Read Numbers 6, Song of Songs 4, and Psalm 119:1-24.
This devotional is about Psalm 119:1-24.
Being blessed is something that happens to you. It is an aspect of God’s grace, the result of his choice to bring benefits into your life. You don’t earn blessings any more than you earn God’s forgiveness or eternal life. It is a gift and God bestows blessings when he wills, how much he wills, and to whom he wills according to the purpose of his will.
Nevertheless, here in Psalm 119, verses 1 and 2 describe people who “are blameless, who walk according to the law of the Lord… who keep his statutes and seek him with all their heart” as blessed. And other passages of scripture tell us that God blesses those who hear, meditate on, and obey his word (Josh 1:8, Jas 1:25). Doesn’t this indicate that if we “do” certain things we will get God’s blessings? In other words, don’t these passages that commend hearing and obeying God’s word in some sense refute what I wrote in the first paragraph about blessings being something that happen to you rather than what you earn?
No, because the very desire to know God’s word that compels you to learn and obey it is part of God’s gracious work in your life. In verse 10 the Psalmist cried out, “do not let me stray from your commands,” demonstrating that it was God’s work in the songwriter’s heart that gave him a desire to read, learn and follow God’s word. Furthermore, God’s word is one of the ways in which God gives grace to us. The desire to learn and practice God’s word is a gift of God. So is the word itself. With these gifts God has left promises that the one who lives by God’s word will find God’s blessings in his or her life.
Is there anywhere in your life where you are resisting obedience to God’s word? Has it ever occurred to you that you may be missing out on God’s blessing because of it?