A BLESSED PEOPLE

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In Christ, Mark

The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Part your heavens, Lord, and come down; touch the mountains, so that they smoke. Send forth lightning and scatter the enemy; shoot Your arrows and rout them. Reach down Your hand from on high; deliver me and rescue me from the mighty waters, from the hands of foreigners whose mouths are full of lies, whose right hands are deceitful.

 I will sing a new song to You, my God; on the ten-stringed lyre I will make music to You, to the One who gives victory to kings, who delivers his servant David. From the deadly sword deliver me; rescue me from the hands of foreigners whose mouths are full of lies, whose right hands are deceitful.

Then our sons in their youth will be like well-nurtured plants, and our daughters will be like pillars carved to adorn a palace. Our barns will be filled with every kind of provision. Our sheep will increase by thousands, by tens of thousands in our fields; our oxen will draw heavy loads. There will be no breaching of walls, no going into captivity, no cry of distress in our streets.

Blessed is the people of whom this is true; blessed is the people whose God is the Lord.

Psalm 144:5-15

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

What makes a people blessed?

It’s a question that if answered by worldly standards might yield a variety of responses.

Perhaps the most frequently given answer would center around some form of prosperity or power. Go back to biblical times and the most renowned empires were the ones with the most people and real estate. Whether the Egyptians, the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Persians, or the Romans, their main attributes were great wealth and lots of land. Maybe the same can be said today about the world’s proclaimed superpowers.

Maybe people of other nations might define being blessed by living in a beautiful location, one full of lots of sun and lush, colorful foliage. There are many island paradises in the world and having visited many of them in my life, I can tell you that the people who live there feel like they are blessed to have such a gorgeous place to call home.

Still other people might cherish the peace that exists within their country. While war, violence and crime seem to plague a good number of nations, there are some countries who enjoy an incredible solace and tranquility where respect for human life seems to take a front seat to misdemeanors and felonies.

Yes, there are any number of reasons why a people may seem blessed but none of them are true unless they have the one quality that matters the most. For as we look at the remaining verses of the 144th Psalm, we are told clearly by the word of God what constitutes a people who are blessed. Look at these words:

Blessed is the people whose God is the Lord.  

There’s no confusion here. No room for misinterpretation.

Unless a people profess, believe, and place their trust in God as their Lord, they will not be blessed. It’s as easy as that.

Go back to all the great empires of biblical times and ask yourself this: How did things work out for them?

Everyone of them worshipped multiple gods and as a result, they were not blessed because all of them failed and fell. This should be a solemn warning for any nation today as well who wants to hold themselves up as being blessed. Like empires past, any power today will fail and fall too unless they are a nation of people who hold God, the God who has no rival, as their God, their King of kings and Lord of lords, their President and Commander in Chief.

The Bible is clear on this: God and God alone is to be the One who reigns over any nation and its people.

A nation’s people that allow this to happen will be a blessed people.

Is your nation blessed?

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.

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