Bless the Lord

I was ready my Bible this morning and came across Psalm 34:1

         I will bless the LORD at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth.

What an interesting thought to bless the Lord.  We say “God bless you” when someone sneezes. 

John Piper has an interesting comment on this concepts

When God "blesses" men they are thereby helped and strengthened and made better off than they were before, but when men "bless" God he is not helped or strengthened or made better off. Rather man's blessing God is an "expression of praising Thankfulness"

                                                                                               -John Piper

Giving praise to God is understandable.  There are blessings daily that we receive and our very lives are in the hand of God.  The Psalmist is telling us however “I will bless the Lord at all times, His praise shall continually be in my mouth. 

It’s easy to be discouraged but our discouragement should turn to praise for God is our hope and our strength is in the Lord.  Our tendency to assume that all movement is progress and all setbacks results in a setup for future victory can be a source of frustration as well as just bad theology.  

God’s promises in Jesus are yes and Amen.  Jesus is the fulfillment of very promise and our hope in victory need to be in Him and not temporal success.

Today, I will bless the Lord.  Today, His praise will be in my mouth!