MORE THAN YOU'LL EVER KNOW

A story is told  of a man who whispered, "God, speak to me" and a bird sang but the man did not hear. So the man yelled, "God speak to me!" and the thunder rolled across the sky but the man did not pay attention to it.The man looked around and said, "God let me see you" and a star shone brightly but the man did not notice. So the man shouted, "God show me a miracle!" and a life was born but the man did not know. Finally, the man cried out in despair, "Touch me God and let me know that you are here!" whereupon God reached down and touched the man but the man brushed the butterfly away and walked on. ~Author Unknown~ Moral of the story; don't miss out on a blessing because it isn't packaged the way you expect. 

This is what the psalmist taught in Psalm 1:1-2 "Blessed is the man Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, Nor stands in the path of sinners, Nor sits in the seat of the scornful;  2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD, And in His law he meditates day and night." This is a wisdom psalm that presents a vivid contrast between the way of the righteous (v. 1-3) and the way of the wicked (v.4-6). My main emphasis today would be to explore the psalmist's definition of a blessed man. The Hebrew word used for blessing here is "Esher" meaning to advance, to pronounce happy, to gain benefit or to be an heir of privilege. 

According to the psalmist, the blessing is not just about what one gets, but what one becomes. A blessed man is not necessarily one who possesses much but rather one who positions himself/herself strategically in a perverse world. The parallelism in this verse speaks of an increasingly deeper involvement with wickedness: "walking beside," "standing with," "sitting beside." Similarly, the terms for the wicked are progressive: ungodly,sinners, and the scornful. It's a progression of evil that continues to draw persons further and further into its influence. One who is able to avoid this, is truly blessed! Jesus echoed this in his sermon on the Beatitudes (Matthew 5:3-10), He says that a blessed man is the man who develops certain virtuous characters. 

Wow! this is so different from our definition of a blessed man. Well, most of us think that a blessed man is a wealthy man. Some spend days on end praying for God's blessings, oblivious of the fact that they are already blessed. Like the man above, we are unable to interpret God's blessings simply because we have a flawed view. Could it be that your prayers have already been answered? Yes! child of God you are blessed more than you'll ever know.