When you hear someone say, “I’m blessed” what does that mean? What do you think they are saying about themselves?
What are you saying about yourself when someone asks you how you are doing and you say “I’m blessed”?
Do you know what the word “blessed” actually means?

Many times we learn how to use words in a sentence without actually knowing what the word means. That is the same with cursing. Many times people learn how to curse because they hear it used by others so they learn how to use curse words.

When looking at definitions of words, I have found that words have formal and informal uses. [ Informal words are words used casually.]

I mention this because (sadly) the word blessed has been casually used so much to the point that people no longer know what they are saying. They just know to say it.

Did you know that the word “blessed” when used informally as an adjective (which describes something) has a defined meaning which is a bunch of curse words that I am not going to say and 8 of the words are vulgar?

How many of you remember the scene in the movie FRIDAY where Chris Tucker and Ice Cube were sitting on the porch and they saw something happen across the street and they both responded with an expletive?

What they said and how they said it is the informal definition of the word “blessed”.

Here is another:
There is another curse word that people use when they are annoyed or frustrated that they say beginning with “god….” The use of that word is also the informal definition of the word blessed.
Did you know that?

I find myself being reminded of what God’s Word says in James 3:10:

New International Version
Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be.

New Living Translation
And so blessing and cursing come pouring out of the same mouth. Surely, my brothers and sisters, this is not right!

English Standard Version
From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so.

(For those of you who are cursing Christians), I bet that many of you did not know that when you shouted some expletives you actually blessed a person place or thing in the form of a curse.

I came across this when I began to sit down and study, stew over, and meditate upon scripture, including looking up words and dig into them.

Now for the past month or so, I have been reading over and over and over and over and listening to it over and over Psalm 119.

This morning, I decided to consider it with my pen and paper and what has been catching my attention each time is also something that stops me now.

The very first word of Psalm 119 is Blessed.

Now initially when I was reading and listening to Psalm 119 and I considered the two descriptors of those who are blessed in the א Aleph section (verses 1-8) it would stand out to me because I viewed this as additional information on what it means to be blessed besides what Jesus spoke in Matthew 5:3-11.

The title at the end of my social media listed name <Makarios> is actually Greek and it means Blessed One. (Many didn’t know that and some thought it was my name lol).

It is important to know what it really means because when you don’t know the meaning of the word, and you lessen it (using it informally) you might find yourself cursing instead of blessing.

Because I want to walk out (live out) a blessed life, it became important to me to really understand not just what it word means in definition, but also what the Bible says about being blessed.

Now I’m only going to share a couple of these with you because I don’t think we really take the time to think about these things that we have read and what it truly means.

So, let’s look first at the beatitudes that was taught by Jesus as found in Matthew chapter 5

In verse 3, the NIV, NKJV, KJV and more says the following:
“Blessed are the poor in spirit…”

Now I purposely stopped at that part because we tend to skip past what this is saying to get to the good part which says “… for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

But, let me ask you this:

What does it look like to be poor in spirit?
Would you consider a person who is “poor in spirit” blessed?

I like how this next translation reads for this verse

New Living Translation
“God blesses those who are poor and realize their need for him, for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs.

Now check this out,
if you are on your grind,
making your money,
and you have acquired a lot of things
that in this world we are told has value
(name brands and expensive items)
and you have taken pride
in how you hustled to get what you got
and show…

the fact that you got stuff and the ability to get stuff does not mean that you are blessed.

Jesus said that blessed are the poor in spirit
and the New Living Translation helps us to realize that these are those who realize that we need God.

If your hustle is for money, then you are not looking to the Creator and Sustainer of all life. You do have a god – a little g god – for Jesus also said that we cannot serve both God and money (some translations say mammon) in Matthew 6:24

New International Version
“No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.

1 Timothy 6:10 speaks about the love of money being a root of all sorts of evil.
1 John 4:8, 16 tells us that God is love.

So, many misread, misunderstand, and misquote what is being said at 1 Timothy 6:10 because they don’t realize that what is being exposed is that money is a fruit and at the root of that love for it is a god.

I did a study on this a long time ago in which that god was exposed and named. If you want to see that audio study, you can click on this YouTube link:

So if a person is trusting in the money and in their things, are they really blessed?

