10,000 Reasons

Bless the Lord, O my soul, O my soul
Worship His holy name
Sing like never before, O my soul
I worship Your holy name

The sun comes up; it’s a new day dawning
It’s time to sing Your song again
Whatever may pass and whatever lies before me
Let me be singing when the evening comes

You’re rich in love and You’re slow to anger
Your name is great and Your heart is kind
For all Your goodness, I will keep on singing
10,000 reasons for my heart to find

And on that day when my strength is failing
The end draws near and my time has come
Still my soul will sing Your praise unending
10,000 years and then forever more

Bless the Lord, O my soul, O my soul
Worship His holy name
Sing like never before, O my soul
I worship Your holy name
Jesus, I worship Your holy name
I worship Your holy name
Sing like never before, O my soul
I worship Your holy name
I worship Your holy name
I worship Your holy name

Matt Redman
written with Jonas Myrin

*   ~   ♥   ~   ✞   ~  ♥   ~   *

Bless and affectionately praise the Lord, O my soul,
And all that is [deep] within me, bless His holy name.
Bless and affectionately praise the Lord, O my soul,
Psalms 103:1-2a AMP

Recently I have seen several FaceBook posts about blessing the Lord.  This song immediately came to mind.  And, as I thought about blessing the Lord, two questions were at the forefront:

1) Why are we to bless the Lord?    2) How do we bless the Lord?

First, WHY  are we to bless the Lord?  The song title says there are 10,000 reasons to bless the Lord.  And in the second verse, it gives us several specific reasons taken from Scripture:

• The Lord is rich in love

But God, being [so very] rich in mercy,
because of His great and wonderful love with which He loved us…
Ephesians 2:4 AMP

Yahweh—Yahweh is a compassionate and gracious God,
…rich in faithful love and truth,
Exodus 34:6 HCSB

• The Lord is slow to anger

Return to the Lord your God,
For He is gracious and merciful,
Slow to anger,
Joel 2:13 NKJV

The Lord is slow to anger…forgiving wrongdoing and rebellion
Numbers 14:18 HCSB

• His name is great

Inasmuch as there is none like You, O Lord
You are great, and Your name is great in might
Jeremiah 10:6 NKJV

I will vindicate the holiness of My great name
which has been profaned among the nations
Ezekiel 36:23 NASB

• His heart is kind

For His merciful kindness is great toward us
Psalm 117:2 NKJV

“But with everlasting kindness I will have compassion on you,”
says the Lord your Redeemer.
Isaiah 54:8 AMP

The Lord is righteous in all His ways
And kind in all His deeds
Psalm 145:17 NASB

But, the best reason is because He loves us.  John 3:16 tells us He loved us so much that He sent His only Son to die in our place, so that we could have everlasting life.

Augustine explained it like this
“God loves each of us as if there were only one of us.”

His plan would have been put into effect even if you or I were the only person on earth. This leaves me speechless!

And, second, HOW  do we bless the Lord?  What could I possibly do that would bless Him?  Thankfully, in the words of David, we have the answer:

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 of it and be glad.
Oh, magnify the Lord with me,
And let us exalt His name together.
Psalm 34:1-3NKJV

We are to praise the Lord continually—boast about Him, magnify Him, and exalt His Holy name.  That’s how we bless the Lord.  (That’s not asking too much, is it?)