Can We Bless God?

A Reflection on the Psalm for Sunday, January 1st, 2023:
The Solemnity of Mary, the Holy Mother of God

---

Psalm 67

R. May God be gracious to us and bless us. 

May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face to shine upon us, that your way may be known upon earth, your saving power among all nations. 

R. May God be gracious to us and bless us. 

Let the nations be glad and sing for joy, for you judge the peoples with equity and guide the nations upon earth. Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you. 

R. May God be gracious to us and bless us. 

The earth has yielded its increase; God, our God, has blessed us. May God continue to bless us; let all the ends of the earth revere him. 

R. May God be gracious to us and bless us. 

The psalm for this Sunday prays, “May God be gracious and bless us.” In preparation for this reflection, I rolled that around in my mind, considering the ways God has blessed and continues to bless my life, and reminding myself of how important it is for me to thank God for these blessings — not because I need to butter up God to keep the blessings flowing but because practising gratitude in this way improves me. It transforms me. It reminds me that I need God and that He gives me all I need; I am the beloved, recipient of all good things poured out from the heart of a devoted, divine Parent. Most of us are clear that, when we ask God for His blessing, God is the generous giver and we are the needy receivers. 

Then, out of the blue, into my mind there popped a question whose answer was less clear to me: what does it mean for me to give God my blessing? What does it mean in Psalm 34, for example, when we pray, “I will bless the Lord”? Does this mean that we switch places with God so that we are the generous givers and God is the needy receiver? I could see that this didn’t add up, and yet the question remained: How should I bless Him? 

The Catechism of the Catholic Church is handy for answering these head-scratching conundrums, so I had a browse through the online Catechism. Right off the top, in the Prologue, it says, “[God is] infinitely perfect and blessed in himself.” Ah, just as I thought: God doesn’t need us to bless Him. God has everything He needs in Himself. Hmm.

Then I thought, let’s have a look at what “bless” means — and there was the answer, right under my nose. “Bless” means to praise and glorify, to speak of with approval, to call holy. It is with my praise that I give God my blessing.

As a cradle Catholic I have been singing hymns about “blessing” the Lord for most of my life, but I wasn’t paying attention to the meaning behind the words. I saw I + bless + God, equated it with God + blesses + me, and simply got on with my singing. I was confused because we use the same word — bless — but the meaning is different, depending on whether I’m blessing God or God is blessing me. I’m grateful that I finally got that straight. 

Here’s what excites me: it’s not because I finally understand that “bless” means “praise” and so now I can finally get on with the job of praising the Lord, and speaking of the Lord with approval, and calling the Lord holy. I’d been having a go at that already. What excites me is the insight that, when God blesses me, my response is to praise Him. This is our back and forth, our conversation. Even in the most simple and familiar words, God has revealed to me a new way to converse with Him in a language of love and gratitude. Lord, you give me all of Your blessings, and I give You all of my praise.

​

​
Donna Davis

---