Sing to the Lord - Bless the Lord, O my Soul

I'm on a series of reflecting on the songs that God has used, to speak to me. This is the story of song No. 2 - Forevermore. You can listen to it here. 

In June, during our prayer and fasting week, my church opened up our church hub throughout the entire week in the daytime for anyone who were able and would like to come away from the daily rush and chores to spend some quiet time in God's presence. We called it 'Presence Week'. 

My husband and I went early morning on the first day. And this song, Forevermore, was playing in the background. 

Here are the words to the chorus part of the song, taken from Psalm 103. 

Bless the Lord O my soul

And all that is within me

Forgetting not what You've done

We bless Your holy name

Bless the Lord O my soul

And all that is within me

Remembering who You are

We bless Your holy name

As it was early morning and it was a Monday, we were alone. The only other person present was a brother who was there to open the door and got the hub ready. 

I remember just sitting down quietly - not reading, not praying, not singing, not speaking in tongues. Not knowing what was to come. Not knowing what to anticipate. (I had come simply because it was Presence Week and since we were fasting and praying, I had just wanted to spend some time in my Father's house.)

As I was not doing any other thing (just simply sitting down with an open heart), I listened intently to each and every word of the lyric.

Me in the moment

And then tears came rolling down my cheeks uncontrollably. 

Because it suddenly dawned on me - the weight of blessing my Lord. 

That revelation that I (yes, I) could bless my God drove me to tears. 

Not of sorrow or of helplessness. But tears of joy, tears of disbelief, tears of awe that me, the creation, could bless Him, the Creator. 

What a privilege! What an unimaginable thing!

That my Lord, my God, my Father is blessed when my soul chooses to bless Him.

The word 'bless' is the Hebrew word 'Barak', which means to bless or to kneel. 

The very first time the word 'bless' appears in the Bible is in Gen 1:22. We see God created sea creatures and winged birds. 

Then God said, “Let the waters abound with an abundance of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the face of the firmament of the heavens.” So God created great sea creatures and every living thing that moves, with which the waters abounded, according to their kind, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” So the evening and the morning were the fifth day.

God saw that it was good. And God blessed them. 

After that, we see God made man in His image. 

Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

Again, God bless His creation to be fruitful and multiply and to have dominion. 

No wonder we often (if not every time) view blessing as something that is top-down. 

Bestowed from one who has the power, authority and ability to bless, upon one whose disposition (and perhaps ability) is to receive. 

The blesser is the one on high while the receiver is the humble one. 

The blesser can choose to give generously, or withhold blessing.  

The receiver, on the other hand, doesn't have the liberty of choice. He/ she either benefit from the blessing, or miss out on its goodness, depending on whether the blesser gives or withholds.  

And that day, my soul truly, deeply, wholly realised this truth - that I can bless my Lord. 

I sat under the weight of this revelation, overwhelmed yet liberated. I don't even know how to begin to describe the emotion I was feeling - the awe, the wonder, the reverence. 

Oh, beloved in Christ, what a most sacred and wonderful privilege we have. To be able to bless our Lord. 

What a joy, what a wonder to wholly and fully bless the Lord! 

(Yet we can choose to give or to withhold - our blessing. Because the Lord doesn't force us.)

May we bless the Lord, not merely on our lips or with our deeds. But let us bless Him wholly with our soul, in our soul.