“On behalf of the house of Yahweh, our God,

I will seek out good for you.”

(Psalm 122:9)

Do you intentionally seek out the good of those in your Christian fellowship?  This does not mean that you do them a favor now and again when they ask, but do you intentionally go out of your way to bless those around you even apart of their asking.  Such is what the psalmist is stating.  The Hebrew word that he uses in the second clause is the word vq;b” (baqash), which means to diligently search something out—to hunt it down or to demand of yourself that you find what you are looking for.

One of the things I love to do is to rummage through stacks of old books looking for those rare treasures that often get buried and forgotten.  I have been known to haunt the shelves of used book stores, happily spending hours looking for books.  It is granted that different people find their interest in different things, but I think that most people like hunting for treasure in one sense of the word or another.  Some enjoy bargain hunting at yard-sales, some online.  Some enjoy combing the beaches with a metal detector and some love reading a good mystery novel, searching the pages diligently for clues.  The recent popularity of pirate movies and stories in American culture is once again a testimony that we enjoy hunting things out.

Yet apply this to the life of the church.  What would it look like in a congregation if the members were as diligent in seeking ways to bless each other as they were in seeking bargains for themselves.  What if, instead of being students of the value of worldly goods, we became students of one another, doing so with the intention of bringing good into another’s life.  Understand, too, that the motivation for doing good is not so that others will do good to you, but simply to bless another individual and by doing so, honor God.  How different our churches might be.

Beloved, on behalf of the house of God—our God—let us diligently seek to do good to one another and to those who visit with us.  Indeed, how different our fellowships would look if our members were going out of their way to bless each other—even to the point of demanding of themselves, I will make sure that I bless this person or that person today.