Blessed Be Your Name

I’m discouraged about a few things, but I read these verses today in Ps. 69:29 and they pepped me up:

29 I am in pain and distress;
may your salvation, O God, protect me.

30 I will praise God's name in song
and glorify him with thanksgiving.

31 This will please the LORD more than an ox,
more than a bull with its horns and hoofs.

32 The poor will see and be glad—
you who seek God, may your hearts live!

33 The LORD hears the needy
and does not despise his captive people."

Do you hear the overall theme? We are to praise God, no matter what happens to us. God will hear us and take care of us.

This reminds me of lines in the beautiful song, “Blessed Be Your Name” by Matt Redman:

“Blessed Be Your Name,

On the road marked with suffering,

when there’s pain in the offering,

Blessed Be Your Name.”

These words always make me cry because I know what it is like to not understand why something bad happens for no apparent reason. Yet, we are told to offer thanks to God. That’s hard to do – sometimes downright impossible!

Go to Matt’s website and read about the origins of this song (www.mattredman.com). Better yet, get a copy of it. The complete lyrics are available at http://www.christianlyricsonline.com/artists/tree63/blessed-be-your-name.html.

When my dad died unexpectedly a couple of years ago, that seemed cruel and just ridiculous. He was a loving father, husband, and grandfather. Yet, I tried to obey the verses in this psalm. I remember going to church after his funeral and trying to sing, as much as I could through my grief. I know God saw my hurt and didn’t mind that no words actually came out of my mouth.

Recently a woman my age at my church lost her husband to a brain aneurism. They have four boys. I can’t help but ask, Why would God allow a man with four sons to be taken away from his children and wife?

It doesn’t make any sense.

Several years ago, a good friend lost her husband. They had several daughters at home. I know how much my friend struggled over the years. Why would God have those girls grow up without a dad and have my friend endure years of loneliness and worry about finances on a single income?

That didn’t make sense either, but one thing I do know -- a life without God makes even less sense. There is no purpose to life without God.

Even when the questions come at you like darts and you can’t avoid them, that is still a safer place to be than not having anyone to ask the questions to at all.

God is always there. We may never know the answers to life’s hard questions this side of heaven, but when we get there after living a life for God, we’ll either find out the answers then or, ideally, they won’t matter. At all.

Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.