blessed be your name

I can rarely make it through Matt Redman's “Blessed be Your Name” without choking up. I can’t you how many times I’ve been in the middle of a worship service, unable to continue singing, fighting back tears. Once last summer I even had to escape to the bathroom, just to get my emotions under control.

Blessed be Your name
In the land that is plentiful
Where Your streams of abundance flow
Blessed be Your name
And blessed be Your name
When I’m found in the desert place
Though I walk through the wilderness
Blessed be your name

CHORUS:
Every blessing You pour out I’ll
Turn back to praise
And when the darkness closes in, Lord
Still I will say
Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be Your name
Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be Your glorious name

Blessed be Your name
When the sun’s shining down on me
When the world’s “all as it should be”
Blessed be You name
And blessed be Your name
On the road marked with suffering
Though there’s pain in the offering
Blessed be Your name

CHORUS

You give and take away
You give and take away
My heart will choose to say
Lord, blessed be Your name

CHORUS

I think what gets me every time is the words in verse two - “Blessed be your name, on the road marked with suffering, though there’s pain in the offering...” I feel that pain acutely every time.

We all have tragedy in our lives - it’s just hard some times to think of that pain or grief as an offering to God. And sometimes, it’s even harder to tell Him that His name is blessed when we’re going through something so difficult that we hardly can pray, let alone praise Him. It’s ironic that we often forget to praise Him for the painless blessings in our lives and we often can’t praise Him for the painful ones, at least not immediately.

Can I praise Him for losses? Can I praise Him for all the offerings we’ve given Him over the years? Can truly I praise Him for giving and taking away?

Right now, I must confess the answer is no - I cannot praise Him like Job did by saying “The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; Blessed be the name of the Lord.” (Job 1:21) I do not immediately fall down to worship the Lord after a catastrophe. A commentary in the Full Life Study Bible reads: “Job reacted to the disaster that happened to him with intense grief, but also with a humility that submitted to God and continued to worship Him in the midst of extreme adversity. Job teaches how faithful believers should face life’s calamities. Though we may experience severe sufferings and unexplainable affliction, we should pray for grace to accept what God allows to come upon us.” I think He would love for me to be like Job, but understands my inability to do that.

I know that the name of the Lord is blessed, but blessing it myself is a bit harder. My heart just does not simply choose to say: blessed be Your Name. My heart sometimes is just too numb to say much of anything. What I can do is be honest and hold that up as my offering, hoping that the praises will come later and be sincere when they do.

The beauty of Scripture is that there are literally hundreds of other verses that one can cling to during difficult times, much of them found in the Psalms. If I might have a tough time blessing God’s name, I can still pray through Psalm 116 or meditate on the repetition of Psalm 136 - “His love endures forever” - knowing that whatever comes my way, his love can and will last far beyond any tears or painful offerings.