Blessed Indeed. Worship: February 1, 2026

Many of the words that we use on a regular basis in our worship have a rich and meaningful history that is often not well known. The word blessed or blessing used in the liturgy and hymns of the church is derived from the Old English word bloedsian, “to make something sacred.” This word, traced further back to an ancient Germanic dialect, originally meant “to make sacred in marking with blood.” That meaningful linkage is well reflected in the eighteenth-century hymn text by English clergyman Joseph Humphreys, which begins: “Blest the children of our God, They are bought with Christ’s own blood; They are ransomed from the grave, Life eternal they will have” (LW 370:1). In his poetic text, Humphreys echoes 1 John, where we read: “But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin” (1:7). We are blessed though the blood of Jesus to be the children of God! As we pray with hymn writer Humphreys: “With them numbered may we be here and in eternity!” (LW 370:1).