1 Kings 1:48, The king has also said thus, 'Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who has granted one to sit on my throne today while my own eyes see it.'" 
	Once again, we are at the place in our reading wherein we are encouraged to bless The Lord. This is something that we dare never just pass over without any thought of doing so in our minds. It is often easy to read the scriptures without that sense of the awe of God that fills the every page. Too frequently, we are in a hurry, trying to read the entire Bible in a year or less. At other times, we are looking for that which would meet our need of the moment, be that encouragement, instruction, comfort, or even correction of our ways or thoughts or beliefs. We are in a hurry to get to some pre-determined assistance at the time we are reading. 
	Please understand, each of these reasons are very valid as the Lord makes Himself meet the every need at the specific time of that searching and seeking from His Word. He does all of those things plus so much more than we could ever realize as the Holy Spirit makes The Word of God very much real and alive within our hearts and spirits. 
Still, we dare not just skip over the reading which instructs us to bless the Lord, every time it is before us in His Word. That would be a mistake of paramount proportion in the terms of how we are to respond to that which He sets before us. It is too easy to just skim over these passages with that thought of oh yeah, here are these words again. We do so at the great risk of missing one of the fundamental realities of why God gave us His Word.
	To bless God is one of the core elements of our being created in the first place. We are here to express to the whole of creation the fact that Jehovah is exactly Who He says He is and that He does precisely everything that He says He will do. He is the Creator of all things and He is the Sovereign over the entirety of His creation. Everything flows and works together according to the manner in which it was designed to function by Him. He holds the entire universe together with the awesome power of His hands and His will. 
	For this and so very much more, He is to be constantly and eternally blessed! He deserves all honor and praise and adoration always!
	As His people, as members of His family in Jesus Christ, that is the witness that we have on this earth. He is the Lord God Almighty. He is the One Who has opened the way of salvation through the death and resurrection of His Only Begotten Son. He indwells us with His own Holy Spirit to guide and to direct the paths of our feet as we sojourn before Him in our walk on this earth. It is all about Him and not about us! 
Accordingly, as we come to a passage, such as the one before us, we should never hesitate or miss the opportunity to express that praise and that witness of His so great power in action in our lives. We should also revel in the every opportunity to bring before Jehovah our greatest expressions of worship and adoration and thanksgiving for the wondrous working might of His hand in operation!
Then, with all our souls and minds, we should follow that sense of looking back at the manner in which the blessing of God has been manifested, both in scripture and in our lives, This is always with the focus on Him and His marvelous and miraculous essence of Everlasting Love!
Please turn back in your Bibles to one of the first accounts of the blessing that was offered to God as detailed in Gen 14:18-20. This was at the time that the king of Salem, Melchizedek, that ancient type of Christ, greeted Abram after he had rescued Lot and his family.
This was from the four kings who had attacked and defeated the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah. The victors had taken all the possessions of those cities as well as Lot and his family as prisoners. Abram went after them with all the trained men of his household. This resulted in a victorious battle to rescue his nephew. Abram was met on his triumphant return by Melchizedek.
Gen 14:18-20, And Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine; now he was a priest of God Most High. And he blessed him and said, "Blessed be Abram of God Most High, Possessor of heaven and earth; And blessed be God Most High, Who has delivered your enemies into your hand." And he gave him a tenth of all. 
	The key focus was that God had gone before Abram and that Jehovah - God Most High, deserved the blessing and the praise for His hand of the redemption of Lot and his family. That is why Abram gave the tithe to this priest of God, to honor and to bless The Lord with thanksgiving and adoration and praise.
	We always need to see the hand of God working as we obey His direction in our lives. There needs to be that witness that He is the One Who causes all things to work together for good in our lives as we are told in the Book of Hebrews. We must never try to take the credit and put ourselves on some type of pedestal above the Lord God Almighty. We must always and forever proclaim His majestic power and sovereignty as the focal reality of everything that concerns our lives.
	Next, please open to 1 Chron 29:10-13. This recounts the point at which the people of God had worked together to bring the necessary materials that would be used to construct the Temple, the earthly dwelling place of the Lord God Almighty. It was a concerted effort put forth by that people to so bless Jehovah. They showed the willingness to sacrifice earthly possessions and goods for the sake of His honor and His majesty. 
They knew that Yahweh could not be contained within any structure. However, this would provide a location where they could gather together in His presence. Here they would be able to offer their sacrifices and their worship and put forth their prayers, their offerings and their petitions. This meant everything to them. 
Therefore, lead by King David, they did what they could, to the best of their abilities, to provide all that was needed to so bless The Lord. David set the tone of that worship and blessing with the following declaration.
	1 Chron 29:10-13, So David blessed the Lord in the sight of all the assembly; and David said, "Blessed art Thou, O Lord God of Israel our father, forever and ever. Thine, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, indeed everything that is in the heavens and the earth; Thine is the dominion, O Lord, and Thou dost exalt Thyself as head over all. Both riches and honor come from Thee, and Thou dost rule over all, and in Thy hand is power and might; and it lies in Thy hand to make great, and to strengthen everyone. Now therefore, our God, we thank Thee, and praise Thy glorious name. 
	Then, after this great declaration by David, he then included the rest of the gathered people, encouraging them to so honor and be a blessing to Jehovah. This is recounted in 1 Chron 29:20. 
