Blessed Be The Name Of The Lord

I never knew this song before we joined a Sovereign Grace church about seven years ago, but there is one truly memorable occasion when our church sang it. September 17th, 2005, nearly three weeks after levee breaks after Katrina flooded 80% of New Orleans and put nearly 12 feet of water in our church. Our congregation was about 800 before Katrina, and now we have about 600 - and we grew a great deal in 2006. A little church nearly an hour outside of New Orleans graciously allowed us to use their building on a Saturday, in spite of the fact that they were also hosting Red Cross workers. Two or three hundred people drove in from cities all over the south to be there. There had been one gathering at our pastor’s house, which fortunately was not seriously affected by Katrina, but other than that our only communication was by a hastily set up message board.

We needed to be together more than ever before, and service started late because people were greeting each other, weeping and hugging. So many people in our congregation lost everything but what they had crammed in a suitcase before evacuating. No one knew what the condition of the city would be like in terms of jobs and a future, even if they could find a new place to live. No one knew what we would do as a church - how and where we would meet or how it would all work out. Families whose homes were undamaged were welcoming others less fortunate, tripling up and sleeping on their floors, happy to be together again. The first song we sang was “Blessed Be The Name Of The Lord.” People were sobbing while they sang, especially the last two lines of verse 2. We were grieving and grateful, heartbroken and happy all at once.

It’s been a wild ride this last year and a half. We recently broke ground on a new church building. Now here it is, the second day of hurricane season, with the second named storm of the year. Most people in the church seem to have a peace about it; we have a different perspective now. People have done what they can to get ready. A storm will come, or not. Our God is sovereign, and we are in His hands. And that is a blessed place to be.

VERSE 1
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

PRE-CHORUS
Every blessing You pour out I’ll turn back to praise
When the darkness closes in Lord, still I will say

CHORUS
Blessed be the Name of the Lord
Blessed be Your Name
Blessed be the Name of the Lord
Blessed be Your glo - rious Name

VERSE 2
Blessed be Your Name when the sun’s shining down on me
When the world’s all that 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

PRE-CHORUS
Every blessing You pour out I’ll turn back to praise
When the darkness closes in Lord, still I will say

CHORUS
Blessed be the Name of the Lord
Blessed be Your Name
Blessed be the Name of the Lord
Blessed be Your glo - rious Name

BRIDGE
You give and take away, You give and take away
My heart will choose to say, blessed be Your Name