Mensa Otabil - Bless the Lord at All Times
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Welcome to day number 35 of our 40 Days of Power. Isn’t it amazing? We started 35 days ago, and 40 days seemed so far away, but now it’s so close; we have just five more days to go. If you haven’t joined, please do so, and let’s finish strong in these days of consecration. We’re still praising God and blessing the name of the Lord. Psalm 34:1 says, «I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth.»
Bless the Lord! It seems strange to use that word in reference to God—bless God—because our minds tell us we cannot bless God; He should be the one who blesses us. When the term «blessed» is used in this context of us blessing God, it simply means to speak well of. So when the psalmist says, «I will bless the Lord at all times,» he’s literally saying, «I’ll speak well of the Lord at all times.» This means I’ll say good things about God all the time.
Logically, he continues and says, «His praise shall continually be in my mouth.» Blessing the Lord at all times means His praise shall continually be in my mouth. Psalm 34 was written by David at a very low point in his life. At this time, David is a refugee and a fugitive, running away from Saul, the king of Israel. There is no way in Israel he can hide because the king wants to catch him. So David runs, and the most logical place he can go is outside of Israel.
Israel is almost entirely surrounded by the Philistines, so once he leaves Israel, he’s in their land. He goes to take refuge in the camp of the Philistines and talks to their king. Someone recognizes David as the one who killed their champion, Goliath, and they tell the king, «By the way, this guy is the one who killed Goliath.» Now, David is in trouble; from frying pan to fire, he must save his life. To do that, he pretends to be mad; he behaves abnormally, starts spitting on himself, and dishonors himself so that his life will be spared.
The king looks at him and thinks he has lost his mind, saying, «Get rid of this fool.» It is at that low point—when he feels exhausted, mocked, and mocked himself—that he wrote Psalm 34: «I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth.» That’s amazing! David didn’t write this when life was okay for him, when he was on the mountaintop; he wrote this when life had dealt him very bad situations. He said one thing he would never stop doing is speaking well of God: «I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth.»
Today, we can learn from David that we will bless the Lord at all times, in all seasons, in all circumstances. One constant in our lives is that God’s praise shall continually be in my mouth. I pray that we will learn this, not only today but for the rest of our lives, to bless the Lord at all times. Let’s share a word of prayer together. Say with me, «Heavenly Father, I bless You today. You are the glorious One; You are awesome in Your works. My soul magnifies You, O Lord. In Jesus' name, amen.» Well, God bless you, my friends. I’ll see you again. I’m Pastor Mensa Otabil. Shalom, peace, and life to you!