Psalm 128:1–2: “Blessed is every one who fears the LORD, / Who walks in His ways. / When you eat the labor of your hands, / You shall be happy [blessed], and it shall be well with you.”

May 13th, 2024 by Pastor Ed in devotional

Too often in an effort to understand God, we reduce Him to a size that can fit within our own small minds. To help us guard against this limited thinking, Scripture commands us to hold God in awe. This psalm says that when we fear God, we begin the path to blessedness. This doesn’t mean being “afraid” of God, being paralyzed by fear, but being in awe and wonder of Him, holding Him in the highest possible regard. It means recognizing that He is holy and we are not. It is then that blessings will come.

If we put God at the center of everything we are, everything we think, and everything we aspire to do, then we are promised that “it will be well with” us. If we reverence God, we will not make our own plans, praying only as an after-thought. Joy and blessedness are the by-products of a life that is lived inside the will of God. If we will begin with God and travel God’s way by thinking and behaving biblically, then that obedience to God will supernaturally yield peace in our lives. The road we choose to travel on will determine our blessings along the way, as well as our destination. Where we will spend eternity is determined by whose path we choose to follow, His or ours.

An August 12, 1969 news article from the San Francisco Chronicle read: “The blazing summer heat of the Death Valley area has killed 2 men and a youth who tried to reach habitation by setting out afoot across the desert.” Arnold Dobson, Harold Mast Sr., and his son Harold Jr., apparently became stranded in the barren Saline Valley without water. One of the three bodies was found 7 miles from their abandoned car, another 14 miles, and the last 17 miles. Deputy Red Landergren said, “It looks like they just went the wrong way.” They simply turned in the wrong direction, trying to head back to a ranch house they’d passed 30 miles back. If they had gone just a mile further along the road, they would have found a grove of willows with a spring.

“LORD, we know that You bless all who walk with You, even though You may lead us in unexpected directions. Your blessing is on our lives when we simply follow You.”