“Blessed are you, O LORD,” the psalmist says (Psalm 119:12). How can God be blessed? Isn’t he the One who blesses, and we are the ones who are blessed? In this episode, Pastor Biebert talks about the two main ways the Bible uses the concept of “bless” and “blessed.”

Music Credit: Johann Sebastian Bach, Trio from Brandenburg Concerto, No. 1, Movement 4

Sometimes after Day 6, when God saw that everything was “very good” (Gen. 1:31), the devil came to tempt Adam and Eve. But how did there come to be a devil in the first place?

Music Credit: J. S. Bach, “Wir eilen mit schwachen, doch emsigen Schritten,” aria from “Jesu, der du meine Seele,” BWV 78 (Leipzig, 1724).

What do you put in a treasure chest? And what do you do with it there? In Psalm 119:11, the psalmist tells us to think of our hearts as treasure chests for the sayings of God, and he tells us how it will benefit us.

Music Credit: Johann Sebastian Bach, Trio from Brandenburg Concerto, No. 1, Movement 4

The serpent was also one of God’s good creations in the beginning, and his craftiness or shrewdness was good too. But the devil took these creations and abused them for his own evil purposes—the same thing he does today.

Music Credit: J. S. Bach, “Wir eilen mit schwachen, doch emsigen Schritten,” aria from “Jesu, der du meine Seele,” BWV 78 (Leipzig, 1724).

Why do we make commitments and promises to God when we’re always going to violate them until he brings us to heaven?

Music Credit: Johann Sebastian Bach, Trio from Brandenburg Concerto, No. 1, Movement 4

Before the fall into sin, humans went about naked without any shame or embarrassment. Can you even imagine that? Our difficulty imagining that (without imagining other shameful and horrifying things accompanying it) should also help us appreciate the honorable way Jesus had wooed us as his Bride.

Music Credit: J. S. Bach, “Wir eilen mit schwachen, doch emsigen Schritten,” aria from “Jesu, der du meine Seele,” BWV 78 (Leipzig, 1724).

Youthful innocence is often therapeutic for us when we get older and start growing jaded and cynical at the world. But what can we do to help our children and young people retain their (relative) innocence and bring it with them into adulthood? The psalmist has the simple answer.

Music Credit: Johann Sebastian Bach, Trio from Brandenburg Concerto, No. 1, Movement 4

The author of Genesis 2:24, by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, recognizes that what God has done for and with Adam and Eve is the way he wants it to be on earth as long as the earth endures.

Music Credit: J. S. Bach, “Wir eilen mit schwachen, doch emsigen Schritten,” aria from “Jesu, der du meine Seele,” BWV 78 (Leipzig, 1724).

In the final verse of the first stanza of Psalm 119, the psalmist nicely sums up his thoughts.

Music Credit: Johann Sebastian Bach, Trio from Brandenburg Concerto, No. 1, Movement 4

Remember the instructions and prohibitions (with attendant consequences) that God gave Adam in Genesis 2:15–17? Who would pass those along to Eve?

Music Credit: J. S. Bach, “Wir eilen mit schwachen, doch emsigen Schritten,” aria from “Jesu, der du meine Seele,” BWV 78 (Leipzig, 1724).