Psalm 104 begins and ends with this phrase “Bless the Lord, O my soul!” We see this phrase a lot in Psalms, “bless the Lord” or “Blessed be the Lord”.
1. So what does it mean to bless God?
Why does the Bible often say “I bless God” and not just “I thank God?” and also, Isn’t it we who are the ones that are blessed by Him? Do we even have the power to bless God??
The word there for “bless” used by David is the Hebrew word “barak”. In Judaism, this is known as a berakhah or “blessing”. The name “Barack” as in Obama ( our previous president) - in African cultures the name “Barack” symbolizes good fortune or divine blessings.
Jewish blessings or Berakhahs typically start with the words "Blessed are You, Lord”. When this is at the beginning of a prayer, the words “our God, King/Ruler of the Universe” are added.
For example, the prayer/blessing that I would say before eating an apple would be “Blessed are You, Lord, our God, Ruler of the Universe, who creates the fruit of the tree,”
In Judaism, there are 3 reasons for saying a berakhah or blessing.
before obeying a commandment
on pleasurable experiences, such as before eating food or when smelling a sweet fragrance
in praise, gratitude or recognition of God or his creation
The function of saying this blessing is to acknowledge God as the source of all blessing. It also has an educational function by transforming a variety of everyday actions and occurrences into religious experiences, increasing awareness of God at all times.
When I was researching this, I found there was an influential rabbi who lived in the 2nd century, who declared that it was the duty of every Jew to recite one hundred of these blessings every single day!
Could I say 100 blessings per day? How could I make sure that I did that?
So if I wake up at 7 AM and go to bed at 10 PM, that’s 15 hours.
Day sections: I could fit 100 blessings into my day if I broke up my day into 4 sections, morning, afternoon, evening and bedtime, and I could do 25 each at that time.
hourly: if I said 7 blessings per hour, or i could say a blessing every 9 minutes and reach 100 that way.
Thankfully, Jesus does not put that requirement on us!
2. Food and Blessing
When it comes to food and blessing in the oral tradition of the rabbis and the rules in the Mishnah, it gets really nitpicky! This is what is taught about blessing and eating:
To “legitimately” partake of food, one must express gratitude to God by reciting the appropriate blessing beforehand”
So, you have to say the right blessing for the right type of food (and there are 6 different blessings for the different categories of food), there is also saying the right blessing after the meal and there are 5 types of those that depend on the category of food.
However, whether or not you have to actually say a blessing after eating is determined by how much you ate or drank within a defined time period: as in:
A. was the piece of good you ate bigger than an olive and
B. how long did it take you to eat it.
We have talked about this loophole mentality before that all humans have, and we learned about how the Jews got really, really good at it, when we were studying Romans last year. and here’s a good example right here. Because, they are essentially trying to figure out, what’s the biggest piece of food I can eat without having to thank God for it?
I was really shocked at how many rules there are about blessings! Blessings seem like they are supposed to be a joyous thing, but having all these rules and regulations just kind of takes the joy out of it (to me).
It reminds me of how Jesus would talk about the Pharisees giving a 1/10 of their spices their mint and dill and cumin - but neglecting the larger issues, the important things, justice, mercy and faithfulness. (Matthew 23)
And honestly, I’m thankful that as Christians we don’t have rules like that. I’m glad that Jesus didn’t put that on us, because it’s easy for me - and I think humans in general - to do things but not necessarily have our heart be in it. Like when Jesus quoted Isaiah and he said these people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.
I was also thinking if someone texted or called me 10 times a day to tell me that they loved me or to thank me, that would be pretty nice! But if I found out someone - not me - said they had to tell me they loved me 100 times per week to be a good husband or boyfriend…that would not feel good because that wouldn’t feel genuine. It wouldn’t feel authentic. I wouldn’t know if they were telling me that because they meant it or if it was just to meet their quota of 100.
I think the heart matters to God, otherwise Jesus wouldn’t have told the parable of the widow, how she put more into the treasury with her 2 small coins that all the wealthy put in with all their riches, because she meant it and it meant something to her to do that, it didn’t matter how many coins she put in - she was doing that from her heart.
3. So as Christians and non-Jews, how does this apply to us? Should we bless God?
Let’s look at Psalms 104 in Greek: the Greek translation of “berakhah” - (blessing) in the Greek translation of the Old Testament is “eulogeó”. It’s a compound word
“Eu” = good, well
“Logos” = words, speaking
I don’t have to tell you what it means because we already know this word! This is where we get our English word “eulogy”. This is what we do at funerals, we say good things about the deceased.
But David is not giving God a “eulogy” or speaking at a funeral, he’s just saying good things about God.
“The term "eulogia" primarily denotes a blessing or a benefit. It is used in the New Testament, it can imply a spoken blessing, a gift, or a benefit bestowed upon someone.
In Jewish tradition, blessings were integral to daily life and The New Testament usage of "eulogia" reflects these cultural understandings, emphasizing the importance of ‘blessing [s]’ in the life of believers and the community.” Biblehub.com
New Testament examples:
Jesus uses this word in Matthew 5
Matthew 5:44 love your enemies, bless those who curse you.
