Why Should God Bless You?

Why should God bless you

God be merciful to us and bless us, and cause His face to shine upon us, that Your way may be known on earth, Your salvation among all nations. Let the peoples praise You, O God; Let all the peoples praise You. Oh, let the nations be glad and sing for joy! For You shall judge the people righteously and govern the nations on earth. Let the peoples praise You, O God; Let all the peoples praise You. Then the earth shall yield her increase; God, our own God, shall bless us. God shall bless us, and all the ends of the earth shall fear Him. - Psalm 67

How many of you would like God to bless your life? Should you ask God to bless your life? In 1 Chronicles, it says that we should always seek God’s blessing. In 1 Chronicles 4:10 we read that Jabez called on the God of Israel saying, “Oh, that You would bless me indeed, and enlarge my territory, that Your hand would be with me, and that You would keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain!” So God granted him what he requested.

Why did God grant what Jabez asked? What is the reason for God’s blessing?

God loves his people. He delights in doing good things for them. He is a good God. But there’s one fundamental reason that God blesses His people, and this reason is closely related to today’s text, Psalm 67. There are two basic questions from Psalm 67. Here is the first:

I. Why Should God Bless You? - To Glorify Him

There is another beautiful prayer mentioned in Numbers 6: 24-26 “The Lord bless you and keep you; The Lord make His face shine upon you, and be gracious to you; The Lord lift up His countenance upon you, And give you peace.” ’- but Psalm 67 goes in more depth in the prayer of Jabez, telling us why God blesses his people. Let’s look at the first two verses of the Psalm:

God be gracious to us and bless us and cause His face to shine upon us. That Your way may be known on the earth, Your salvation among all nations.

The Psalmist asks for blessing so that God’s ways may be known on the earth. The Psalmist is saying, "Bless me, so that I might glorify you; bless me so that I might show your power, your love, your majesty, your goodness to all nations."

Note that the Psalmist is not saying: "Bless me so that I can be comfortable." He is not saying, "Bless me so that I don’t have to go to work." He is not saying, "Bless me so that I can be successful in the world."

This Psalm Begins and ends with the statement that God’s blessings lead to His glory. That is the reason God blesses us.

The first is 1 Kings 8:60. The Israelites have just completed the building of the temple. King Solomon offers a lengthy prayer, asking that God would meet His people’s needs. He then gives the reason why God should bless His people in this way: "so that all the peoples of the earth may know that the Lord is God and that there is no other."

Solomon asks for blessings, so that all people everywhere might know that there is one God, that all other so-called gods are false, and that Yahweh, the God of Israel is that God. He asks for blessing so that the true God might be glorified.

The second passage concerns Jesus Himself. On the night before the crucifixion, Jesus is faced with a dilemma. All of His humanity rebels at the thought of the spiritual and physical suffering of the cross. How should He pray to God? What should He ask for? Does He say, "Father God, bless me! Save me from this dreadful death!"? John 12:27-28 records for us Jesus’ thoughts and prayer at this time: 27 "Now my heart is troubled, and what shall I say? ’Father, save me from this hour’? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour. 28 Father, glorify your name!" Then a voice came from heaven, "I have glorified it and will glorify it again."

Jesus does not ask for physical safety or comfort; He does not ask for worldly success or status in the eyes of others. He instead asks for what? For God’s glory. And God responds: "I have glorified my name in your life, and will glorify it even more in your death"

Jesus rejected the blessing of a longer life on earth and being kept safe from oppression, for He knew that those blessings would not lead to God’s greatest glory. We need to say with Jesus, "Lord God, if this blessing is not going to lead to your glory, don’t give it to me!"