Published August 18th, 2006 by hrabbach
Matt Redman - Blessed be Your Name
The book of Job at first glance doesn’t seem to be the obvious choice to base a worship song on. After all, it’s the story of a man who did nothing wrong and went through a long period of suffering, personal loss and coming close to death. On the other hand, what’s remarkable is that he never stopped praising the Lord and trusting in Him, even in the face of all these trials and with rather unhelpful friends giving him all sorts of advice to the contrary.
“Blessed be Your Name”, which is based on this story, has become one of the most popular worship songs of our time, winning awards and being sung around the world and recorded by more bands and worship leaders than I can count. Maybe that shows that it is a story that is closer to the heart of every one of us than we would have thought. I think we all go through times when we feel like Job - most of the time, for no good reason, but anyway. Of course there are good times and the song explicitly mentions “the land that is plentiful, where Your streams of abundance flow” - and it is the right thing to do to praise God for the blessings that He gives. But there are other times, “the road marked with suffering”, when things don’t go well at all, when we feel down, sometimes we don’t even seem to feel God’s presence anymore. Has God abandoned us? Does He even care?
I think the most important words are probably in the bridge part of this song - “my heart will choose to say: Lord, blessed be Your name”. If we walk with God, if we trust in God, even in the hard times, continuing to praise Him is a decision we can make. Sure, when things are going well and everything is as we please, it’s easy to praise God. It may come almost automatically. When times get rough, sometimes we need to make a conscious decision to continue praising God. Because there is hope in Him, even in times of despair. Because we can trust in Him that things will work out for the best, even if we don’t understand and see it. Because He does care. Just as He did care about Job, even though it wasn’t obvious to Job himself or anyone around him.
And that’s why “Blessed be Your Name” is such a wonderful song - it’s a song for those who are going through good times as well as those going through bad times. It’s a song we can sing at a wedding or a funeral. It’s a soundtrack for life…
Song: Blessed be Your Name
Artist: Matt Redman
Album: Where Angels Fear to Tread
Author: Matt Redman
