Don’t Bless Them!

Psalm 129

Verse 7 May those who pass by not say to them, “The blessing of the Lord be on you; we bless you in the name of the LORD.

After discussing how we shouldn’t allow sin to grow in our lives we follow the psalmist down another quick path before heading to the next psalm.

First we need to remember that the “them” that the psalmist is talking about are the enemies of God’s people. These are those who try to kill our faith any way they can. They seek to break us down and try to keep others from being drawn to Christ through us. As we mentioned the other day we have to remember that we are their enemy because we are God’s people. They hate Him and therefore they hate us.

These enemies are not always obviously evil. In fact sometimes they will appear to be the nicest and most sincere people to those who don’t know them as enemies. They pretend to be the kind and honest but that is just a lure to get people to hate those that are truly following the Lord. The psalmist knew this and that is why he wrote today’s verse.

This song of praise to be sung on the way to worship God at His chosen festival city, is a reminder that God alone should be praised. While there may be those that shower these enemies with praise, the psalmist is reminding the singers that these people aren’t to be praised. There are times when we are being put down by these enemies that we hear them being praised by others and we may start to waver about if they are right and we are wrong, but we shouldn’t cave into those lies. That is what the enemy wants us to believe about ourselves.

God’s blessing could never truly be on those that are His enemies. He doesn’t fall for their faux holiness and neither should God’s people. The psalmist was reminding the traveling singers that the enemies would be put in their place, God was going to judge them. And when that happened no one should give them the normal blessing given to those who were poor and downtrodden, the rejected of society. These enemies were being rewarded for their hate of God by being placed in that position.

Making It Personal

Have you ever had to deal with an enemy of the faith? How did they treat you? What can you praise God for about that situation?

Making It Personal Kids

Has anyone ever made fun of you because of your love of Jesus? Did you know that they were really making fun of you because they don’t like Jesus? How can you praise Jesus about how that person treated you?

Closing Prayer

Father, thank You for reminding us that You have plans for those who are Your enemies. Give us the courage to continue to trust You through the trials the enemy may put in our path. Help us trust You. In Jesus’ name, amen.