“For You, 0 Lord, will bless the righteous. With favor You will surround him as with a shield” (Ps. 5:12 NKJ).

Favor is the word that speaks to us in this verse. We meet the combined promise of blessing and favor in Deuteronomy 33:23 in which God assures one of the tribes of Israel that they will be satisfied with favor and full of the blessing of the Lord.

Here in this verse from Psalms, the order is reversed. The psalmist says that the righteous will be blessed by the Lord and shielded with favor.

Sometimes we feel we know what a word means until we examine it a bit closer. All my life I had an instinctive feel for the word “favor.” It is a word we like to use. It fits into our prayer vocabulary nicely and slips easily into our speech. With all the linguistic tools available to us today, it is possible to expand the possibilities of this word and give it real depth and dimension.

In this Old Testament verse, the Hebrew word translated favor is ratson (raw-tsone’). It refers to acceptance, good pleasure, delight, approval, satisfaction. To have God’s favor is to bask in the sunshine of His smile of approval. It means having the Lord single you out for special attention: “This is My beloved son (or daughter) in whom I am well pleased!” (Matt. 3:17). Having God’s favor is having His goodwill and being in a position to receive His benefits.

Three translations consulted read: “You protect him with Your shield of love,” “You surround him with the shield of Your good will,” and “You do throw Your loving-kindness about him like a shield.” We need to pray for favor from God. It is worth asking for.