When he is saying “bless those” who curse you, to me this might mean more than just saying “bless you” or asking God’s blessings on them, I think it could also mean literally saying “good things/good words” about the people who say bad things about us - instead of saying bad things back about them. And that’s hard!
Paul uses it in Romans 12:
bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse, do not repay anyone evil for evil.
Paul blesses God at the beginning of the letter to the church in Ephesus:
Ephesians 1:3 “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ”.
Peter also blesses God at the beginning of his letter,
1 Peter 1:3 “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ”
Peter and Paul are both blessing God just like David did.
This word used by James in James chapter 3 where he is talking about the tongue:
James 3:9-10 With the tongue we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the likeness of God. Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so.
Blessing God - Saying good things about God, and cursing people - saying bad things about people, who were created in the image of God, is not what we as Christians should be doing. we should be mindful about the words we say about others and to others.
1 Peter 3:8-10 all of you be of one mind, having compassion for one another; love as brothers, be tenderhearted, be courteous, not returning evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, a blessing, knowing that you were called to this, that you may inherit blessing. For
“He who would love life
And see good days,
Let him refrain his tongue from evil,
And his lips from speaking deceit. (quoting Psalm 34)
So this theme of Godly people - not speaking evil - is consistent throughout the Bible. it’s in Psalms and in the New Testament too. If we want to be God’s people, we need to be mindful about the words we say - we need to say good words.
4. The three words in the N.T. translated as “blessed”.
Just seeing the word “blessed”, you wouldn’t know there are 3 different words translated as “blessed” In addition to the word “eulogy”, There are actually 2 other Greek words that are translated as “blessed”:
- Blessing word #2: Makarious is an adjective to describe a person who is supremely blessed, very fortunate, happy or well off.
When Jesus says in the beatitudes in Matthew 5, all the “blessed” statements that he says in how he describes people, he uses the word “makarious”.
Example: Blessed are the poor in spirit, blessed are the peacemakers, blessed are those who mourn.
He’s basically saying they are fortunate, even though it might not seem like it right now in physical terms. He is saying the poor in spirit are fortunate, because theirs is the kingdom of heaven. the people who mourn are fortunate because they will be comforted.
So Jesus’ idea of who is fortunate and who isn’t is kind of backwards than how the world defines being fortunate or happy or well off, we wouldn’t normally think of ourselves as lucky if those were things that were happening to us. But as Christians, our kingdom and our blessings are spiritual.
-Blessing word #3: Eucharist: This also might be a word some of us are familiar with, if you were raised Catholic, Presbyterian or Lutheran, then you might call The Lord’s Supper or the bread and cup itself “the eucharist”. I spent alot of time watching the catholic channel during covid, so that's what I assumed it was!
In Greek, “eucharisteo” means “thanksgiving” or “giving thanks”, (eu=good, charis = favor, thanks or grace.)
This word is associated with The Lord’s Supper:
Luke’s account: Jesus gave thanks for the bread and the cup, he uses the verb eucharisteo both times for when Jesus gave thanks.
In Matthew and Mark’s account of the passover,
When He took the cup: gave thanks they both use the verb eucharist
When he took bread: gave thanks they both use the verb eulogy
(I don’t mean to get too technical with the Greek words here, I just want to point at they both mean giving thanks. I know not everybody finds that interesting. But, the New Testament was written in Greek, and we speak English so…I’m not saying that things get “lost” in translation, necessarily, but when you’re translating from one language into another, no matter which one, the connections between words don’t always get conveyed.
So that’s all I’m trying to bring out, is just connections between words and maybe even how the 1st century Christians might have understood them. Because we want to be like them, right? We want to believe what they believed right? That’s all.)
But this Greek word “eucharist” is not used exclusively in pertaining to the Lord’s Supper, Eucharisteo (giving thanks or thanksgiving) is used in other verses to just mean give thanks or be thankful:
Jesus fed the 5,000 with five loaves of bread and 2 fish: Matthew and John
Matthew 14 Matthew uses the word eulogeo for when looked up to heaven and blessed (eulogeo) [God] and broke the bread
John 6: John uses the word eucharist for when Jesus gave thanks (eucharisteo) and broke the bread
So what I want to show here is that eulogy and eucharist are pretty much just different words for the same thing: giving thanks, and they are used interchangeably to describe giving thanks at same events.
Luke 17: A Samaritan leper that Jesus healed came and fell down at his feet, giving him thanks (eucharisteō)
Luke 18: the pharisee stood on the street corner said ‘I thank you (eucharisteō) God that I’m not like other men or like this tax collector.
Application for Christians in giving thanks? More uses of the word eucharist
There are instructions about giving God thanks - written to many of the Christian churches by Paul (and sometimes together with Timothy or Sylvanus) about giving thanks and being thankful.
Ephesians 5:4 there should not be filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor coarse jesting, but rather giving of thanks
5:20 Paul says we should give thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ
Colossians 3:17 whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.
4:2 be vigilant in prayer with thanksgiving
1 Thess 5:18 in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
Philippians 4: Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.
