God’s Word for You
1 Chronicles 16:36 The Psalm of the Ark Part 7
by Pastor Timothy Smith on Monday, January 22, 2024
36 “Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel,
from everlasting to everlasting!”
Then all the people said “Amen!”
And they praised the LORD.
We understand what it means to be blessed by God, for he does this constantly, and even helps us to notice them and to count our blessings. But what does it mean when God’s people bless God?
To bless is a form of praise. When God blesses someone, he usually attaches a promise to the blessing, saying that he will bless them in certain ways, such as with a good crop (Malachi 3:11), or with a child (Genesis 17:16), or an inheritance (Deuteornomy 15:4), or to be released from captivity (Isaiah 61:1). Therefore, when we say that we will bless the Lord, aren’t we saying that we will do more than praise him, but add actions to our praise? We can certainly think about that as we pray: How will I put my life into the equation as I bless the Lord my God? Will I give him part of my life, or all of it? Will I make a change in my life so that I can serve God, not only by avoiding temptation and setting aside a sinful habit, but by doing something new, something I haven’t done before, to serve him with everything that I do?
But even if a Christian were to do this, how is it possible that any one of us could ever bless God “from everlasting to everlasting”? This is beyond us, except that God makes it possible—so gracious is he! He has so guided and arranged things that we who have sung his praise with such words as these will be with him in Paradise, and there we will praise him from one end of eternity (when we first enter into heaven) to the other. “When we’ve been there ten thousand years, bright shining as the sun, we’ve no less days to sing God’s praise, than when we’d first begun.”
In general, we praise God for all his wonders and blessings, and even for his creatures, without mentioning any of them by name. Luther points out that this was even the custom of the prophets. But when we praise God for specific blessings, we want our words to go out to the world, so that everyone knows about the great and wonderful things that God has done.
The “Amen” here is familiar in both Testaments and in our prayers. Amen (either “Ay-men” or “Ah-men;” both are okay) means “This is true” or “So be it.” It is a stamp of the foot, an insistence, that what we have said is sincere and our heart’s truth. At times in our history, the exclamation “Hear! Hear!” was used the way that ancient believers meant “Amen! Amen!” It is a term that means “This is so!” when added to our own words, and “I agree that this is so!” when added to someone else’s words. We must remember to teach our children and our new believers that “Amen” does not merely mean “The prayer is over,” but “The prayer is most certainly true!” Bless the Lord for ever and ever! This is the truth! This is so! This is our prayer, too!
This verse brings us to the moment of our own resurrection from the dead, where we will see what the apostles and the women went to the tomb to see, which was the risen Christ. Here we see him, so many centuries after his resurrection, by faith alone; “but a poor reflection as in a mirror” (1 Corinthians 13:12). Then we shall see him face to face, the way he spoke with Moses, as a man speaks to his friend (Exodus 33:11). That moment, the moment that will continue for all eternity, will be one of praise, blessing, adoration, and a resounding “Amen” without end.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in New Ulm, Minnesota. To receive God’s Word for You via e-mail, please visit the St. Paul’s Lutheran Church website.