A dear friend of mine was recently humming a tune. I queried, “What are you singing?” to which they replied, “Showers of Blessings.”
Hmmmm… Immediately, I had questions running through my head. Not that I haven’t sung the hymn many times, but my perspective of hymnody has changed pretty radically over the last few years. The post on Beulah Land, just a few days ago, should be evidence enough.
Here are the lyrics to There Shall Be Showers of Blessings,
- There shall be showers of blessing:
This is the promise of love;
There shall be seasons refreshing,
Sent from the Savior above.
- Refrain:
Showers of blessing,
Showers of blessing we need:
Mercy-drops round us are falling,
But for the showers we plead.- There shall be showers of blessing,
Precious reviving again;
Over the hills and the valleys,
Sound of abundance of rain.- There shall be showers of blessing;
Send them upon us, O Lord;
Grant to us now a refreshing,
Come, and now honor Thy Word.- There shall be showers of blessing:
Oh, that today they might fall,
Now as to God we’re confessing,
Now as on Jesus we call!- There shall be showers of blessing,
If we but trust and obey;
There shall be seasons refreshing,
If we let God have His way.
Honestly, the lyrics are painful to read, and here is the very simple reason why: We need not beg for showers of blessing. Scripture tells us exactly when and how we are blessed, and in fact guarantees Yehovah’s blessing in particular circumstances.
Deu 28:1-14 “And it shall be, if you diligently obey the voice of יהוה your Elohim, to guard to do all His commands which I command you today, that יהוה your Elohim shall set you high above all nations of the earth.
“And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, if you obey the voice of יהוה your Elohim:
“Blessed are you in the city, and blessed are you in the field.
“Blessed is the fruit of your body, and the fruit of your ground and the fruit of your livestock – the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flocks.
“Blessed is your basket and your kneading bowl.
“Blessed are you when you come in, and blessed are you when you go out.
“יהוה causes your enemies who rise against you to be smitten before your face – they come out against you one way and flee before you seven ways.
“יהוהcommands the blessing on you in your storehouses and in all to which you set your hand, and shall bless you in the land which יהוה your Elohim is giving you.
“יהוה does establish you as a set-apart people to Himself, as He has sworn to you, if you guard the commands of יהוה your Elohim and walk in His ways.
“And all peoples of the earth shall see that the Name of יהוה is called upon you, and they shall be afraid of you.
“And יהוה shall make you to have plenty of what is good, in the fruit of your body, in the fruit of your livestock, and in the fruit of your ground, in the land of which יהוה swore to your fathers to give you.
“יהוה opens to you His good treasure, the heavens, to give the rain to your land in its season, and to bless all the work of your hand. And you shall lend to many nations, but you do not borrow.
“And יהוה shall make you the head and not the tail. And you shall be only on top, and not be beneath, if you obey the commands of יהוה your Elohim, which I command you today, to guard and do.
“And do not turn aside from any of the Words which I am commanding you today, right or left, to go after other mighty ones to serve them.
Blessings!! Guaranteed!! WHEN you obey the commandments and DO what Yehovah commanded! Notice that obedience to the commandments, all of them, is what is required! “..do not turn aside from ANY of the Words which I am commanding you today…”
Other Scriptures support this:
Blessed is the man who ……. delight[s] in the Torah of יהוה, And he meditates in His Torah day and night. For he shall be as a tree Planted by the rivers of water, That yields its fruit in its season, And whose leaf does not wither, And whatever he does prospers. Psalm 1:1-3
Blessed are the perfect in the way, Who walk in the Torah of יהוה! Blessed are those who observe His witnesses, Who seek Him with all the heart! Psalm 119:1-2
Deuteronomy 30 further confirms all of this as THE path to return to Yehovah and to dwell IN the Land and receive His blessing!!
Deu 30:1-14 (but, read the rest of the chapter…) “And it shall be, when all these words come upon you, the blessing and the curse which I have set before you, and you shall bring them back to your heart among all the gentiles where יהוה your Elohim drives you, and shall turn back to יהוה your Elohim and obey His voice, according to all that I command you today, with all your heart and with all your being, you and your children, then יהוה your Elohim shall turn back your captivity, and shall have compassion on you, and He shall turn back and gather you from all the peoples where יהוה your Elohim has scattered you.
“If any of you are driven out to the farthest parts under the heavens, from there יהוה your Elohim does gather you, and from there He does take you. And יהוה your Elohim shall bring you to the land which your fathers possessed, and you shall possess it. And He shall do good to you, and increase you more than your fathers. And יהוה your Elohim shall circumcise your heart and the heart of your seed, to love יהוה your Elohim with all your heart and with all your being, so that you might live, and יהוה your Elohim shall put all these curses on your enemies and on those who hate you, who persecuted you. And you shall turn back and obey the voice of יהוה and do all His commands which I command you today. And יהוה your Elohim shall make you have excess in all the work of your hand, in the fruit of your body, and in the fruit of your livestock, and in the fruit of your ground for good. For יהוה turns back to rejoice over you for good as He rejoiced over your fathers, if you obey the voice of יהוה your Elohim, to guard His commands and His laws which are written in this Book of the Torah, if you turn back to יהוה your Elohim with all your heart and with all your being.”
