Count Your Blessings
A great hymn of gratitude! Johnson Oatman Jr wanted to sing like his father, but discovered that he was a better hymn writer than a singer.
Welcome to Friday Classic Hymns! Are you grateful for God's work in your life?
Today's Friday classic is all about gratitude. "Count Your Blessings" is the song, and maybe it's going to be a much-needed reminder for us to be grateful for what's going on in our lives.
Do you have any memories of the song? I remember my gran quoting the song at a prayer meeting at Ridgeview retirement village where she stayed. I was called to lead a prayer meeting because there was no rain—we were desperate for rain in our country. I went and led this meeting, and we opened up the floor for everybody to pray. I remember her saying, "Lord, You've told us that we must count our blessings and name them one by one, but if we had to do that, we would be here forever."
That song has always stuck in my mind after that. It's a beautiful song, and I'd love for you to share your memories of it in the comments below. If you haven't already, please subscribe to the channel—that really helps me. Let's take a look at the song and find out where it comes from in the first place.
The Story Behind "Count Your Blessings"
"Count Your Blessings" was written by Johnson Oatman Jr. He was a minister in the Methodist Church in America in the 1800s. As a child, he would listen to his father sing—his father had an amazing singing voice, and he longed to sing like his dad, but he couldn't.
Eventually, he discovered that instead of trying to sing these hymns with the same power that his dad could, he would rather write hymns, and he had a particular knack for it. He ended up writing over 5,000 hymns. In fact, in a hymnal in 1914, the editor wrote that no hymnal is complete unless it has one or two of his hymns in it.
Of all the hymns that he wrote, this hymn was certainly the most popular. It spread like wildfire all around the world, and I think it's because people really resonated with these words.
A famous evangelist named Gypsy Smith once said of the song that "men sing it, boys whistle it, and women rock their babies to sleep to it," because it was just so embedded in the culture. It became so well known in church circles.
It's all about gratitude, and this seemed to really embody Oatman himself, because he didn't seem to be interested in things of the world. When publishers wanted to offer him money for his songs, they asked him how much he would charge, and he said one dollar per song would be fine for him. Now, he could have asked for so much more because he was quite popular and because these were great hymns, but for him, he was really blessed—so why would he need more and more and more? That comes out in the song.
Oatman died in 1936, but he lives on through the song really—it embodied him as a man grateful for what he had and what he'd been given by God. What about us? Do these words embody us as well? Let's take a look at them and find out.
What Do the Lyrics of "Count Your Blessings" Mean?
Verse 1: When Life's Storms Rage
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 has done.
Everyone knows this first line of this hymn. When life kind of beats you around, when you're thrown about by the storms of life—that's what that first line is describing: a storm with billows and tempests.
When you're going through life's storms and feeling discouraged, Oatman says: when that happens, count your blessings.
Name them one by one, and you'll start to see what God is doing. This is a great way to do life. When you're starting to focus too much on the storms, take your eyes off the storm and focus on the blessings you have, and you'll see God is at work. God has blessed me even though I'm in a storm, even though I'm in a difficult time.
God has blessed me. This is a very intentional way of doing life—looking for ways to be grateful.
The Chorus
The chorus goes on, repeating these words to reinforce them:
Count your blessings; name them one by one.
Count your blessings; see what God has done.
Count your blessings; name them one by one.
Count your many blessings; see what God hath done.
When you count your blessings, you will start seeing God's work in your life. In fact, I remember a sermon that Craig Groeschel preached—an American preacher—where he said it's not happy people who are grateful, but it's grateful people who are happy. That's an important difference.
If you think, "When my circumstances are happy, then I'll finally be grateful," you're never going to be grateful. But when you think to yourself, "I'm going to be grateful now," then you end up being happy whatever your circumstances. It's such an obvious way of life, but we miss it. We miss it.
Are you counting your blessings?
Verse 2: Burdened with Cares
Are you ever burdened with a load of care?
Does the cross seem heavy you are called to bear?
Well, we're all called to bear a cross. We've all got difficulties and particular struggles in life. We all get burdened with cares and toils and troubles.
Count your many blessings; ev'ry doubt will fly,
And you will be singing as the days go by.
This is a great little verse saying even if you're weighed down with cares and troubles, if you start counting your blessings, your doubts about God's blessings or God's work in your life will fly away, and you'll be able to sing. You'll be able to worship and praise Him as you go through your life.
Are you counting your blessings? It'll lift your spirits if you count your blessings rather than being weighed down by the troubles that are in your life.
Verse 3: True Wealth
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.
He's saying, you know, if you're looking around and getting jealous of people who have more than you, who are doing so well, who've got lots of land, property, gold, and money—think about the blessing that Christ has given you. He's given you His wealth that is far more than earthly wealth.
Christ gives you blessings that wealth can never buy. A reward in heaven and a home in heaven cannot be bought with wealth. Those are eternal riches.
Don't get all bogged down when you see others piling up riches in this life. Remember that your ultimate wealth is in God.
Your ultimate wealth is blessing from Jesus for eternity. Will you count your blessings—not just your physical blessings?
Some of you will be able to count your blessings and say, "I've been blessed with great physical things, great material things." But for those who haven't, we can still count our blessings because God has promised us much more than material wealth.
We'll always be satisfied and content because of who He is in our lives and the eternal rewards that He has for us. Count those blessings, and you'll always have something to be grateful for.
Verse 4: God's Help Throughout the Journey
So amid the conflict, whether great or small,
Do not be discouraged; God is over all.
If you're going through big or small conflicts or difficulties, don't be discouraged. God is over it all. He can be trusted.
Count your many blessings; angels will attend,
Help and comfort give you to your journey's end.
You will always be blessed as a person of God because you have God's help. Jesus even spoke about angels that attend to us.
Oatman says, you know, if you're going through difficulties, you can count on God's help and the help of His angels to give you comfort and encouragement till the end of your journey.
How blessed are you? How blessed are you to have that in your life as a person of God?
Conclusion
Let's count our blessings today. Times are tough, I know. We may not be as blessed as we want. We may not have as much as other people in our lives do.
But if we count the blessings that God has given us, it really gives us hope. Will you count your blessings? I hope you will. Let's sing it together, and I hope your heart will soar as you realise what God has done.
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References
"Count Your Blessings" lyrics - Johnson Oatman Jr. (1897)
