3. Blessed be the Name

Blessed be your name
In the land that is plentiful
Where your streams of abundance flow
Blessed be your name

Blessed be your name
When I'm found in the desert place
Though I walk through the wilderness
Blessed be your name

Blessed be your name
When the sun's shining down on me
When the world's all as it should be
Blessed be your name

Blessed be your name
On the road marked with suffering
Though there's pain in the offering
Blessed be your name

Every blessing you pour out
I'll turn back to praise
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

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

I think I first heard/sang this song by Matt Redman at a mission night I went to with Donna (at Turramurra, perhaps? On your birthday one year??) Maybe somewhere else as well, around the same time. The music was available as a free download on a worship music website I used to visit, so I did play it a fair bit before we started singing it at Narwee.

I remember one of the first times we sang this song at church. The man leading the service, Colin, was talking about his wife who had passed away recently, and what this song meant to him in light of that event. It was extremely touching, particularly as I've known Colin and his wife for most of my life. His wife, Vicki, was an amazing woman. Even as she knew she was about to die, she was thinking of other people - writing letters to her children and her Sunday School kids, and planning her funeral so that the people who came would hear the gospel.

This is quite a simple song, really, but I think it has a beautiful message. It's easy to praise God when everything in life is going well, but much harder to continue praising God in the midst of suffering. It's easy to pray that God will give us things, but much harder to pray that he'll take them away, even though that might be better for us in the long run.

To me, this song expresses a great faith in God's promises. No matter what happens to us in this life, God is in control and ultimately his purpose will be fulfilled. And the ideas are reminiscent of some of the most wonderful passages from the Bible, including the following from Romans (my favourite book of the Bible!):

Romans 5:1-5 - Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through out Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

Romans 8:18, 28-30 - For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us... And we know hat for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.

Romans 8:31-39 - What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died--more than that, who was raised--who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, "For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered." No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Amen!