We're in our last message, and the last message, the last choice, daily choice for difficult days that's right, is I will bless the Lord. Psalm 34, verse number 1 says, I will bless the Lord at all times. His praise shall continually be in my mouth. And you're going to see tonight a number of verses that deal with, I will bless the Lord, that simple decision of I will bless. As I start the last message in the series tonight, let me review the nine other choices that we have preached through. We have preached through I will trust, and I will testify, and I will sing, and I will walk, and I will cry. And I will hope, and I will hear, and I will remember, and I will rejoice, and tonight I will bless. Next week I hope to put a little card together that's laminated with the theme at the top, Daily Choices for Difficult Days, and then the ten choices that you can make that you know will please the Lord. so that you have a reminder of this series. You can keep it in your Bible, you can keep it somewhere that you, maybe in something else that you use with your devotions, like a journal, but I don't want you to forget these choices. These are good choices. We need to go to these choices beyond just the time that we're learning about them. William Jones said this, when you have to make a choice and you don't make it, That, in itself, is a choice. And so we've been trained in the Scriptures, through the book of Psalms, by the work of the Holy Spirit, by the preserved Word of God, that these are choices, not only that we could make, but they are daily choices that we should make. I hope that you haven't been a hearer only in this series. I hope that you've taken a nugget and been able to use it, been able to put it into action in your life. To bless the Lord is the opposite of cursing the Lord. A lot of people curse the Lord. A lot of people take the name of the Lord in vain. But for God's people, God's people can make the choice of, I will bless the Lord. To bless means to kneel, exalting the Lord above me. To bless the Lord means that we joyfully announce all the good things about God. Other similar expressions throughout the Psalms that kind of highlight the same truth of I will bless include, I will magnify the Lord, or come, let us exalt His name together." Sixty-eight times again in the book of Psalms we find this phrase, I will bless, or the word bless, or the word blesseth. Sixty-eight times. I want to give you a number of thoughts on, I will bless the Lord. First of all, I want you to see the instruction, the instruction to bless the Lord. Turn over in your Bibles to Psalm 66 and verse number 8. If you have your Bibles, Psalm 66 and verse number 8. Here the leader of the nation of Israel is saying, O bless our God, ye people, and make the voice of His praise to be heard. In Psalm 68, 26, two chapters later, the psalmist says, Bless ye God and the congregation, even the Lord from the fountain of Israel. David, the leader of Israel in 1 Chronicles 29, 20 said to all the congregation, now bless the Lord your God. It's interesting as you study the scriptures that you find this to be true, that spiritual leadership directs God's people to bless the Lord. Spiritual leadership directs others to focus on God's blessings. In Psalm 134 and verse number one, behold, get your eyes on, bless ye the Lord, all ye servants of the Lord. In this particular passage of Scripture, Charles Spurgeon suggested that the scene was of pilgrims departing Jerusalem in the darkness of early morning, calling out to the priests and Levites who stood watch at the temple, Behold, bless the Lord. It means to think well of God. It means to speak well of Him, to adore Him with reverence, to draw near to Him with love, to delight in Him with exaltation. It's important that we understand that there's instruction in the Bible by spiritual leadership to bless the Lord. But I also want you to understand that the Bible is not primarily written by men. Though God used men to record the words, we could also say that there's spiritual instruction given by the Holy Spirit who carried men along to write down the words, that there's instruction from the Holy Spirit to bless the Lord. Bless the Lord. I want you to turn to Deuteronomy chapter 8 and verse number 10. Deuteronomy chapter 8 and verse number 10. Here the Bible says, when thou hast eaten and art full, then thou shalt bless the Lord thy God for the good land which he hath given thee. I don't know if you had supper tonight. I had supper. I had some chicken that my daughter made and baked potato and green beans for supper, and I left the table full. And here, the instruction from the Holy Spirit is this, when thou hast eaten and art full, then shalt thou bless