Blessed by the Blessed One to Bless God

Psalm 103 and 104 both begin with a familiar phrase: Bless the Lord, O my soul. If God is so far superior to His creatures (and fallen creatures, at that), how is it possible for the creature to "bless" the Creator? After all, the author of Hebrews uses this inferior-superior relationship in chapter 7 to describe Melchizedek's blessing of Abraham. How is it then that we who are "inferior" can bless the "Superior"?

Some have suggested that the Psalmist is using "bless" and "praise" interchangeably. Certainly, the parallel drawn at end of Psalm 104 lends itself to that kind of understanding: "Bless the Lord, O my soul! Praise the Lord!" But, I believe there is evidence, given the entirety of the canon and its use of the word "blessed" that the Psalmist may be enriching our understanding of "praise" with "bless" as a complementary term, rather than as merely interchangeable. Although we tend to think of "bless" in terms of praise and certainly an element of praise is inherent to bless, we need not make them exhaustively synonymous.

It is true that Hebrews 7 gives us an overarching "eschatology" of bless... verse 7 is "grounded" in Heb. 6:14 in God's promise to "bless" Abraham". Melchizedek is following the pattern God has established in his "swearing" (a reference to the swearing made on Moriah concerning Abraham's "son", but also the "bless" of Gen. 12:2) when he blesses Abraham. It is true that there can be no greater "blessing" than to have Christ, the last Melchizedek, bless the true offspring of Abraham through a better covenant and a better sacrifice. Yet, the Psalmist calls us to "Bless the Lord". How can that be? I believe it's a "reciprocity" reality inherent to THE Blessing in Christ himself.

Some brief thoughts that jump out:

1. The context of the Psalms seems to indicate an act of glorification or praise, or specifically denoted, setting apart (singling out) for praise.

2. "Bless the Lord" is the reciprocal response of Psalm 1's (and Matthew 5's) "blessed man". One who is blessed will bless.

3. The contextual "reason" for blessing the Lord in the Psalms seems to be what God has done in salvation... in Psalm 34, the man who is "blessed" takes refuge in God his salvation. The "answered" and "delivered" of vs. 4 are first and foremost soteriological (and Christological... every Psalm is by nature Messianic).

4. Both Paul (2 Cor. 1:3, Eph. 1:3) and Peter (1 Pet. 1:3) place the reciprocal response (2) of what God has done in salvation (3) in Christ. "Blessed" is defined as comfort in the sharing of Christ's sufferings (2 Cor. 1), in Christ with every spiritual blessing in high places (Eph. 1), and born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Christ (1 Pet. 1). God is blessed because we have been blessed with Christ himself.

5. Luke places the reciprocal response in terms of redemptive history when he invokes "bless the Lord" in reference to the Christ event (Luke 1:68)... and Zechariah's invocation is followed by Simeon's corrobative statement in Luke 2. This then, has tremendous implications for Luke's own use of Psalm 1's "blessed man" in the Sermon on the Mount (Luke 6:20-23).

6. Matthew shows that Christ becomes his own fulfillment of his blessed man in chap. 5 (via Psalm 1), in highlighting the response of the people in Matthew 23:39. Matthew 5's blessed man is Christ himself (Matthew 23:39). So not only is Psalm 1 looking forward to the Kingdom's blessed man of Matthew 5, but is looking forward to Christ himself. The implications are huge: the only reason we are blessed is because Christ is blessed... He is our identity as "blessed men".
7. Matthew, then, places the identity of the "blessed man" of Matthew 5 in Christ... the "blessed man" who "blesses" has eschatological implications... because in Matt. 24:46 and 25:34, the "blessed man" is pronounced "blessed" at the consummation of redemptive history "when the Son of Man comes in His glory". That Son of Man is one and the same as the One who is called "blessed" in Matthew 23. The blessing pronounced on the Son in humility
(Matthew 23) is now the blessing pronounced on the redeemed in glory. It is interesting to note that those who are to "come" because they "gave me drink" are already "blessed"... that's the objective reality of the indicative... it is a pronouncement that has already been made in Christ.

8. The beatitudes are indicatives, rather than imperatives. IOW, these are the marks of the blessed man of Psalm 1... and that the rest of the Sermon on the Mount flows from those indicatives (i.e. the blessed man loves his enemies, is reconciled to his brother, etc.). Then, if the Blessed man of Matt. 5 is the Blessed man of Matt. 24:46 & 25:34, then we must conclude that the one who is "poor in spirit", "pure in heart", a "peacemaker", etc. (granting that all beatitudes are first and foremost fulfilled and identified in Christ... Christ is the pre-eminent Blessed Man of Psalm 1) results in or is lived out in giving drink, giving food, clothing "the least of these my brothers". Given the reciprocity of being blessed and then blessing the one who has blessed, the "giving drink, food, clothing, etc." of Matt. 25 is part and parcel to *how* we Bless Christ as acts of glorification or praise. After all, Christ says in Matt. 25, "as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me".

One who has received all spiritual blessings in Christ and has been lavished with Christ beyond measure cannot help but "spill over" those blessings and Christ himself to others in his life, and therefore, back to Christ. The fruit on display in Matthew 25 is the fruit of the Matt. 5 blessed man. Or put another way, we bless God because he first blessed us in Christ (see 1 John 4:19's parallel thought).

9. There is one more redemptive-historical nuance of this reciprocity that comes from the etymology of the English usage of the word "blessed": "hallowed by blood". I suppose it might be conjecture as to how much of the contextual greek is reflected in the English etymology in the NT passages above, but the redemptive implications would be obvious if such an etymology
is reflected in the text.

10. The blessing of God is a blessing in Christ. When we bless God, we are not mere "creatures" blessing God. Cloaked in the robes of Christ's righteousness, in Christ we bless God. Thus, even the Hebrews 7:7 observation that the inferior blesses the superior is not an issue. Nothing or no one is more superior than Christ. Christ, as the exalted One, sits enthroned as a co-equal with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. Christ, through his human instruments, blesses God. Ultimately, our fulfillment of Pslam 103 and 104 rests not on our ability to bless God, but on our union to the One who is Most Superior.

Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name! Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's. (Psalm 103:1-5)