A Blessing from a Non-Believer (1 Kings 5.7)
“Blessed be the LORD today, who has given to David a wise son to be over this great people.”
The prayer-blessing is a typical blessing, pronounced upon God, with the reason for it given after (because He has given a wise son of David to be king over Israel). It is quite brief, as are many blessings.
Blessing God might be something we don’t often practice, focusing more on praising or thanking him. Yet there are many instances of people “blessing God” in their prayers. It is akin to praising Him, but focuses more on exalting him, with, perhaps, the idea that all people and all creation will do so. “I exalt you, God, may others also praise and exalt you.”
We might be taken aback by a foreign king offering a blessing to God, but in that culture, it is no surprise. Most of the people of the ancient world were polytheists who also believed that each city or nation-state had their own gods who watched over them. Hiram would have worshiped his own Tyrian and Phoenician gods, but understood that Israel had their own God, though he would not have understood that God to have any power over him as king of Tyre. (Recall the Egyptians, in the Exodus story, saw the struggle with Moses and Aaron as a battle between Yahweh and the Egyptian gods).
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