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Pray Without Ceasing, Week 5, Day 29

by David Joynt on June 30, 2019


PSALM 103:1 | Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name.

You and I can give blessings. What does it mean to bless someone? It is a form of recognition, acknowledging someone’s value to you and to God. It encourages because it expresses a personal desire for someone to flourish and reinforces a relationship. It commits the one who blesses to be an ally and a friend to one who is blessed. It is a kind of prayer, an intercession for another’s well being and it tells that person that they matter to you, to the Kingdom and to God.

The psalmist is blessing God in Psalm 103. He summons all his capacities to do so, marshalling his feelings, his interest, his perceptions, and his will. When we pray we should begin by calling our minds, hearts, and souls into action.

Do you ever bless others, verbally?

Have you blessed God today

About the Author
David Joynt

Dave Joynt began his service as a pastor at Valley Presbyterian Church in Paradise Valley, Arizona in September 2014. This meant a move away from the Northeast, where he has a long history, growing up in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and then serving congregations in Delaware and New Jersey for a total of 23 years.

Dave was nurtured in a great church in Bethlehem where his parents, Anne and Carey, served as elders. He graduated in classics from Lehigh University where his Father taught, and then from Oxford, where he met his wife Julia. Ordained in 1988, he completed a Ph.D. from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1993.

He and Julia have a son, Tristan, and a daughter, Madeleine.

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