Those who are blessed by God
[Psalms 115]
I meditated on Colossians 1:6 at this morning prayer meeting: “which has come to you, just as in all the world also it is constantly bearing fruit and increasing, even as it has been doing in you also since the day you heard of it and understood the grace of God in truth.” As I meditated on this word, I was taught that from the day when I heard the gospel and truly realized God's grace, I must have “fruit” in my life. The deeper, the broader, and the more I realize that grace, the more I am taught that I must bear fruit in all good works (v. 10). What is the great grace God has given us? The apostle Paul says, “in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (v. 14). In the great grace that God has given us, I have thought about redemption, the forgiveness of sins. Indeed, just thinking about this fact that the problem of sin was solved in Jesus, I cannot help but be grateful.
We who have received this grace of God and still receiving it, this is what the Bible Psalms 115:15 says: “May you be blessed of the LORD, Maker of heaven and earth.” The Bible says that we are blessed by God. Yes. We are those who are blessed by God. We who are blessed and have received the tremendous great blessing. How much blessed we are because we are loved by God, are chosen by Him, are predestined, and are saved through the death and resurrection of Jesus and received eternal life. Above all, since Jesus, who is the source of blessings, is our Lord and is with us, we have no choice but to think, “I am a blessed person,” when we count the blessings we have received. Just thinking that the Lord who blessed us loves us and is with us, we cannot but say that we are blessed by God and are still being blessed. In verse 15, the psalmist says that the Israelites are those who are blessed by God. The psalmist prayed for such a blessing to them: “May the LORD give you increase, You and your children” (v. 14). When I thought of this psalmist's prayer for blessing, I remembered Joey, the first grandchild of Deacon Kim in our church. The reason is that I remember hearing from the child's mother that the name “Joey” means “God increases”. The blessing prayer given by the psalmist in Psalms 115 is that he wanted more prosperity, that is a prayer that blessed the increase of the number of Israelites (including both the current Israelites and their descendants) (Park). How to know it, we can find out in verse 16: “The heavens are the heavens of the LORD, But the earth He has given to the sons of men.” The psalmist prayed for prosperity to the Israelites with confidence based on the fact that the One who blesses the Israelites is Almighty God and that God gave the earth to humans to multiply (Park).
If so, who is the one who is blessed with such a prosperous blessing from God? I would like to think about three things based on Psalms 115:
First, those who are blessed by God to prosper are those who give glory to God.
Look at Psalms 115:1 – “Not to us, O LORD, not to us, But to Your name give glory Because of Your lovingkindness, because of Your truth.” In 1 Samuel 15:12, King Saul, who disobeyed God's word to destroy Amalek, came to Carmel and set up a monument for himself after winning the war. What does this show? This shows that he gave the victory of war to himself rather than to God. King Saul set up the monument to himself commemorate his achievement. He didn’t consider winning the war with Amalek to be God's grace, but as his own achievement. Saul, who had considered himself small, became proud as king and disobeyed God's command. Then, rather than convicting of his sin and repenting, he set the monument to glorify himself. In view of this, we need to take more seriously the importance of the psalmist's prayer, “Not to us, O LORD, not to us, But to Your name give glory” in Psalms 115:1. This psalmist's prayer is, in a word, the prayer that refuses to give himself and the Israelites the glory that should be given to God. He refused to steal the glory of God by praying to God and repeating ‘not to us’ twice (v. 1). He wanted to give glory only to God. He prayed to God and desperately wanted only God to be glorified. Why did the psalmist want to glorify God alone? The reason is because of the Lord’s lovingkindness and His truth (v. 1). Psalms 115 is an Israeli prayer praying for God's help during the war against the Gentile enemies (Park). If this is true, the psalmist prays that God alone will be glorified because the truth will work as He promised to save the Israelites by loving them in the midst of the war between the Israelites and the Gentile enemies. The psalmist prayed that God would win the Israelites in the war with His lovingkindness and His truth. Therefore, he wanted God alone to be glorified. But what if Israel was defeated in war and the idolatrous Gentiles won (vv. 4-8)? The Gentiles would mock the Israelites and say, “Where, now, is their God?” (v. 2). The psalmist was the only one who sought the glory of God and didn’t want the glory of God to be hidden. For this reason, he prayed to God that God would show His lovingkindness and truth in the midst of war by delivering the Israelites from the hands of the Gentile enemies and make the Israelties victorious. In this prayer, the psalmist recognized God's sovereignty: “But our God is in the heavens; He does whatever He pleases” (v. 3). God may help the Israelites to win the war, but He may also not help them to be defeated. One of the reasons for not helping the Israelties to be defeated may be God's discipline for their unrepentant sin. In conclusion, the psalmist's prayer will be answered as God wants. In other words, the victory and defeat of war depends on the sovereignty of God.
