BLESSING
Referring both to God and to man. When God blesses, he bestows that efficacy which renders his blessing effectual. His blessings are either temporal or spiritual, bodily or mental; but in every thing they really convey the good which they import, Numbers 1:6-27. The blessings of men to other men, unless they be inspired prophecies, as in Genesis 32:32; Deuteronomy 33:1; Deuteronomy 1:1, are only good wishes, personal or official, and as it were a peculiar kind of prayer to the Author of all good for the welfare of the subject of them. Blessing, on the part of man towards God, is an act of thanks-giving for his mercies, Psalms 103:1; or rather, for that special mercy which at the time occasions the act of blessing: as for food, for which thanks are rendered to God, or for any other good, Psalms 116:13; 1 Corinthians 10:16.