the Lord. Oh, dear church tonight, bless the Lord in your homes. You have something to bless the Lord over. If you ate a meal tonight, you were able to be full. You can bless the Lord. Here, bless is virtually identical to being thankful or gratefully recognizing the giver of the blessings. Hey, God's given us good land. God's given us food to eat, the simple things of life. That's why it's important to bless the Lord. There's instruction here given by spiritual leadership. There's also instruction given by the Spirit of God. But may I say this, there's also instruction given by the Christian to himself. To himself. Look at Psalm 103, verse number 2. We're looking at the instruction tonight to bless the Lord. It's a daily decision that you and I can make, should make. It's a right decision. Notice the psalmist in Psalm 103, verse number 2 said, Bless the Lord, O my soul. My soul, bless the Lord. My soul, get on the right track. Whatever your mind's been on prior to the service tonight that's been distracting, whatever has caused you to be disillusioned today, whatever has caused you in your mind to be in despair, hey, get your soul back tonight. Speak to yourself and say, I will bless the Lord. Boy, I have to do that in my life. Repeatedly on a daily basis. Studying for the message tonight. Of course, you have days that go like this. Up and down. And I have days like that, you have days like that. And stopped in my study and just kind of paced around my office and began to sing, blessed be the name of the Lord and bless the Lord and give God what he deserves today. It blessed my soul. Oftentimes, we have to speak to ourselves. We have to muse to ourselves. Watch this. We get in ruts mentally. We get out of, off track, so to speak, in our minds and in our hearts, and there has to be some self-instruction sometimes that is in conjunction with spiritual leadership, is in conjunction with the Spirit of God that says, get out of that rut and get your mind back on blessing God. Maybe you need that today. Notice what Bless His Name does for us. It helps us to not forget all His benefits. In Psalm 100, verse 4, it says, Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise. Be thankful unto Him, and bless His name. What does this do for us, preacher? Well, it guards us, our lips and our heart, and dispels complaining and doubt and divided hearts and negativity when we bless the Lord. This is why this is important. It's not just important that God hears us bless His name and bless Him, but it's important for us. Notice these words, enter into his gates with thanksgiving, into his courts with praise, be thankful unto him, bless his name. Brethren, those are all great, wonderful words that lead us to different thinking if we'll take the time to bless the Lord. Notice this talking to self was to get his whole being engaged in blessing the Lord. Oh my soul, how fragmented our thoughts and feelings can lead us to be disjointed spiritually. We need at times to talk to our own soul and pull us out of empty and futile mental patterns and do something productive with our time and with our energy and with our lips. That is, bless the Lord. Psalm 103, verse number 1, he said, Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me. Lord, bring all of me into this blessing the Lord. Lord, whatever I've been pulling as weights today, Lord, let me leave those behind that my whole soul may be into blessing the Lord. You and I can make that choice. Sometimes we need some self-instruction. Secondly, I want you to see the inclusion of blessing the Lord. There's not only instruction in this passage, but there's inclusion. In Psalm 134, verse number 1. Psalm 134, verse number 1 in your Bibles. The Bible says, Behold, bless ye the Lord, all ye servants, of the Lord, which by night stand in the house of the Lord." Dear Christian, as servants, we're not just to be about flattering others. We're to be about blessing the Lord. The word bless is a characteristic word of the Psalms. It's tied to thanksgiving. It's tied to praise. Let others praise themselves, but let us, as servants of the wonderful Master, our Lord, bless the Master, bless the Lord. Remember, it's from God where all our blessings flow. We've had a lot of blessings, brethren. In the 45 years of my life, God has always taken care of me, of my family. God has blessed me abundantly. He's blessed me with spiritual blessings. He's blessed me with physical blessings. He's blessed me with family blessings. He's blessed me with freedom blessings. He's blessed me with monetary blessings. He's blessed me with work. He's blessed me with education. He's blessed You can go on, too, tonight, can't you? He's blessed me. He's blessed me. Praise