#PraiseHim - God's Name Matters (Psalm 113:1-3)

God's Name Matters

Psalm 113: 1-3

Praise the Lord!

Praise, O servants of the Lord,

praise the name of the Lord!

Blessed be the name of The Lord

from this time forth and forevermore!

From the rising of the sun to its setting

the name of the Lord is to be praise!

Names are important. We are always asking others what their name means, why their parents chose their name, and how it is spelled. This is no different with God. God's name should be known and praised. Moses asked God for His name so he could tell his people who sent him to rescue them. God told Moses to tell them that "I am" (Exodus 3:13-14) sent him, which does not make too much sense to us, but I am sure that we have all heard of the Hebrew translation of that: Yahweh (YHWH).

We later see in the Ten Commandments,

“You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain."

God takes His name so seriously that if someone uses His name incorrectly He promises to judge them for doing so. That is a serious thing, right? Yes. Yes it is.

The ESV Study Bible says that this commandment "refers primarily to someone taking a deceptive oath in God’s name or invoking God’s name to sanction an act in which the person is being dishonest." We usually think that is whenever someone uses His name when cussing or swearing, which still is using His name in vain, but its origins are a little different than we tend to think.

The point: God's name matters. He desires us to use His name to bless each other and to remind each other of God's grace, goodness, and greatness. His name was supposed to remind them of how He saved them from the Egyptians and from slavery. His name mattered to them and matters to us.

Why does it matter today to Christians today?

Eventually we learn from Jesus that He identifies as God when he said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am” (John 8:58). The Jews in that day knew what He was saying. Jesus is confidently, directly, and clearly stating that He is God in the flesh. Jesus stated that He is God.

Jesus shows Himself to be God in His character, the miracles He displayed, His sacrificial and loving death, and His triumphant rise from the grave.

God is so infinitely mysterious, yet He makes Himself clearly known. Jesus showed us, along with the entirety of the Old Testament, that God wants a deeply personal and unconditional relationship with His people. He wants us to know His name. Jesus wants us to know Him as our savior, our everything, our friend, our brother, our God.

God's name matters. If we get the name of God wrong then we will spend eternity realizing our tragic mistake. I do not say this without understanding that it takes a lot to acknowledge that God exists and that He cares for us personally, but I urge us all to reflect on God's identity and trust in the God that makes Himself known in the Bible. He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. He gives life through Jesus, and He gives grace abundantly to those who love and trust Him. He gave us His name so that we could identify who He is, know what His character is like, and grasp how much He loves us.

God's name: Jesus.

God is good and gracious.

Jacob Luis Gonzales