What is a blessing?

"Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people He chose for His inheritance." – Psalm 33:12

When Charles Stirling was imprisoned in North Korea, his captors caught him silently saying grace before a meal of rice, turnips, and a small piece of rancid pork. "What are you doing?"his guards demanded.

"I am praying, silently thanking God for these blessings," he told them.

What did you say?" they wanted to know. So he told them again. He had silently said, ‘Lord, we thank You for these blessings, and all of us ask for Christ’s mercy. Amen." That was it. He had learned the prayer as a boy from his father. Not satisfied, his guards demanded that he repeat the prayer out loud several times.

Then they asked, "What is a blessing?" He tried to explain. But they couldn’t understand. They ridiculed him as a fool and disciplined him, telling him never to pray again. He said, "They told me the food was a gift from Korean people, not from God. They told me, ‘You are laughing stock. You make fool of yourself."

Now, thirty-some years later, North Korea is in desperate straits, lacking food for their people. Many would go to bed at night hungry, while some are literally starving.Long ago the psalmist wrote, "Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord" (Psalm 33:12), Another translation puts it, "Blessed is the nation whose God is God."

For atheists, the blessings of the Almighty are always difficult to understand. They refuse to acknowledge that it is the hand of God that brings the sunshine and the rain, that it is He who gives you the strength to earn a living and to enjoy life and health.

It was not without thought or purpose that God includes Psalm 1 at the beginning of the Psalter, the hymnbook of ancient Israel. It’s like a summation of everything in the book, a first-principle that you need to learn to understand what follows.

The first verse says, "Blessed is the man who does not talk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers (Psalm 1:1). The word "man" is generic. The promise is universal to all people of all races and all generations. Have you ever noticed the progression of walking, standing and sitting? It speaks of degrees of involvement with those that refute and deny the blessing of God. First you walk together. Then you stand and talk. Finally you sit down and embrace the sinners’ mindset and lifestyle.

This, of course, explains why some who once knew the blessings of God have forgotten who it was who blessed them and who showered them with goodness. When a farmer was challenged as to why he thanked God for his blessings, he answered that it was the full heads of grain which bowed low; only those whose heads were empty remained upright.

Bowing your head is an expression of strength, as you acknowledge the blessings of God, thanking Him for what He has given you.

Resource Reading: Psalm 1