The Blessings of Being Forgiven

I love the way that this psalm opens up with that term that is peppered throughout the scriptures and gives so much hope but could be interpreted so many ways.

Blessed Blessed.

We don't use that particular word in our day-to-day context.

We say that someone is blessed, but very rarely do we say blessed is or blessed be unless it's in a context of like gathered worship.

And I think it's appropriate.

to give some special weight to this word, to feel a little reticent on deploying a word so potent, so powerful.

Admittedly, in our own context, blessed could just mean good vibes.

Too blessed to be stressed, as the bumper sticker would say.

And yet, the biblical weight behind the word is so much bigger than just words.

warm, fuzzy feelings.

So much more than sitting on the beach or sipping a cup of coffee.

It really carries with it the idea of what the secular world would think of as good fortune.

Oh, Fortuna, the idea of this divine power behind you and at your back, the favored one.

The one who has this divine enablement, they just seem to use another secular word, lucky.

Things just work out well for them.

Now, in a secular worldview, that's either random.

There's some impersonal forces at work that would favor some people over another.

But within the context of Scripture, that type of experience of divine enablement and favor of blessing is something that only God himself can grant.

It's something that comes from on high and it's something that is reserved for a special people.

And so we see these pronouncements throughout the scriptures that the people of God are blessed.

Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount starts off preaching to his disciples saying, Bless it.

Bless it.

Bless it.

And even the book of Psalms itself gives us some hope of how to experience this divine favor from God in its very opening.

Do you remember it? Maybe flip to it if you can.