Psalm 115:9-18 - "The LORD Will Bless Us"

Psalm 115:9-15 9 O Israel, trust in the LORD; He is their help and their shield. 10 O house of Aaron, trust in the LORD; He is their help and their shield. 11 You who fear the LORD, trust in the LORD; He is their help and their shield.   12 The LORD has been mindful of us; He will bless us; He will bless the house of Israel; He will bless the house of Aaron. 13 He will bless those who fear the LORD, Both small and great. 14 May the LORD give you increase more and more, You and your children. 15 May you be blessed by the LORD, Who made heaven and earth. The blessings of the LORD do not just randomly fall upon someone or upon a nation. Yet if there is anything that we really need it is the blessings of God to be on us. To be blessed by God means that God’s face is shining upon us. That He is obviously protecting and providing for us. It means that His presence can be seen and felt in our lives and in our nation. If a person or a nation turns away from the true and living God from heaven, He turns away from them. Before God judges and chastens us, He first begins to withhold His blessings and instead of experiencing peace and security we begin to see confusion, chaos, corruption and violence. Jesus first recorded message in Matthew 5 begins with the qualifications that are needed to enjoy the blessings of God. The very first requirement to enjoy the blessings of the LORD is to be “poor in spirit”. This of course is the opposite of being “proud in spirit”. We must humble ourselves and become beggars, humbly and desperately seeking after God and His presence and power in our lives. Remember in Psalm 115 the Gentile pagan people are asking the question of the Jewish remnant, “Where is your God”. The psalmist is giving them the answer in this chapter. God is reigning in heaven over all His creation and is doing whatever He pleases (vv. 1- 3). He next tells them that their idol gods that they worship are nothing more that a piece of wood covered with some gold and silver that can’t talk, walk, smell, hear or don’t anything (vv. 4-8). Now in verses 9-15, the theme is, "Trust the Lord and He will give His blessing", and how the discouraged remnant needed that assurance! They needed His blessing on their crops, and they wanted their number to increase (v. 14). Of course, the Lord had stated this in His covenant with Israel (Lev. 26:1-13; Deut. 28:1-14), and all they needed was His reminder. In verses 11 and 13, "those who fear God" were the ones who qualified for His blessings. God had been Abraham's "help and shield" (Gen. 15:1), and He will also protect us and provide for us (Psalm 3:3; 28:7; 33:20; Deut. 33:29). Because Jehovah God is the "Maker of heaven and earth" (v. 15; 121:2; 124:8; 134:3; 146:6; Isa. 40:12-26; Jer. 10:11), we should worship Him and not what He has created or what we manufacture ourselves. Next the psalmist reminds the remnant that our living God deserves our praise (vv. 16-18). The word "bless" is used five times in verses 12-15, and we cannot live without His blessing, but it is also good for us to bless the Lord (v. 18). To "bless the Lord" means to ascribe all glory and praise to Him, to delight His heart with our joyful and willing thanksgiving and obedience. (See 16:7; 26:12; 34:1; 100:4; 103:1; 134:2.) God made the earth and gave it to men and women to meet their needs and give them work to do, cooperating with Him in the development of His abundant resources (v. 16; Gen. 2:8-25). The people who worship dead idols are also dead, but we are alive in Jesus Christ and ought to extol the Lord! After all, if we expect to praise Him forevermore, we had better start now and be ready when we see Him! We must fear the LORD and seek Him with our whole hearts if we want to experience and enjoy His blessings! Are the blessings of the LORD evident in your life and family to the questioning pagans around you? God bless!