the Week of Proper 28 / Ordinary 33
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Bible Dictionaries
Bless
Hawker's Poor Man's Concordance And Dictionary
or To bless in the language of Scripture, hath many different significations. When spoken of in reference to the Lord's blessing his people, it means bestowing upon them his loving kindness, and grace, and favour, as manifested in a way of temporal, spiritual, or eternal blessings. But when it is spoken of in respect to our blessing the Lord, or blessing one another, it is evident that the sense of it differs very widely. I cannot omit mentioning, under this article, a peculiarity concerning blessings in general, as they relate to the Lord's mercies in this way to his people, and because I do not believe that the subject is generally understood. All blessings are in Christ. This is the bottom of all our mercies; for Where Christ is not, there can be nothing truly blessed. "Men shall be blessed in him." (Psalms 72:17) But while the church are supposed to know this, and to look for no blessings but in him, believers do not so fully as they ought consider that Christ himself is their blessedness. There is a nice distinction in this view of the subject. It is not enough to see Christ's hand and Christ's blessing in the mercy he bestows upon me, in order to make that blessing sweet; but Christ himself must be the blessing to crown all. It is not enough that Jesus gives me life and salvation; but he himself must be my life and salvation. So the Psalmist, speaking in the person of Christ, saith of him, as the head of his church and people, Psalms 27:1. And so the prophet also, speaking in the person of his Lord, for the same purpose, Isaiah 12:2. And so must all the church say concerning their glorious Head. And hence, the psalmist, when at any time speaking in the person of Christ, or of the person of Christ, doth not simply say, Blessed is the man (that is, the man Christ Jesus,) but, Blessedness is the man, using the word in the plural number, to intimate all blessings in him. For Christ is not a single blessing, but all; and the blessedness he gives, and is to his people, doth not consist in one thing, but in all. I hope the reader will understand my meaning. The first word of Psalms 1:1-6; Psalms 32:1-11 and Psalms 41:1-13 (to mention no more,) which all speak of Christ, is on this account in the plural, and all ascribe blessedness to him for this express purpose.
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Hawker, Robert D.D. Entry for 'Bless'. Hawker's Poor Man's Concordance and Dictionary. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/pmd/b/bless.html. London. 1828.
