a sinner. Being a Christian is what we were created for. The life of faith has the support of an entire creation and the resources of a magnificent redemption.” (p 115, emphasis mine.)

            If you asked me what we were created for, I would probably tell you that it is to love God and love our neighbors as ourselves. You might agree. But have you really thought about the idea that Christianity is what we were created for? Or that you have the support of creation and the resources of God at your disposal for that purpose? We know this, but we don’t live it.

“Blessing has inherent in it the power to increase.” (p. 118)

            This goes against what we have been told. We tend to think in terms of blessing providing us with more for our use, but this is where the phrase “blessed to be a blessing” comes in. It’s something I long to do. I weed, donate platelets, and sell craft items to support my gardening, so that I can grow food to feed myself, to feed a neighbor, to donate to the food pantry, and to sell so I can make money with which to repeat the cycle. I write stories in hopes of making money but also to share interesting ideas within a good story. When we lose track of the blessing we’re giving, it all becomes drudgery.

“John Calvin…pointed out that we must develop better and deeper concepts of happiness than those held by the world, which makes a happy life to consist in ‘ease honours, and great wealth.’[1] Psalm 128 helps sus to do that. Too much of the world’s happiness depends on taking form one person to satisfy another.” (p. 118)

            The day before yesterday, I shared again the idea that conservatives have long been bad at telling their story. They let liberals define the terms and make the arguments - to which conservatives can say little but, “No, that’s not the answer.” They can’t provide an answer, but they know the liberal answer is not it. Christians are often no better than conservatives at telling their story. We need to be in prayer about that. We’re supposed to be witnesses, after all - and witnesses are called on to tell their stories.

“…the world -- the society of proud and arrogant humankind that defies and tries to eliminate God’s rule and presence in history; the flesh -- the corruption that sin has introduced into our very appetites and instincts; and the devil -- the malignant will that tempt and seduces us away from the will of God.” (p. 119.)

            This last one doesn’t need commentary. We’ve recently dealt with these ideas, but I like the definitions.


[1] John Calvin, Commentary on the Psalms (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1949) 5:115.

 

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