Lets look at another on from what Jesus described as what it means to be blessed in Matthew chapter 5

Verse 4 in the NIV, NKJV, KJV, ESV, NLT and more reads,
“Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.”

This is yet another verse that does not leave one feeling as if this particularly blessed person is having a good time and is happy and joyful.

I like how the Amplified bible reads for this particular verse

Amplified Bible
“Blessed [forgiven, refreshed by God’s grace] are those who mourn [over their sins and repent], for they will be comforted [when the burden of sin is lifted].

So in verse 3, the first blessed person is one who are come to realize that they need God.

In verse 4, this next person is one who deeply regrets their sins and has a repentant heart. they are blessed because they are experiencing forgiveness from what grieves them and that burden is lifted from them.

This is a blessed one.
In both instances, being blessed has nothing to do with having stuff nor getting what one wants.

(Some tend to think that when they ask for stuff and it is given to them then they are blessed. Well, what about when you don’t get what you asked for and want? Does that mean that you are not blessed? This is why we are looking at this because we need to be able to understand what it means to be blessed regardless of the season we find ourselves in.)

Let’s do one more in Matthew chapter 5 (I am going to let you all look at the rest for yourselves. I will not do them all for you )

Verse 11 says the following

New International Version and many others says
“Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me.

Young’s Literal Translation says
‘Happy are ye whenever they may reproach you, and may persecute, and may say any evil thing against you falsely for my sake —

Now I do not know one person who will feel happy when being insulted and persecuted for their beliefs.

Again I like how the Amplified Bible puts it,

Amplified Bible
“Blessed [morally courageous and spiritually alive with life-joy in God’s goodness] are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil things against you because of [your association with] Me.

So a blessed one is described as being morally courageous and spiritually alive with life-joy in God’s goodness.

Are you blessed?
Are you morally courageous?
Are you spiritually alive?
Are you full of life and joy?
Are you aware that your ability to be morally courageous, spiritually alive, and full of life and joy is because of the goodness of God in your life?

So we are learning what it really means to be blessed, and when we take this information and look at Psalm 119 there we are told how we can be blessed.

Verse 1 tells us that the blessed one’s ways are blameless

Now many will respond that no one is perfect and that response would be a clear indication that what was read was not understood. The verse says the “ways” are blameless not the person and we are told how so in verse one also.

It continues that the blessed one would “walk according to the law of the Lord.”

What is your walk?
How do you carry yourself?
Are you doing your own thing, doing what you want to do?
or Are you walking “according to the law of the Lord”?

Do you know what the Law of the Lord is?
How can you walk in the law if you do not know what it is?
Are you positioning yourself to “hear” the law of the Lord?

Verse 2 tells us even more about what it means to be blessed.

2 Blessed are those who keep his statutes
and seek him with all their heart—

Do you know what a statute is?
Do you know what a law is?
Do you know the difference between laws and statutes?

It is important that this is known because the blessed one will
walk according to the law of the Lord and will
keep his statutes

If you are going to keep something you must know what the something is that you are to keep

Also, we are told that a blessed one will seek the Lord with ALL their heart.

Do you know what it looks like to “seek”?
If you lost something and you are looking for it, that is seeking.

Look at what we are told by God in Jeremiah 29:13
English Standard Version
You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.

When we find something that we are looking for that we had lost we feel and state that we are blessed. God says that when we seek Him, we will find Him, but in order to find Him we must seek Him with all our heart. CATCH

Verse 3 of Psalm 119 continues about the blessed one “they do no wrong but follow his ways.”

Keep in mind that this is what God’s Word has been telling us. We are commanded to lean not unto our own understanding but in all our ways we are to acknowledge the Lord and let HIM direct our path. (Proverbs 3:5-6)

Jesus said that HE is the way, the truth and the life. (John 14:6)

We are to follow in Jesus footsteps closely. (1 Peter 2:21)

Now these first three verses in Psalm gives us instruction on how to be blessed. It tells us of the behaviors of those who are blessed.

Verses 4 You have commanded us
To keep Your precepts diligently.

What I find so awesomely amazing is that God’s will for us was always that we BE blessed.

Do you remember what it means to be blessed? Revisit the above just in case you forgot.

This was a command that comes by keeping God’s “precepts “.

Okay, that is another word like laws and statutes.

Do you know what a precept is?
Do you know how a precept differs from a law and a statute?

