Week of Worship: Rising & Blessed Be Your Name

The other day, as I was driving to school, at about 7:30 (yes, I have 8AM classes; no, it's not fun), it was just past sunrise. Most of the sky was covered in clouds, but there was one spot, just below where the sun was, where the clouds were ripped just a little. Golden rays of sunlight shone out in glory. It almost made my heart stop for a moment, the kind of moment when you think, "Wow! This is how I imagine it when Jesus comes back!" It was breathtaking, but sadly traffic kept moving and so did I.

Through the whole landscape though, I never actually saw the sun or the sunrise. I knew that it had to be beautiful based on the sliver I could see. But I couldn't see the beauty; I had to trust that it was there, hidden behind the clouds.

Actually though, I think that, maybe the darkness of the clouds, covering everything but the sun's rays spilling out through the rift, was what made the scene so beautiful. The contrast: night and day, dark and light.

So the clouds made the scene more beautiful, and I could enjoy that beauty of contrast as I trusted that the true, pure beauty was hidden just through the obscuring clouds.

The sunrise passed and became blue sky which in turn became night, but the glory of heaven, obscured from our view by mortality and sin, will never wane. If we can just endure, keep trusting that the beauty is just through the clouds, we will at last see it.

It is a hard perspective to maintain, though, and frankly I rarely consider the eternal when making day-to-day choices. But it is especially difficult to keep the goal of heaven in view when we're going through storms.

Last year, I was introduced to Rising, by Paul Baloche. I love the harmonies of the song right away, and I love the message that, from the rising of the sun until the sun goes down, we must praise the name of the Lord. I thought the song fitting to the sunrise analogy. Because sometimes the sky is cloudy, and sometimes it storms, and then it's not as easy to praise God. And sometimes it's sunny and bright and clear and we forget to praise God. Hear this call to worship, let the name of the Lord be praised!

If you need another reason to bless the Lord, check out Matt Redman's Blessed Be Your Name. The message declares that, in the good, in the bad, in the plenty, in the scarce, in the sun, in the storms, God is in control and is to be blessed. Even when our souls are weary from the fight, we bless the name of the Lord. Even when things are going great and we don't think we need Him, we bless the name of the Lord. Even when we can't see the sunrise, we bless the name of the Lord.

This song is a bit of a classic by now, but it's just as good now as it has always been. Blessed be the name of the Lord who gives blessings we don't deserve and takes away when it's for our good.

Listen to the song and drop your favorite worship song in the comments!