Proclamation:
“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.” Psalm 129:8 (NIV)
Explanation:
The words of this psalm were written under
the influence of The Holy Spirit of God.
The name of the human author of this psalm of ascent is unknown. The psalmist wants all of the enemies of God’s
people be ashamed. (Psalm 129:5) May
they wither away like the short grass which grows on the tops of houses exposed
to the scorching of the sun. (Psalm 129:6)
He did not want them to be blessed.
Although they did not say this to everyone that they met, he did not
want the people of God who pass them by say to say, “The blessing of The Lord
be upon you.” “Bless you in the name of
The Lord.” (Psalm 129:8)
Application:
In times of old, the people of God used to
say to each other, “The Lord be with you.”
The reply or response to such a greeting was, “The Lord bless you.”
(Ruth 2:4) This was a way of expressing
good wishes, pious congratulations, and a hope of success and prosperity to one
another. The reply was a way of saying
thank you and God bless you. We do not
say this to each other today, but maybe we should. The only time we hear people say ‘Bless you’,
outside of the church, is after someone sneezes. As believers, we should be so wrapped up in
The Lord God and His Holy Word that conversations and our greetings to one
another should reflect it. We say a lot
of words or phrases in order to sound “hip”, maybe we should say more words or
phrases which reflect that we are Christian. (Philippians 1:27 and 1 Peter
1:15)
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