Living in the Rainbow

“Blessed be Your Name” (by Beth and Matt Redman) is a great song.  It expresses an idea that was core to me starting this blog – that God is good even when circumstances are not.  God is worthy of our worship when the sun is shining or rain clouds gather.  Have you ever wondered what circumstances were behind the writting of this song?

The lyrics are here.

So how did Matt and Beth Redman come to write a song like this?  In their book Blessed be your Name (Worshipping God on the road marked with suffering) they point to a couple of influences.  Personally they suffered three miscarriages (the road marked with suffering indeed).  More corporately they were in USA after 9/11 and felt the church lacked a vocabulary to lament such an event.  It is amazing to me how the darkest of macro and micro events led to one of the best worship songs of our generation being written.

For me personally this song is very significant.  A few months after Abigail died, just as infertility treatment was luring its ugly head again, I felt God speak to me through this song.  I felt God say that I had to get to a place where I could sing this song and mean it.  That God’s name was to be blessed no matter what the circumstances – God is worthy of our praise because of who he is not just what life is like.

• If everything is fine – the sun is shining down on me, the world is all it could be – Blessed be Your Name.
• If I am found in the desert place of infertility – Blessed be Your Name.
• If I am on the road marked with suffering, grieving my daughter’s death – Blessed be Your Name.

All our circumstances are different but for all of us it boils down to this simple question – will we praise God for who he is no matter what our circumstances are, or is our allegiance conditional?  Please don’t get me wrong – we don’t have to be happy with our circumstances, or even be happy with God – he can take our honesty (just read the Psalms). But can we give him our praise when every fibre of our being screams in protest.  If we can this is a true sacrifice of praise.  Something that costs us.

In 2 Samuel 24v24 King David refuses to receive free of charge what he needs to make a burnt offering sacrifice and insists on paying for it.  He says “I will not sacrifice to the LORD my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing.“  That is how I feel every time I sing this song.  I will not sacrifice to God, that which cost me nothing.  It is precisely because my worship is costly, that it is a worthy sacrifice to offer.