How can humans bless God?

[PuerCuriosus]

In the gloria, the first line of the first refrain goes
“We praise you, we BLESS YOU, we adore you…”
How is it possible for us to bless God if blessing someone means praying for them and using God’s power to do so in the first place?

 

[MarkThompson]

In the gloria, the first line of the first refrain goes
“We praise you, we BLESS YOU, we adore you…”
How is it possible for us to bless God if blessing someone means praying for them and using God’s power to do so in the first place?

It is a different sense of the word “bless” than the one you are thinking of. The OED offers as definition II. of bless, “To hold or call holy; to extol as holy (see Isa. vi. 3, Rev. iv. 8), divine, gracious.” It also gives a note on the development of the meaning, including, in relevant part:
[T]he sense-development of the word was greatly influenced by its having been chosen at the Eng. conversion to render L. benedīcere, and Gr. εὐλογεῖν, which started from a primitive sense of ‘speak well of or to, eulogize, praise,’ but were themselves influenced by being chosen to translate Heb. brk, primarily ‘to bend,’ hence ‘to bend the knee, worship, praise, bless God, invoke blessings on, bless as a deity.’ Hence, a long and varied series of associations, heathen, Jewish, and Christian, blend in the Eng. uses of bless and blessing.

 

[roselily]

I read,


**Tobit 12:6
Raphael’s Exhortation
Then Raphael called the two of them privately and said to them, 'Bless God and acknowledge him in the presence of all the living for the good things he has done for you. Bless and sing praise to his name. **
:angel1:

 

[MtnDwellar]

I wondered the same thing.

forums.catholic-questions.org/showthread.php?t=681300

 

[JRKH]

It is a different sense of the word “bless” than the one you are thinking of. The OED offers as definition II. of bless, “To hold or call holy; to extol as holy (see Isa. vi. 3, Rev. iv. 8), divine, gracious.” It also gives a note on the development of the meaning, including, in relevant part:
[T]he sense-development of the word was greatly influenced by its having been chosen at the Eng. conversion to render L. benedīcere, and Gr. εὐλογεῖν, which started from a primitive sense of ‘speak well of or to, eulogize, praise,’ but were themselves influenced by being chosen to translate Heb. brk, primarily ‘to bend,’ hence ‘to bend the knee, worship, praise, bless God, invoke blessings on, bless as a deity.’ Hence, a long and varied series of associations, heathen, Jewish, and Christian, blend in the Eng. uses of bless and blessing.

 

[edward_george]

The Latin word used to mean “bless” is “benedicere,” which comes from “bene,” meaning “well” and “dicere” meaning “to speak.” So to bless is to “speak well (of)” someone. When we bless God, we’re simply speaking well of him (to greater or lesser degree). When God blesses us, he speaks his goodness upon us, because he creates with a word.

-ACEGC

 

[Yehuda_Dion]

I’m not ignorant of the definitions of “bless” that some have posted here, but I like to hold to a different interpretation of “bless” when speaking of blessing God. Personally I like to see it as “wishing” God well in his work of winning the battle for souls.

 

[PuerCuriosus]

Thank you all very much. This was really helpful. I’m sorry my question was a repeat one though!