Bless the Lord, O My Soul

This post has been half finished for awhile now. It seems that I'm drawn back to this topic occasionally, but lately, the last few months or so, I've really focused on this idea. The idea that sometimes, blessing the Lord is not second nature, it is not an involuntary action, but rather an active choice. Erika touched on this idea earlier this week, so I felt a little more relevant in the nature of my strange, and complex musings, so I decided to return to this post and share.

You see, there are many times in our lives when offering blessings to the Lord will come naturally. "Thanks be to God," is often the first thing on our lips when we buy a house, discover a loved one is healing, find a lost child that wandered away in a store, get positive results from a scary medical procedure... the list goes on and on. In the good moments, in the happy times, we as a people, often give thanks. We see good things happen in our lives and we earnestly want to thank whoever or whatever we believe brought this good fortune to us... it's a natural reaction. But what about those other times? What about the times when misfortune finds you? What about the times when a natural disaster strikes and a flood, tornado, fire, or hurricane takes your home and all of your possessions? What about when your mom or dad gets diagnosed with cancer? What about the times when your husband or wife leaves you for someone else? What happens when you learn your teenage son or daughter is addicted to drugs? What do you do then? Is offering up a blessing to God even on your radar?

It is fairly easy to bless the Lord when things are going really well. If something comes together unexpectedly, if things turn out better than they should, we quickly offer up words of thanks. But we are all aware that life isn't one big party filled with lots of "hoorays" or high fives. There are those moments, but they are interspersed with the everyday moments, the regular, the typical. And worse still are the terrible moments,the gut-wrenching heartache, the moments when you long for a new day. So what should we do in those moments? The real issue here is this: does God deserve praise in the midst of our suffering? Because we are all ever aware: suffering is coming. Jen Hatmaker puts it like this, "suffering transcends all class, race, ethnicity, culture, privilege. The wealthiest, most successful man on earth could lose his only daughter in a car wreck this afternoon. There is no corner untouched by grief, no demographic, no alliance. If you haven’t suffered, just live longer". Jen knows what we all know: no one is immune to the sufferings of this world. So what do we do in the midst of our suffering?

David, the Psalmist, would suggest that we command ourselves to bless the Lord, even when we don't feel like it, even when it is the furthest thing from our minds, even when we'd rather curse God. He writes:

Bless the Lord, O My Soul; And all that is within me, bless His holy name.

Psalm 103:1

Erika pointed out a beautiful song O My Soul, by Samuel Lane, but there's another one that has been on my lips for months now. Matt Redman's 10,000 Reasons says this,

"The sun comes up, it's a new day dawning

It's time to sing Your song again

Whatever may pass, and whatever lies before me

I'll still be singing when the evening comes"

My favorite line is in the second phrase, "Whatever may pass, and whatever lies before me"... kind of convicting, right? But here's the thing David is not suggesting that our souls will naturally want to praise God at all times, rather, I think, he's saying two things. Firstly, there is always something to praise the Lord for. If your situation is less than desirable, you can thank Him for His unfailing love, for His saving grace, for His unending mercy. And secondly, the words he wrote indicate that all too often we will have to command our souls to praise the Lord.

I'm the first to admit that I fall desperately short of the mark here. I've said it before, but I'll say it again, when I found out about my miscarriage, praise was not the first thought in my head. I hung up the phone and sobbed. And that is just one example; my life is riddled with moments when I should have stopped to offer thanksgiving, but instead I cried, or I tried to solve it myself, or I asked why. Again, praise is not always natural; sometimes it will be the most unnatural reaction. So in those moments, I have to remember first that my Father is worthy of praise, and secondly I have to command my soul to praise him. Why? Because my soul is fickle. My head goes, "why? why, why, why?" and my heart goes, "waahhhh"... my soul gets caught up in the mess that is me and forgets that my Father is good. 

There will be many opportunities through out my life in which I'm sure I'll have to put this into practice. Currently looming before me is IVF. It's kind of shocking to think I could be starting IVF in a little over three months. At the end, I'll either naturally want to praise Him, praise Him all day long, or I'll have to command my soul to bless Him in the midst of my suffering. And that's just one of any number of opportunities that might arise. Suffering is coming; what are we going to do about it?