This was not just a time when the people were told about the working might and majesty of Yahweh. They were invited to participate by joining in with the celebration of adoration and joy in the sacrifice of being a living blessing to the Creator of Heaven and Earth, The Altogether Awesome and Majestic One. 
	1 Chron 29:20, Then David said to all the assembly, "Now bless the Lord your God." And all the assembly blessed the Lord, the God of their fathers, and bowed low and did homage to the Lord and to the king.
	We can then move forward in scripture to another time when the people, the remnant from the exile were gathered together to put themselves before Jehovah with their obedient and reverent desire that He be blessed. Their hearts and their actions indicated that they wanted to be pleasing in the sight of God. They desired to make known the fact that as He was holy, they were to be holy. This was after so very much had been forgotten about what God required from His people in His Word. 
	Please turn to the Book of Nehemiah, and we will read Chapter 9, verses 1-6. This details how the heart of those people had completely turned away from their sinful ways. They sought once again to be refreshment to the Lord in the course of how they lived on this earth.
	Neh 9:1-6, Now on the twenty-fourth day of this month the sons of Israel assembled with fasting, in sackcloth, and with dirt upon them. And the descendants of Israel separated themselves from all foreigners, and stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their fathers. While they stood in their place, they read from the book of the law of the Lord their God for a fourth of the day; and for another fourth they confessed and worshiped the Lord their God. Now on the Levites' platform stood Jeshua, Bani, Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Bunni, Sherebiah, Bani, and Chenani, and they cried with a loud voice to the Lord their God. Then the Levites, Jeshua, Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabneiah, Sherebiah, Hodiah, Shebaniah, and Pethahiah, said, "Arise, bless the Lord your God forever and ever! O may Thy glorious name be blessed And exalted above all blessing and praise! "Thou alone art the Lord. Thou hast made the heavens, The heaven of heavens with all their host, The earth and all that is on it, The seas and all that is in them. Thou dost give life to all of them And the heavenly host bows down before Thee. 
	This is the voice of a people who truly desired that there be a difference in the manner in which they lived their lives before God in order to please and to honor Him. They wanted Jehovah to receive the blessing of a people who were dedicated and consecrated wholly unto Him and to His Word as the means by which they would be witnesses of His Holiness. There was that agreement with God, that confession of what they had done and thought so wrongly and so against His precepts and ordinances. 
As well, it was not just confessing with their mouths, but proceeding forth with those necessary changes in the manner of their walk on this earth. They put into practice that which would bring them into alignment with His Law as the delight of their meditations and behavior.
	This was present in the heart of the Psalmist as the necessary means in which to bring praise and adoration and blessing to Jehovah. Returning to the heart of David with which we started this morning’s consideration, please consider one of the many psalms of David, Ps 34:1-8. This is a song that we used to sing so very often and which should continue to ring forth in our praises of the Most High.
	Ps 34:1-8, A Psalm of David when he feigned madness before Abimelech, who drove him away and he departed. I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul shall make its boast in the Lord; The humble shall hear it and rejoice. O magnify the Lord with me, And let us exalt His name together. I sought the Lord, and He answered me, And delivered me from all my fears. They looked to Him and were radiant, And their faces shall never be ashamed. This poor man cried and the Lord heard him, And saved him out of all his troubles. The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear Him, And rescues them. O taste and see that the Lord is good; How blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him! 
	This is the chorus of encouragement to all of the people of Jehovah by David. There is that heart after God that is evident in the manner in which the full focus is that The Lord receives the manifested praise and adoration of those who are His own. It should be evidenced in the way we live our lives and as we proclaim, with joy and with thanksgiving and with awe, the splendor and the majesty of Jehovah in our exaltation of Him as God and Lord and Savior. This is the heart that blesses and magnifies Yahweh in the greatness of His Omnipotence and Omnipresence and Omniscience!
	This continues for us throughout the Psalms. Consider the brief, but all encompassing encouragement that is declared in Ps 41:12+13.
	Ps 41:12+13, As for me, Thou dost uphold me in my integrity, And Thou dost set me in Thy presence forever. Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, From everlasting to everlasting. Amen, and Amen. 
	This is the concise reality of the work that God has accomplished for all those whom He has chosen and who will respond to His Awesome Gift of Love in Jesus, the Only Begotten of the Father. He sets us into His presence for all of eternity. 
In this simple phrase, we have the essence of why we were ever created by the Lord God Almighty. He desired to have an eternal relationship of love with us. He created us for this specific and amazing reason by which we would show forth the glory of His incomparable and unending heart of Agape, throughout the eternal ages to come. For that He is to be endlessly and wholeheartedly praised by those whom He has redeemed and set into His presence today and always.
	We will continue, Lord willing, next time with this wondrous call of the people of God to bring before Him all the blessing and praise and honor and adoration and thanksgiving in our worship of Who He is and all that He has done. This is in order that He receives the blessing and the dedication and the consecrated adulation that He, Alone is due! So be it! 
The king has also said thus, 'Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who has granted one to sit on my throne today while my own eyes see it.'" Amen.

This morning’s benediction is Ps 34:22. The Lord redeems the soul of His servants; And none of those who take refuge in Him will be condemned. Amen.