Blessed Is The Man

“Praise ye the Lord. Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord, that delighteth greatly in his commandments” (Psalm 112:1).

The word “Blessed” is one of the more misunderstood words in the Bible. Most folks think of being blessed as having the favor of God or being holy, consecrated. But blessed or “esher” in the Old Testament Hebrew means “happiness” (always the plural form of happy). It’s an exclamation of great cheerfulness and contentment.

So in the verse from Psalm above it is saying, “Praise ye the Lord, cheerfulness and contentment to the man that feareth the Lord, that delighteth greatly in his commandments”.

This is nothing more than a proclamation of tremendous joy for God and His ways!

That kind of puts a new twist on it don’t you think? Most folks don’t necessarily associated happiness with fearing God and following His commandments. Usually folks resent both.

Jesus said, “It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks” (Acts 9:5). Maybe if we stopped bucking God and His commandments so much, we to could be “Blessed” with God and by God.

Bill Hitchcock