“The LORD has been mindful of us; He will bless us; He will bless the house of Israel; He will bless the house of Aaron. He will bless those who fear the LORD, both small and great.” (Psalm 115:12-13 NKJV)
“The Lord will never forget us in our need; he will bless us indeed! He will bless the house of Israel; he will bless the house of Aaron , his priest. Yes! He will bless his devoted lovers who bow before him, no matter who they are.” (Psalm 115:12-13 TPT)
“The LORD remembers us and will bless us. he will bless the people of Israel and bless the priests, the descendants of Aaron. He will bless those who fear the LORD, both great and lowly.” (Psalm 115:12-13 NLT)
“The LORD has been mindful of us; He will bless, He will bless the house of Israel; He will bless the house of Aaron. He will bless those who fear and worship the LORD [with awe-inspired reverence and submissive wonder], both the small and the great.” (Psalm 115:12-13 AMP)
“The LORD remembers us and will bless us. He will bless the house of Israel; he will bless the house of Aaron; he will bless those who fear the LORD – small and great alike.” (Psalm 115:12-13 HCSB)
“LORD JEHOVAH has remembered us and has blessed us; he will bless the house of Israel, he will bless the house of Aaron. His worshipers will bless LORD JEHOVAH, the small and great!” (Psalm 115:12-13 ABIPE)
I don’t know about you, but there are times when I feel small and insignificant. Sometimes I am tempted to believe that because I haven’t done great things with my life I don’t matter. Why would anyone, especially God, care anything about me? Psalm 115:12-13 is a reminder that God looks at things a bit differently than I do.
God doesn’t begin by looking at my accomplishments. He doesn’t walk into my Church on Sunday morning and see “greater” people on the platform, and “lesser” people sitting in the chairs. He doesn’t show preference between staff members on the ministry team toward Pastor Duane as He stands behind the pulpit at 11:30 AM over me when I stand behind my mop at 11:30 PM. He doesn’t walk into corporate America and get overly impressed by those in the front offices. He doesn’t go to the Symphony and see a difference between first and last chair. Or go to the football game and prefer the first string over the bench warmers. He is not nearly as impressed by the performance as He is the person.
In verses 12 and 13 the writer follows the same pattern of identifying the 3 groups of people. He makes a point of letting us know that God recognizes, and blesses them equally. From those that we from our human perspective would consider the greatest, to the least. From royalty to the common folk. Anyone who worships the Lord will be blessed. As a matter of fact, reading beyond the Psalm 115 that I am pondering, I know that I am already fully blessed in Christ, and a lifestyle of worship is one of the ways that those blessings are released to flow freely in my life.
“Then Peter replied, ‘I see very clearly that God shows no favoritism. In every nation he accepts those who fear him and do what is right. This is the message of the Good News for the people of Israel – that there is peace with God through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all.” (Acts 10:24-26 NLT). We all have equal access to our Heavenly Father. We are all equally forgiven, loved and blessed. God does not show favoritism, period!
Let’s think about that as we contemplate…
…Eric’s Life Lesson # 276 Life’s True Hero (Psalm 115) – Part 8 – Verses 12-13