Blessed Be the Name of the Lord -- Don Moen

This fellow was 36 years old, and was in the midst of the first album he recorded that included a one verse proclamation. This must have been something that Don Moen felt was so basic, these words saying “Blessed Be the Name of the Lord”, that they just needed to be said. Maybe Don actually wrote the words in another place, but at least when they were officially recorded, he and the others who helped produce the album (Give Thanks) were in a church in Mobile, Alabama in 1986. (See its seal here.) You can tell they were not in a studio during the recording, if you pay attention to a couple of words Don penned and sang in this song. What he said could be pretty similar to what’s to come, a preview of what you and I can expect, an eternal church where we gather in a way not dissimilar to what Don experienced in Mobile in 1986.  

The words that Don Moen wrote and the other songs’ titles for this first album in 1986 tell us something about his state of mind when ‘Blessed Be the Name…’ was crafted. It was a joy-filled gathering in the Covenant Church where Moen and his crew recorded that day in 1986. ‘One accord…’, Don wrote about this congregation and the singing and worshipping they experienced together, even as the professional music folks went about their business of cutting an album in the Mobile-based church. One gets the impression that Don must have imagined this was the venue in which he thought the song should be recorded, given the words of the song’s third line – ‘we lift up holy hands…one accord’. Was it a corporate worship service elsewhere, like the one in Mobile, that first sparked the words that Don wrote? The album’s title, ‘Give Thanks’, convey at least one of the emotions that Don was feeling – gratitude. The word ‘celebrate’ is also among the songs’ titles on that album, among a collection of praise phrases that flowed out of Moen’s spirit, and through that Mobile church, too. This collection tells something about the nature of thanksgiving – it cannot be contained in just one song. And, not just one morning or day will do. That was likely something that Don Moen discovered about this business of music-making in the Christian environment in which he found himself, and why it’s not a surprise the he’s more than an American musical performer. He’s been all over the world to translate what began on that first album called ‘Give Thanks’, reportedly travelling to six continents (all of them on the globe except Antarctica) to express this overflow.

What specific incident or collection of circumstances prompted Don Moen’s creation in 1986? It’s not been shared, at least not in a widely-publicized way, but would its emergence change anything about what Don would want to communicate as a worship leader? If it was significant, one could imagine that Moen would have made sure we knew it. Instead, he’s directed yours and my attention away from himself, and onto another. Pay homage to ‘the Name’, he directs in ‘Blessed Be…’. Whatever else was happening at that moment when the words sprang from Don’s insides, these events were springboards for the most important part of the story. The great God is the One worthy of the spotlight. Don would probably say he’s just been along for the ride for the last three-plus decades, and that it’s not over yet. How about jumping aboard for the ride!     

See this site for information on the author-composer: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Moen

See author-composer’s official site: https://donmoen.com/about/

Information about the album on which the song appears: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Give_Thanks