The Name of God

"Lord, our Lord, How excellent is Your name in all the earth, Who have set Your glory above the heavens!"

Psalm 8:1 NKJV

Psalm 8 is one of those psalms that lifts my soul. Its text perfectly describes my insignificant condition as a microscopic speck compared to the Creator, yet without crushing me. Personal memories and experiences are tied to it. With the psalmist, I have learned to place the Lord above all else, for despite my limitations, He bends down toward me and lifts me up upon the work of His hands. We read an astronomical description as if it were an embroidery of the divine fingers; perhaps this is why, when American astronauts touched the lunar sands in 1969, they placed a plaque on which this very Psalm was inscribed. As you read through and make the words your own, the reflection that springs from contemplating creation fuels a desire for overflowing praise in magnifying His name throughout the earth. To magnify is to exalt with words of praise; it is to praise enthusiastically. I do not know if your heart is ready for this today, and if it is not, then consider what God has done around you. The psalmist magnifies God by considering how great He has made him.

Why His name? His being and His actions are contained within His name. The statement “I am who I am” (Exodus 3:14) in the text refers to the divine tetragrammaton (YHWH), a term that was never pronounced by the Jews, not even during the reading of the biblical text. The Tetragrammaton, through which God reveals Himself, corresponds to a verbal name. More than a revelation of God’s mysterious name, the text affirms God’s unattainable and unknowable being—a present that is ever in motion, whose action is visible and active in history. The psalm contemplates this in creation. I am YHWH, therefore not an empty, incomprehensible appellation, but an effective and supreme presence that intervenes alongside the people with a liberating hand. From this perspective, the knowledge of God enters into a projection of time. It follows that we do not have an appellation or a way to identify a figure, but a way to keep in mind that God is the One who is always near to us. Here is the “I am” as the One who is “being” in the present and who will also be so in the future. He is not of the past, for when we come into His presence, all that is past no longer matters to our lives. What matters to us is that He is present today and that He intervenes in our future.

His is a “non-name” that, in the Hebrew text, is expressed with a verb form that links the present and the future. Some believe the correct translation is “I am the one who will be with you.” A presence of God, therefore, attested to in the present, but which continues into the future. For this reason, some translators opt for the abbreviated form “I am always there.” Not only is He present in time, but His presence is near, like a friend in a time of need. He is here! So praise and magnify His name! Goliath insulted that name. David defended it and made it his reason to fight and defeat the giant. Every time we mention His name, a path, a bridge, and a road of love should unfold, because God has revealed Himself to us as Father and has shown us such love. Precisely Father, as Jesus taught us to call Him. Every time we mention Him for other purposes, it is “in vain,” in the sense of being irreverent, hypocritical, and frivolous. It is no coincidence that in the model prayer of the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus teaches: “Hallowed be Your name” (Matthew 6:9).

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Weekly Bible Reading Plan #25

June 15, Nehemiah 1–3; Acts 2:1–21

June 16, Nehemiah 4–6; Acts 2:22–47

June 17, Nehemiah 7–9; Acts 3

June 18, Nehemiah 10–11; Acts 4:1–22

June 19, Nehemiah 12–13; Acts 4:23–37

June 20, Esther 1–2; Acts 5:1–21

June 21, Esther 3–5; Acts 5:22–42