God. Bless the one who has sent us all of our blessings. The old song goes, Praise Him from whom all blessings flow. Inclusion means all ye servants of the Lord. There's no servant of God tonight that I'm speaking to by way of live stream that doesn't have any blessings whereby you can bless the Lord. Every person I'm talking to tonight, God is blessed in one way or another. All of his servants, all of us, brethren, should say, I will bless the Lord. I personally will bless the Lord. If you're focused on burdens tonight, remember just as quick as we take our burdens to the Lord, we should just be just as quick to take our blessings to the Lord and bless the Lord. Psalm 145 verse 10, and thy saints shall bless thee. It's God's people who are to bless the Lord. By the way, let me bless the Lord for all those that have been protected in these days. I know there are governors that are blaspheming our God and saying it's not God that has brought about the flattening of the curve. It's us. It's not faith. Let me say, anything that is happening in our country that is good is from our God. Let's bless His name tonight for that. David had fallen out of the frying pan and into the fire in Psalm 34. He was at the mercy of his enemy Abimelech and he was terrified. What could he do? The psalm was written when David was so desperate that he pretended he had lost his mind, scratching the doorpost and letting saliva run down into his beard, if you study it out in Samuel. But I want you to see the integrity of blessing the Lord. Because in Psalm 34, verse number 1, the Bible says, I will bless the Lord at all times, in good and bad times. David felt like he was going to be captured. Maybe his whole life was going to change for a long time. And David said, I will bless the Lord at all times. We see the instruction of blessing the Lord, the inclusion of blessing the Lord, the integrity of blessing the Lord. But look down here in verse number 3, there's an invitation to bless the Lord. He says, I will do it in verse number 1, but in verse number 3 he says, O magnify the Lord with me and let us exalt His name together. Hey, let's do this together. Hey, join in on this. You know, it's always more fun to watch a sporting event with somebody else. A couple years ago, Ohio State was playing an important game. Jeremiah Tome came over to my house. We watched that game together. We cheered through the good times. And when Ohio State turned the ball over, we frowned. And oh, man, what's wrong with that running back or quarterback? When the coach, we thought, made a bad decision on third down, we were down. But when they scored a touchdown, we rejoiced together. You know, your joy is a little bit fuller when you celebrate it with somebody else. Or maybe you've eaten out at a restaurant, or you've eaten something that's very, very delicious, and your maid is sitting across from you, or maybe one of your children, and you cut off a piece of meat or cut off something that's on the plate that's so delicious. You've got to try this! This is fantastic! In fact, Pastor Bill would say, as you know, it's so good it makes you want to slap somebody. He would say, and use that expression, but you want to share it with somebody. It's that good. Hey, our joy isn't totally full until we talk to somebody else and say, let us. Why don't you magnify the Lord with me? Hey, church family tonight, when we close the service, why don't you magnify and bless the Lord together? You're going to pray about prayer requests. I understand that. But why don't you all just say, hey, I want to bless the Lord about this. And we'll look at some illustrations of blessing the Lord. But there's an invitation to bless the Lord. Maybe this week you want to call somebody in the church and you want to just say, hey, listen, I just called you to just bless the Lord with you today. Do you have something on your tongue that you would like to bless the Lord with? I was thinking of this about the Lord and I just want to bless the Lord with you today and share this blessing of the Lord with you. I want to encourage you to do that. Let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually. He said, I will bless the Lord at all times. And let's invite one another. Lastly, the illustrations of blessing the Lord. Psalm 104, verse 1. Would you turn there in your Bibles? Blessing God, as we look at the illustrations of blessing the Lord, means saying things like, God, You are very great. Psalm 104, verse number 1. The Bible says, Bless the Lord, O my soul. Oh Lord my God, Thou art very great. Thou art clothed with honor and majesty. Lord, I want to kneel. Lord, I want to exalt You. Lord, with my lips I want to announce Your goodness and Your