As a musician, I appreciate a song with a beautiful or upbeat melody.  As a student of theology, the lyrics to a song are especially important to me when choosing music for worship.  At Wednesday Worship, JOY has a couple of favorite songs.  One of them is “The Name of The Lord.”  At first listening, this song may seem as though the lyrics have little meaning and the main value to the song is in its fun, upbeat, catchy tune.  Yet, it turns out this fun song is packed with meaning.  “Blessed be the name of the Lord” is from the Psalms.  To bless God means to call God holy, or to praise, worship, glorify, honor, exalt, revere, or magnify God.  Another one of the lines from this song comes directly from Proverbs 18:10, “The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous run into it and are safe.”

Remember playing tag as a child, or some variation such as cops and robbers, kick the can, or underground church?  Do you remember calling “gool” or “dell” in the game of tag?  If you’re in the UK or Canada, you may have called “den” or “times” instead.  My family called “gool” in the northeast US.  Gool was a safe place or person where you could run to and, once you were touching gool, the person who was “it” could not tag you.  You were safe.

We still play tag today.  We run or hide from our problems.  When we get tired of running there is a safe place we can run to.  We can run to God.  God is our refuge and our strength.  God will give us rest.  As the song says, “The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous run into it and they are safe.”  Blessed be the name of the Lord!

Read Matthew 11:28-30, and remember: God loves YOU unconditionally!

Annie

Today’s Reading: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%2011:28-30