Those who are blessed by God are those who give glory to the Lord who is the source of blessings. They never want to give the glory of the Lord to themselves. The reason for this is because those who are blessed by God only ask for the Lord's lovingkindness and truth. In other words, those who receive the blessing of prosperity from God give glory only to God because they know that God has answered their prayers by asking based on the Lord's lovingkindness and truth. Here, ‘answered prayer’ doesn’t mean receiving answers exactly as they prayed to God. Rather, it means that receiving answers exactly as God wants in His sovereignty. Therefore, those who are blessed by God give glory to God even if their prayers aren’t answered the way they want. The reason is because they experience God's lovingkindness and truth in God's work under God's sovereignty. Therefore, if we want our children and our descendants to receive the blessing of prosperity even more, we must glorify only God. We pray to God only by relying on His lovingkindness and truth, so that God's glory will appear in our lives.
Second, those who are blessed by God to prosper trust in the Lord.
Look at Psalms 115:9-11: “O Israel, trust in the LORD; He is their help and their shield. O house of Aaron, trust in the LORD; He is their help and their shield. You who fear the LORD, trust in the LORD; He is their help and their shield.” Here, the psalmist is exhorting the Israelites to trust in the Lord three times. What is the reason? Why did he exhort the Israelites to trust in Him three times? Why should we trust in God? The reason is because God is our help and our shield (vv. 9-11). In verses 9-11, the psalmist not only admonished us three times to “trust in the Lord”, but also repeats the reason “He is their help and their shield” three times. The God who is our help is the God who helps us when we ask God for help in the midst of adversity and suffering, when we are desperately aware of our weaknesses, tired and exhausted. We must never trust in the idols (v. 8) that have mouths but cannot speak, have eyes but cannot see (v. 5), have ears but cannot hear, have noses but cannot smell (v. 6), have hands but cannot feel, have feet but cannot walk and they cannot make a sound with their throat (v. 7). As an example, starting from 2 Chronicles 16:7, when King Asa was at war with the great army of the Ethiopians and the Lubim, King Asa didn’t depend on the king of Aram, but on God, so God gave the Israelites victory. God strongly supports those who turn to Him with all their hearts (v. 9). Therefore, when we are in our weakness, we must trust in God with all our hearts. Then, God will help us. God will give us power. God is our shield. In other words, when we face tribulation, God prevents the harm of tribulation (Park). Look at Psalms 121:5-8: “The LORD is your keeper; The LORD is your shade on your right hand. The sun will not smite you by day, Nor the moon by night. The LORD will protect you from all evil; He will keep your soul. The LORD will guard your going out and your coming in From this time forth and forever.” Our God is the God who protects us without slumbering or sleeping. He keeps us from all troubles. Therefore, the sun will not smite us by day, not the moon by night. Therefore, we must trust in God who is our help and shield. As the years go by, we must trust in Him more and more. We must trust solely in the Lord. The Lord will help us and protect us from all the years of trouble.
Third and last, those who are blessed by God to prosper are those who fear God.
Look at Psalms 115:13 – “He will bless those who fear the LORD, The small together with the great.” Those who fear God aren’t afraid of enemies even in war. The reason is because Almighty God, the triumphant God, helps, protects and triumphs His people. Rather, they fears God. To these people, God blesses them to prosper. In Deuteronomy 6:1-2, we can see that before the Israelites entered Canaan, the Promised Land, God gave the Israelites commands, ordinances, and laws through Moses (Dt. 6:1). What was God's intention? Look at Deuteronomy 6:2 – “so that you and your son and your grandson might fear the LORD your God, to keep all His statutes and His commandments which I command you, all the days of your life, and that your days may be prolonged.” God gave the Israelites commands, ordinances, and laws to make the Israelites to fear God throughout their lives. Therefore, what does the Bible say will happen if the Israelites, their children, and their descendants listen to His commands, ordinances, and precepts and obey them? Look at Deuteronomy 6:3 – “O Israel, you should listen and be careful to do it, that it may be well with you and that you may multiply greatly, just as the LORD, the God of your fathers, has promised you, in a land flowing with milk and honey.” May this God’s blessing of prosperity be upon us who brings glory to God, who trust in God more and more, and who fear Him.
He who is blessed by God,
James Kim
(Praying for the Victory Presbyterian Church to be prospered by the Lord)