greatness. And Lord, I'm doing that from my soul, from my inner being, Lord. This is from my heart. We see that illustration in Psalm 104, verse number 1. We see in Psalm 145, verse 21, the Bible says, My mouth shall speak the praise of the Lord and let all flesh bless His holy name forever and ever. God, You have a holy name that is above every name. Lord, there's none that's holy like You. Lord, I want to bless Your holy name tonight. Lord, I want to thank you for being holy and set apart above all creation. Lord, your name is above all names. Lord, I bless you tonight. In Psalm 18, verse 46, the Lord liveth, he said, and blessed be my rock, and let the God of my salvation be exalted. Hey, brethren, tonight I can bless the Lord, you can bless the Lord, that the Lord liveth Praise God! He's not dead. He neither slumbers nor sleeps. God liveth and He's my rock. I have a solid foundation. When things around seem to be crumbling at times, I have a solid foundation. He's my rock. I will bless the Lord in that way. Psalm 72 verse number 18, Blessed be the Lord God, the God of Israel who only doeth wondrous things. Tonight I will bless the Lord because God everything that you do is wondrous. It's not mediocre. It's not bare minimum. It's not what man can do. It's everything, God, that you do is wondrous. Lord, I bless your name because of that. I bless the Lord, Psalm 16 and verse number 7, who have given me counsel. My reigns also instruct me in the night seasons. Jesus' name is the wonderful Counselor. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of counsel, powerfully instructing me and convincing me, teaching me how to act and how to walk. For He directs us to set right steps and to walk in right places. He sets our ground even, one of the Psalms says, and because of that He gives us counsel. Oh, I have it. I have the infallible book of counseling right here and He gives it to us. And the psalmist said, I will bless the Lord who hath given me counsel. There are numbers of illustrations in the Bible of what people blessed the Lord about. I've given you a few tonight. You'll probably think up some more. Daily choices and difficult days. We end the series tonight. The thrust of the series is this. What do I do, preacher, when I don't know what to do? And there are difficult days that I don't have all the answers for. I'll tell you what you do. You do what you know is right to do. And what is right to do we have found in this series. I will trust. I will testify. I will walk. I will sing. I will cry. I will remember. I will rejoice. I will bless. That's what we do. We stop life and we do that. I trust that you will do that. I trust that you will make the same choice the psalmist made in Psalm 145 and verse number 2. Every day will I bless thee. Every day will I bless thee. I want to end our time together tonight. We'll have prayer right after this, but I would like to sing one song tonight together as we end this series and our time in the Word together on this series. I would like to sing the first, second, and fourth verses tonight. of blessed be the name out of our hymn book it's page number 49 the words will be on the screen for you tonight as we just together sing praise and bless the name of the lord the songwriter wrote it Blessed be the name of the Lord. And as you sing the words, would you remember what you're singing? Think about the words. And would you think about the fact that God is your audience tonight and my audience as we sing to Him, blessed be the name. Verse. All praise to Him who reigns above Blessed be the name, blessed be the name, blessed be the name of the Lord. Blessed be the name, blessed be the name, blessed be the name of the Lord. On the second verse, notice this. His name above all names shall stand. A lot of names being talked about today. A lot of names being listened to. A lot of names being exalted. But I want you to know names rise and fall. But not the name of our God. His name above all names shall stand exalted more and more. Sing with me on the second verse together. His name above all names shall stand, exalted more and more, at God the Father's own right hand, where angels host adore. Blessed be the name, blessed be the name, blessed be the name, Blessed be the name, blessed be the name of the Lord. And look at the last verse. When you sing the second part, it will say, Of all earth's kingdoms conqueror, whose reign shall never cease. Oh, Jesus is gonna reign forever and ever. Let's bless His name together on the last stanza. Together. His name shall be the Councilor, the mighty Prince of Peace, of all earth's kingdoms conqueror, whose reign shall never cease. Blessed be the name, blessed be the name, blessed be the name,