A close reading of Scripture shows that God blesses humans, humans bless God, and humans bless each other. That is a first clue.
Another clue is that rarely — perhaps even never — is anything besides God or a human blessed. There are misleading phrases, like “blessing a house,” which means that not the physical structure but rather the people who live in the house receive the blessing. The “house” can even refer to the family itself, like the “House of David,” which simply means a dynasty or royal family.
Likewise, one does not properly “bless a meal.” At the Last Supper, Jesus did not bless the bread (cf. Matthew 26:26, Mark 14:22, Luke 24:30). English translations can be deceptive on this point. Jesus took the bread and blessed God. This is more clear in the Greek text of the New Testament, which in turn represents a transcription of the Passover prayer which Jesus uttered in Hebrew or possibly Aramaic. Jesus spoke a common Hebrew mealtime prayer, something like this: “Blessed are You, O Lord our God, King of the Universe, Who brings forth bread from the field.” From this it is clear that the words, or the people who utter them, are blessing God, not the food.
Likewise, in I Samuel 9:13, the expression “to bless the sacrifice” is an elision. The words spoken at a sacrifice bless God to whom the sacrifice is made, and the person on behalf of whom the sacrifice is made.
So it stands that one does not bless inanimate objects.
As to what exactly a “blessing” is, Semitic philology offers clues. The root word is related to “knee” or the act of “kneeling.” One kneels to show respect and honor to someone. Blessing shows one’s respect or honor for another. This is easily plausible for humans blessing God, and for humans blessing each other. It can be surprising to conceptualize God as “showing respect and honor” to a human being. It seems to be an inversion of hierarchy. Yet it is so. Theologically, it points to God’s grace: the bestowal of unmerited and unearned gifts: certainly, humans do not deserve to be honored or respected by God, yet He does so. Christologically, this connects to the humiliation of Christ: that Jesus consented to be made flesh, to be born as a human being, which was a cataclysmic downgrading of His status, and at the same time an upgrading of what it means to be human.
So God blesses people: He honors and respects them.
This sense of ‘honor’ and ‘respect’ in no way limits God or makes Him subservient to humans. This is a type of honor and respect which a superior can show to his subjects: a generous king.
Instead of identifying “blessing” as showing “honor and respect,” it may be helpful to rephrase it as “unconditional positive regard,” a wording invented and popularized by Stanley Standal and Carl Rogers.
While the word ‘bless’ can be used in conjunction with the giving of a gift, a blessing is not synonymous with a gift beyond that honor, respect, and positive regard. One might say that God has “blessed a person with much money,” which means two things: God has blessed the person, and God has given much money to that person. The money is not the blessing, and the blessing is not the money. God might give because He blesses, or as a sign of His blessing, but the giving is one action, and the blessing is another. The two are distinct.
Blessing should not be confused with the giving of material gifts: “Blessed are the poor.” Jesus is and was blessed, yet suffered. Ordinary people, too, can simultaneously be blessed and suffer. One can be blessed and endure pain, poverty, rejection, loneliness, etc.
God is the source of all blessings. Blessings bestowed by God are primary. When humans bless each other, it is a secondary blessing, a regifting of God’s favor.
Blessings are often accompanied by physical symbolic acts: the laying-on of hands, a sacrifice, etc. Such acts are not blessings, but rather sensory cues to alert people that a blessing is taking place.
After the Incarnation, some formerly symbolic acts became efficacious and powerful: Bread and wine no longer merely symbolize God’s work, but rather become God’s work. The waters of baptism no longer merely symbolize the washing away of guilt, but rather actually wash away guilt.
This one vocabulary word is used often and in a wide variety of contexts. It has a large and elastic semantic field, yet a field with some precise boundaries. ‘Bless’ often overlaps with ‘thank’ (cf. Psalm 103:1-2). It can also overlap with ‘praise.’
When God bestows His blessing, He Himself is at work and is present in a non-trivial way, above and beyond His baseline omnipresence. A blessing is certainly a “giving,” yet a giving not of material benefits.
God is certainly the source and generous Giver of all physical benefits: houses and clothing and food, etc. Yet these gifts are not the primary referent of ‘blessing.’
In blessing, God perhaps gives Himself. In placing His name onto people (Numbers 6:27), He blesses them. When God blesses a person, that person receives gifts, but not material gifts. The indwelling of the Holy Spirit is a blessing (Luke 11:13, Hebrews 2:4).
When humans honor and respect each other, and do so out of merely human power, the effect is salutary but limited. When God blesses, He changes the person whom He blesses. To be blessed is to receive more of the Holy Spirit. To be blessed is to be made more like Christ.
