… according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, with which I have been entrusted. (1 Timothy 1:11)

How can God be blessed? Isn’t that something He does to us, the greater bestowing upon the lesser? Yet we see that:

Lord Jesus Christ … is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone possesses immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see. To Him be honor and eternal dominion! Amen. (1 Tim 6:14–16)

Christ [is] … God blessed forever. Amen. (Rom 9:5)

God is blessed, yes. But who blesses Him? We must state that either He blesses Himself or that being blessed is an eternal, self-existing part of God’s nature. Understanding the word “blessed” in a passive sense would require a certain plurality in the Godhead—for there must be a blesser if one is blessed. Of course, God in His perfection could be both in a singular reflexive sense, but at the least this would fit with the concept of Trinity, in the same way as does the terminology of Genesis 1:26 (“Let Us make man in Our image …”).

However, the word blessed carries the meaning of “happy” or “fortunate.” This is the word used in the beatitudes, where nine times a person is declared blessed if they live out one of the characteristics there listed. It is a state of being that is more than an emotion of happiness. Rather it is a deep-seated and joyful contentedness, a consummately appropriate satisfaction and pleasure. In this sense of the word, we can see that God is completely fulfilled in Himself. He needs nothing else to give Him joy, nothing else to add to His contentment. There are no goals, no accomplishments that could add to His being blessed. He owns everything by virtue of His creation; everything He does is perfect, so there are no surprises to Him that add to His pleasure.

We finite humans have difficulty understanding this state of being that is so foreign to us. Yet we long for it and believe it will be our experience when we graduate to glory and enter that state of eternal blessedness. God is already there.

So why then, if God is completely blessed just as He is, did He create anything? He certainly didn’t need to in order to fulfill any need He had within Himself. The answer is this: He created because that is the natural expression of His blessedness; He is intrinsically blessed. Just as a happy person smiles, so in creation the blessed God blesses. And we are the beneficiaries.

Lord, how fortunate I am to know You, the blessed God who blesses.