“For this command which I am commanding you today, it is not too hard for you, nor is it far off. It is not in the heavens, to say, ‘Who shall ascend into the heavens for us, and bring it to us, and cause us to hear it, so that we do it?’ Nor is it beyond the sea, to say, ‘Who shall go over the sea for us, and bring it to us, and cause us to hear it, so that we do it?’ For the Word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart – to do it.”
What is amazing, looking at the link that I got the Showers of Blessings lyrics from, is that two of the three verses (out of context) that they cite exactly point to the verses and concept of obedience I just quoted. Their first is,
Eze 34:26 “And I shall make them and the places all around My hill a blessing, and shall cause showers to come down in their season – showers of blessing they are.”
Just three verses earlier it says,
Eze 34:23-24 “And I shall raise up over them one shepherd, My servant Dawiḏ, and he shall feed them. He shall feed them and be their shepherd. And I, יהוה, shall be their Elohim, and My servant Dawiḏ a prince in their midst. I, יהוה, have spoken.”
And, that leads directly to Ezekiel 37:24-28,
Eze 37:24-28 “My servant David shall be king over them, and they shall all have one shepherd. They shall walk in my rules and be careful to obey my statutes. They shall dwell in the land that I gave to my servant Jacob, where your fathers lived. They and their children and their children’s children shall dwell there forever, and David my servant shall be their prince forever. I will make a covenant of peace with them. It shall be an everlasting covenant with them. And I will set them in their land and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in their midst forevermore. My dwelling place shall be with them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Then the nations will know that I am the LORD who sanctifies Israel, when my sanctuary is in their midst forevermore.”
Their second cite is Psalm 115:12,
Psa 115:12 The LORD has remembered us; he will bless us; he will bless the house of Israel; he will bless the house of Aaron;
Uhmmm, didn’t we just read a minute ago exactly what Yehovah told All Israel that they had to do to receive His blessing? “Obey My voice?”
Christendom, ‘mercy drops’ are what you get when you are walking contrary to His Word and He is trying to bait you into turning back to His ways! You want showers? Then here is the question you need to ask: What are HIS commandments?
Got Torah?
11:3 Restoration 
I don’t particularly love this song because it seems to have such a presumptuous message, But… Perhaps the author of this hymn knows that obedience to the commandments is required for these blessings to be manifested. Perhaps he/she wrote the song in response to a popular mindset of the day – one that demanded from God that which was not deserved, due to a faulty belief system. Why do I say this? Well, the 5th stanza seems to be the fairy-tail squasher – the wake-up summary of the whole song. It does spell out just what you have stated in this post, albeit in a mucho condensed form:
There shall be showers of blessing,
If we but trust and obey;
There shall be seasons refreshing,
If we let God have His way.
Maybe this part of the song was intended to cause “red flags” to hit the observant worshiper head on. If that is true, I think it mostly failed for the masses of Christians who have sung that song over and over and never really gave that last part much thought. History and anecdotal evidence seems to prove that out. But isn’t that what we tend to do – sing or hum lyrics to the tune and never really think much about the words? I know I have been guilty at times.
So, I don’t know the author or why this song was written. I don’t know that I am right or not, but this is how the song struck me. What do you think of my angle on this?
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I understand what you are saying and I don’t fault the author. I did notice the last verse. I guess the really maddening part is that WE never understood what it meant to ‘obey.’. We said it, but every denomination has its own interpretation of what that means. Nothing concrete, yet, Abba gives us very concrete instructions that, unless we add to or take a way from, are super simple and uniform.
As a pastor who was in the pulpit for 10+ years, I carry a double portion of guilt. How could I/we have been so dumb? I just praise Yehovah that He is removing blinders and leading us back to His ways. As such, we need to identify and expose errant theology. This hymn was a handy opening, with no harm meant to any individual.
Blessings, Don. Looking forward to having you back up this way.
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So many Christian hymns quote or refer to scripture passages without accepting their face-value meaning. I did it that for years! I ‘interpreted’ everything in light of what I had been TAUGHT rather than in light of what scripture SAYS. Pretty embarrassing! How I praise Abba that He sent ‘mercy showers’ my way!!!
I am reminded of the song, “These are the Days of Elijah” – what an incredibly prophetic and inspired song! John and I still remember the first time we heard it, over 15 years ago – Chills ran down our backs and we knew immediately that there was a deeper meaning that we didn’t grasp, but had no idea how to find out what that deeper meaning was. It wasn’t until years later, when we ‘got Torah’ that we began to understand the full message of that song. A few years ago, I read an interview with the song’s author, and he, too, was still blind to its full meaning. He had only the church’s teaching by which to interpret it. He was magnificently led of the Spirit, and my prayer for him is that since Abba gave him the song, He will also give him its full meaning.
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