Blessing God

by: Tom Bast

Shortly after 9/11, amid the proliferation of “God Bless America” signs, one would occasionally see the odd bumper sticker or sign that said, “Bless God, America.”

What does it mean, I wonder, to “bless God”? Fortunately, we do not have to look far to find the answer. A unique feature of Hebrew poetry is parallelism—repeating the same thing using different words. For example, Psalm 145:1-2 says, “I will extol you, my God and King, and bless your name forever and ever. Every day I will bless you and praise your name forever and ever.” So to bless God simply means to extol or praise him. But why should this be necessary? Is he so vain or insecure that he needs to be told how great he is? Of course not!

But why then should we praise him? Here’s why: we do it for ourselves, not for him. We cannot add anything to his glory, but our praises are the appropriate expression of our worship of God. More than that, they are the necessary completion of our enjoyment of God. As C. S. Lewis points out in Reflections on the Psalms, we see this principle at work everywhere. We delight to praise what we enjoy (“Wow! Did you see that catch?”) because praise not merely expresses but completes our enjoyment. Blessing God fulfills our joy in him, and our lives would be impoverished without it.