(This was one of the scriptures that I talked about when I taught afew months ago, if we need an example of how to pray to God with petition and thanksgiving, the Psalms are a great example of that!)
Paul writes to Timothy: 1 Timothy 2:1
petitions, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks should be made for all men.
(We are all created in God’s image. Even people we don’t like or disagree with, need our prayers.)
Paul also writes to Timothy about food and giving thanks:
1 Tim. 4:3-5 in later times some will teach you must abstain from food that God created to be received with thanksgiving. For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving , for it is made holy by the word of God and prayer.
Thankfully Paul is not instructing Timothy - or us - that we have to follow the rules in the law of Moses about which animals are clean or unclean. He’s also saying that we have to say the right blessing for the corresponding kind of food either. we don’t have to follow all the rules under the old law about food. All food is ok!. And it doesn’t matter how many blessings we say or which ones we say, what matters is that we are thankful to God from our heart.
Conclusion:
Can we bless God? Absolutely! We can praise and thank Him and acknowlege him as the source of all blessings!
As far as the Greek and Hebrew words we have learned, we have learned that ‘berakhah’ is the Hebrew word for bless or a blessing, and the Greek equivalent of that is ‘eulogy’ or ‘eucharist’, all translated as ‘bless’ or ‘give thanks’.
So as Christians, giving thanks to God (eucharist) - is important, as Jesus says, and Peter, James and Paul teach as well, always and in everything to God, through Jesus Christ. That’s God’s will for us.
So is blessing others - eulogizing them - saying good things about them, even if they say bad things about us.
I’m really thinking about the word “eulogy” differently. is Paul telling us to go speak at funerals? No. to only say good things about dead people who can’t hear us? it seems perhaps should be saying eulogy’s every day:
to God in praising him and thanking him
and also about others and to others because as James reminds us, we are all made in God’s image. but also to build them up and encourage them, especially if they are our Christian brothers and sisters, because we need that. That’s why the writer of Hebrews says don’t forsake the assembling of yourselves but encourage one another, because we need to hear encouragement and good words
Isn’t it so nice when we hear someone say something good about us or to us?
Printout 2: I came across this article about Jesus and blessings the morning before my lesson, so I didn't have time to incorporate it into my lesson, but it's REALLY good and informative about blessings, it's a PDF printable sheet, one page This is link to the website where I found this, scroll down the bottom of that webpage and you can see the entire article as a PDF.
Printout of blessings: So when I was reading about all these many blessings that the Jews say every day, I thought some of these were just so lovely, that I wanted to print them out and share them with you all.
I printed this out at my house and framed it because I want to memorize these and put these in my daily life.
Below is the downloadable and printable page of blessings that I made for this lesson that you can download below! (8.5x11, regular paper size)
Blessing God in Everyday Situations
The purpose of making a blessing is to look deep into the world we live in,
and find God in it.
Prayer of thanksgiving said upon waking: I thank You, living and eternal King, for You have
mercifully restored my soul within me; Your faithfulness is great.
(In Jewish thought, the soul is separated from the body during sleep, and is restored
to the body upon waking. The Bible often refers to death as sleep.)
Before eating any kind of food: Blessed are You, Lord, our God, Ruler of the universe,
who brings forth food from the ground.
Seeing anything beautiful in creation: lands, flowers, trees, sunrises/sets, storms:
Blessed are You, Lord, our God, Ruler of the Universe, Source of Creation
When you see a rainbow: Blessed are You, our God, Ruler of the Universe,
who remembers the covenant and keeps your promise.
On seeing someone of unusual appearance:
Blessed are You, Lord, our God, Ruler of the Universe, who makes people different.
When you hear good news of any kind:
Blessed are You, our God, Ruler of the Universe, who is good and causes good.
Experiencing something for the first time: new job, wearing new clothes, welcoming a new
child/grandchild & all of their “firsts” or celebrating the holidays as they come each season:
"Our praise to You, Eternal our God, Sovereign of all: for giving us life,
sustaining us, and enabling us to reach this season."
Surviving a potentially life-threatening situation, illness, journey or childbirth:
(blessing usually said in presence of others) “Blessed are You, Lord, Our God,
King of the Universe, who bestows kindness upon the undeserving,
for He has bestowed kindness upon me.”
Those in attendance answer, “Amen. May He who has bestowed kindness upon you,
always bestow kindness upon you.”
my prayer life has not been the greatest. I sometimes pray with the person praying at church assembly, and sometimes my mind is just gone somewhere else. And as a family we used to pray before meals, but I feel like that was just kind of “passive”, that wasn’t my me or my heart.
And as I’ve gotten older, I’ve tried to have a better prayer life, I see Paul telling us to give thanks in all situations and to praise God…I just didn’t know how to bridge that gap, in a practical way, like how do I do that, exactly?
The psalms are helping me, in reading those and seeing prayer and praise and petition together, but after reading all these blessings, I think I understand the mindset that Paul had as a Jew - blessing God in everything. He’s not putting that on us as Christians the same as it was for the Jews, with all the rules and the requirements, but he’s commanding us to do it AND but also to be sincere about it.
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