Praying for the Blessing

With all my heart I want your blessings.
 Be merciful as you promised. – Psalm 119:58

I’ve been reading the Psalms a lot recently and every time I do, I find some little nugget that causes me to pause.  Some of these pauses are short lived but every now and then one of them will just throw a day-long brain hiccup at me.  This particular verse got me this morning.  Immediately, it took over my thought process and just as quickly I was mentally slammed by all these different ways to interpret and own the passage – and each interpretation brought new hope and new life.
I think anyone would be hard pressed to not want the blessings of God in their life.  I don’t know anyone who would say, “Hey God, how are ya, I’m good so you keep all the blessings and give them to somebody else – thanks, Amen.”  Normally, I think the exact opposite is true – “God, I’m really thankful for all you’ve given me, but you know I really could use a new car, or all my bills paid or just a Million dollars would be nice!”  Truth be told, I have a really hard time looking at the blessings, I’ve already received – and trust me their are millions of them each day!
It would be easy to see that the blessings of God would only include material things (which some may even say that material things are the farthest things from blessings), but I wonder if we short change God’s offering of blessing when we only see it this way?  Of course, we could add our health and the health of those we love as blessings, but what happens when we’re sick?  Did God remove His blessings from us?  If we’re in the throws of a deep sadness, or as the Biblical writers would say, the pit, does that mean God isn’t for us and we’re not experiencing God’s blessing.
I could write countless words on the idea of God’s Blessing and we could still not even scratch the surface of this idea and topic.  It’s so tied into the very essence of God that we’d have to do engage in a discussion on the very nature of who God is in order to begin to understand.  But, what I can say is that it seems to me that God’s goodness, God’s very nature, compels in this righteous manner that God bless.  God’s nature is Goodness.  God has, over and over again, revealed Gods-self to us as Father – as one who longs to care and comfort, to give and to lift up.  This Father longs to see creation soar and be renewed and step away from all the things that keep humanity “un-functioning”.
With all this, what if the deepest blessing that this Good, Loving, Longing-for-creation-to-be-whole, God could offer us was HIM?  What if the deepest blessing we could ever receive was the awareness that God is for us, that God is with us, that God holds us?  If this is the blessing then our circumstances won’t determine whether we feel if God is for us or not.  In fact, when the cruddy stuff of life happens, we don’t have to blame God for removing blessing, but can know that God with us, and the awareness that God shoulders the suffering with us can indeed lead to forward steps.
This takes the uncomfortable idea that God’s blessing involves, solely, some kind of provision.  Don’t get me wrong, God’s provision at a point of need is surely a blessing!  I’ve been in need many times in my life, and God’s blessing has not only filled me with joy, but saved my butt on more than one occasion.  But, if we only see that blessing in this light, we’ll always be wanting more (at least I will).  There are millions of people who will never read this blog and not because they just don’t care, but because they don’t have access to the blessing of technology, internet or even electricity.  In those cases, what if God’s blessing to them is us?  What if our blessing is to bless them?
What I love about this Psalm is not just the blessing part, but the mercy part.  It’s as if the psalmist is saying “God, in your goodness and holiness, let me be aware fully of all the blessings you long for me to experience this day, and be merciful to me so that when I screw it all up and walk away from your way, or even walk opposed to your way, that your renown and your message will still be shared and experienced by those around me.”  I love that – God don’t let my failures keep others from receiving the blessings you would use me to share because of my rebellion.  Mercy, now that’s a blessing!  I hope that today, you’ll be aware of God’s blessing, that you’ll be able to receive all that God has for you and that, where it’s needed, mercy will cover you and guide you to be the blessing.
Wherever you are today, may you know the deepest, greatest blessing of all – God is with you.  May you also know that God’s mercy is covering you.  May you extend both blessing and mercy to those around you!

Blessings!