One of the songs that we sing at our church that maybe you are familiar with is Blessed Be Your Name. The words have the power to either bring you to tears, if you are in a very hard place, or buoy you up, if things in life are going smoothly. On any given Sunday when the song is sung you can depend that there will be a mixture of both responses in the congregation as our journeys take us through hills and valleys.

Psalm 108 is comprised of the two end parts of Psalm 57 and Psalm 60. The first part of each of these psalms shows the psalmist in a place of deep fear and distress, with great threat surrounding him. The second half of these psalms, which comprise the psalm before us today, are a exultant declaration of trust in God for His deliverance and power.

Many of the words in Psalm 57 and Psalm 60 and the psalm before us today are the same, but the context is different. What is lacking in Psalm 108 is that it doesn’t start with the description of threat and terror that begins the other two.

In a similar way we as a body of believers sing our praises to God together at church. Some have come from a context of pain and some from a place of well being. However we come, we sing the same words of praise and trust to God and His goodness. For we have decided to be “steadfast” and to sing and make music to God no matter what.

As the song Blessed Be Your Name declares, “You give and take away, but my heart will choose to say, Lord, blessed be your name.” Lord, grant us your strength to keep trusting in your love and to sing of your glory despite our circumstances, for we cannot do it without you.