COUNT YOUR BLESSINGS (1)

“While I live I will praise the Lord; I will sing praises to my God while I have my being” – Psalm 146:2

This tail-end of the Year is prime time to COUNT OUR BLESSINGS with Gratitude and Praises to God: “Praise the Lord, O my soul! While I live I will praise the Lord; I will sing praises to my God while I have my being” (Psa. 146: 1-2). Johnson Oatman Jr. in 1897 wrote the hymn titled, “Count Your Blessings.” This is a call to rise above discouragement, doubt, envy, and self-pity to a new appreciation for God’s blessings poured on us. The chorus of this very memorable hymn says: “Count your many blessings, name them one by one, Count your many blessings, see what God hath done, Count your blessings, name them one by one, Count your many blessings, see what God hath done.”

Each verse of the hymn begins with a challenge and ends with the fact that no matter what happens, if we count our blessings, we’ll be “surprised,” “singing,” “rewarded,” and “comforted.” The chorus repeats the same phrase twice with a different melody and adds the word “many” before the word “blessings” the second time. The repetition of counting our “many” blessings reminds us to always return thanks unto God for all that we freely receive from Him. The hymn exhorts us to move beyond narrow, selfish, complaining, or murmuring outlooks to life, rise above the corrosive effects of bitterness and envy, and realize that Believers in Christ are heirs to the greatest of all blessings.

The first stanza of the hymn says, “When upon life’s billows you are tempest-tossed, When you are discouraged, thinking all is lost, Count your many blessings, name them one by one, And it will surprise you what the Lord hath done.” The references to “life’s billows” and being “tempest-tossed” remind us of the account in Matthew 8: 23-26 in which the boat that the Lord Jesus and His disciples were sailing on, encountered troubled waters and stormy seas. The disciples felt like they were going under. Sometimes we feel like we’re wading through a season of life akin to being in the middle of a violent storm; being tossed by life’s waves and sinking under the weight of the assailing waves.

When the storms are fiercest, rather than be afraid, we should recount WHO Jesus is and WHAT He has done for us. He is Lord over life’s storms: “Then He arose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm” (Mt.8:26b). The psalmist also affirmed: “You rule the raging of the sea; when its waves rise, You still them…He calms the storm, so that its waves are still” (Psa.89:9; 107:29). When we feel loaded down by anxiety, doubt, and worry, the cure is to count our blessings, casting all our cares on the Lord: “Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, so that he may exalt you at the proper time, casting all your cares on him, because he cares about you” (1 Pet.5:6-7). Praise is the proof of such: “Happy is he who has the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord his God” (v.5).

Life is short. We make it count by counting our blessings! The phenomenon of depression by comparison has skyrocketed with the advent of social media. Many people post fake, camouflaged, make-belief lives, causing the unwary to lament their humble status. The cure is to keep an eternal perspective to life and count our blessings: “When you look at others with their lands and gold, Think that Christ has promised you His wealth untold; Count your many blessings-money cannot buy Your reward in heaven, nor your home on high.”

Psalm 146 helps us to count some blessings: “Who executes justice for the oppressed, Who gives food to the hungry. The Lord gives freedom to the prisoners. The Lord opens the eyes of the blind; The Lord raises those who are bowed down; The Lord loves the righteous. The Lord watches over the strangers; He relieves the fatherless and widow; but the way of the wicked He turns upside down…Praise the LORD!” (vv.7-10).