If we are to be blessed, frfr, then we need to KNOW these things.

So I like how the Psalmist wrote in verse 5 and 6

5 Oh, that my ways were directed
To keep Your statutes!
6 Then I would not be ashamed,
When I look into all Your commandments.

We need our steps to be ordered (directed).

We definitely need help with this because it is when we fall off the path

(remember Jesus IS the way, the truth, and the life)

that we make the mistakes that we end up regretting especially when we are back on the path and are looking at all that was commanded of us in the word of God.

So the Bible writer says, “if my ways were directed to keep your statues,” (If I was not allowed to stray from the path… if I was made to keep the path… ) then when I read about it in God’s written Word… when I look into all of God’s commandments, then I won’t be ashamed. I won’t feel some type of way when I read God’s corrective discipline on certain matters because it would not apply to me because it would not be something that I fell into.

But if I fell off the path of following God’s statutes and bumped my head in certain areas, then when I read about the area where I missed in the Word of God I would feel some type of ashamed about it because had I listened to begin with, had I applied what God’s Word told me to do to begin with, I would not have bumped my head.

So, for the one who is able to avoid those bump your head moments – yes, they are blessed.

This is where Matthew 5:4 comes into play that we talked about earlier. We will look at it again from the Amplified Bible.

Amplified Bible
“Blessed [forgiven, refreshed by God’s grace] are those who mourn [over their sins and repent], for they will be comforted [when the burden of sin is lifted].

Once we have received that comfort of having the burden of sin lifted off of us because we have been BLESSED (forgiven and refreshed by God’s grace) then we can continue with Psalm 119:7

“I will praise You with uprightness of heart,
When I learn Your righteous judgments.”

So now it all starts here and it makes so much sense that this first stanza is called

א ALEPH

The choice is yours

and as verse 8 concludes of this first stanza

This is my own choice

“I will keep Your statutes (written laws). “

That is the desire of my heart.

Yet knowing that I am human and know that I will make mistakes from time to time, I find that I can also say as the Psalmist did

“Oh, do not forsake me utterly!”

and I already know that this prayer has been answered for Father told me a long time ago

“I will never leave you nor forsake you.” Joshua 1:5

I am BLESSED in the true sense of the word.

Below are additional reference scriptures that add to our further understanding of what it truly means to be blessed. The letters next to the verses represent the translations and versions that use the word blessed. Reading from translations other than what is listed below might present the word “happy” in the place of “blessed” [i.e. 2 Chronicles 9:7 NKJV uses the word happy instead of blessed.]

(The translations used below are as follows: LSB – Legacy Standard Bible; NASB – New American Standard Bible (2020) (1995); NLT New Living Translation; NET – New English Translation; NIV – New International Version, and they can all be viewed by clicking this link to the Blue Letter Bible )

• Deuteronomy 33:29 (NLT)
• 1 Kings 10:8 (NASB95, LSB)
• 2 Chronicles 9:7 (NASB20, NASB95, LSB)
• Job 5:17 (LSB)
• Psalm 1:1 (NET, NASB95, LSB); 2:12 (NET, NASB95, LSB); 32:1-2 (NET, NASB95, LSB ); 33:12 (NET); 34:8 (NET, NASB95, LSB); 40:4 (NET, NASB95, LSB); 41:1(NET); 65:4 (NET, NASB95, LSB); 84:4-5,12 (NET, NASB95, LSB); 89:15 (NET, NASB95, LSB); 94:12 (NET); 106:3 (NET, NASB95, LSB); 112:1 (NET, NASB95, LSB); 119:1-2 (NASB95); 127:5 (NET, NASB95, LSB) 128:1(NET, NASB95, LSB); 137:8-9 (NET, NASB95, LSB); 144:15 (NET, NASB95, LSB); 146:5 (NET, NASB95, LSB)
• Proverbs 3:13 (NASB95, LSB); 8:34 (LSB); 14:21 (LSB); 16:20 (LSB); 20:7 (NASB95, LSB); 28:14 ( NASB95, LSB); 29:18 (LSB)
• Isaiah 30:18 (NASB95, LSB); 32:20 (NIV, NASB20, NASB95); 56:2 (NASB95, LSB)
• Daniel 12:12 (NASB95, LSB)