A song.

Tonight, I wanna do one of these like, song-to-sermon kind of deals. I had a couple of songs in mind, but one that we just kinda played around with tonight at practice was Blessed Be Your Name. A lot of artists have done this song, I just picked a version I liked. Watch the vid, then ponder what I have to say about it.



I picked Blessed Be Your Name because it's one song I know that is taken almost directly from a book of the Bible. Some history on the story it tells. Job (J-ohb) was a man of God. He had it made too. Land, cattle, livestock, family, house, money, everything the American dream in Bible times was equal to.

One day, Satan came before God and God asked what he had been doing. Satan claimed to be strolling the Earth. God asked Satan if he had considered His servant, Job. A "blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil" Satan remarked that God had put a protective hedge around Job. God said He would remove the hedge so Satan could test Job. The only rule was, Satan was not allowed to touch Job's physical body.

So, Satan tests Job. He kills all of Job's cattle, takes his land, kills his servants, and kills all of his children. At the news of this, Job tears his clothes and shaved his head. He then falls to the ground and worships God. "'Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gives, and the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord."

Satan tests Job again, after getting the ok from God. This time he takes Job's health. Job grows these gross lesions on his body, so bad that he takes pieces of terra cotta and cuts his skin, to ease the pain of the boils. Job's wife turns to him in disgrace and says that he needs to end this nonsense. She tells him to simply curse God and die. But, remarkably, "In all this, Job did not sin with his lips."

The Lord gives, and the Lord takes away. The entire book of Job is pretty ridiculous. At the very end, because of his faithfulness to God, Job is given so much more than he already had. And his friends get rebuked. Because they weren't that great of friends.

But it's just an amazing thought. In all that he suffered, Job never turned to God and said that it was His fault. Job never ceased worshiping his creator. I can speak personally and say that I don't think I could do that. But that is a statement against a lot of people. Especially in America. We are so prone to take everything we have for granted, and when something is taken from us, we more often than not blame God.

But I ask you this. If God does this to us, and takes things from us, do you not think He has something better to fill that hole?

Just saying. Tonight's practice was pretty stinking awesome, given the circumstances.


Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!

“For who has known the mind of the Lord,
or who has been his counselor?”
  “Or who has given a gift to him
that he might be repaid?”

  For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.
(Romans 11:33-36 ESV)


Philos, Justin