Geoffrey R. Kirkland
Pastor, Christ Fellowship Bible Church
Blessed be the NAME OF THE LORD (Psalm 113.2). The Name of God appears all throughout the Bible and speaks of His essential Being and perfect Nature in its blessed fullness. The Name of God signifies who God really is. The Bible speaks of praising the NAME of the Lord (Psalm 113.1; 148.13). This means that we must know our God and respond rightly in worship to who God is in the fullness of His glory.
The Name of the Lord most specifically is Yahweh. He says that “My name” is Yahweh (Exodus 6.3; cf. 3.14-15). The Name of Yahweh speaks of His self-existence, His eternality, His power, and His Almightiness. None can compare and none can outdo our God! But His name is more than a “title”. It is a revelation of His nature and attributes. Often one’s name indicated one’s identity, and even one’s works and actions, or even one’s profession. The Name of God, to be sure, encompasses the grand glories and the infinite splendors of God’s personhood, works, miracles, and being!
To worship and praise the “name of the LORD” means to celebrate HIs attributes, actions, power, and mercy. In the song of Moses, praising the name of the Lord is parallel to ascribing greatness to God (Deuteronomy 32.3). Elsewhere, the name of the Lord is parallel to the glory of the Lord (Psalm 102.15). To call upon the name of the Lord means that one prays to, cries out to, and begs God for a listening ear (Psalm 116.4). Proverbs 18.10 tells us that the name of the Lord is a strong tower.
In the New Testament, believers are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus (1 Corinthians 6.11). Whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved (Romans 10.13). These truths speak of the fullness of who God is. Saints have been justified because of the fullness of the work of Jesus Christ. To be saved, one must call upon the character, the work, the actions, the mighty saving abilities of God!
Like Micah, we must walk in the name of the Lord our God forever (Micah 4.5). We must be ever living in the presence of the fullness of God’s glorious being. As the praises were uttered: “We thank you and praise your glorious Name” (1 Chronicles 29.13). Nehemiah extolled: “may your glorious name be blessed and exalted above all blessing and praise” (Nehemiah 9.5). God is so passionate about the worth and enjoyment of and exaltation of His Name that He makes for Himself a glorious Name (Isaiah 63.14).
This means you must know your God rightly to worship His Name and character appropriately. It means you must bow humbly before your God when you know His Name truly. It means you must live obediently and reverently before your God for His Name is glorious! So you ponder the name of your God which leads to a blessed and happy study of the attributes of God and it leads you to sing with David: “I will sing praises to the Name of the Lord Most High” (Psalm 7.17). You can exalt the Name of the Lord through prayer and praise, hymns and singing, obedience and living (1 Corinthians 10:31; Psalm 92.1)! Many people boast in anything or everything this world can offer, but we as God’s people who love God and know Him truly and trust Him supremely can say: “we will boast in the Name of the Lord our God” (Psalm 20.7).
