Midweek Message from the Archive
The Name of the Lord
As I’m reading through the Psalms I’m camped out in chapter 8; can’t get away from the beauty, intensity, and revelation of these words. God does that when He wants to drive home a point that I’m missing. I have to linger, meditate, and talk it through with Him.
This Psalm seems to have bookends that we should pay attention to:
O LORD, our Lord, How majestic is Your name in all the earth! Psalms 8:1b, 9 NASB
Notice the capital letters on the first LORD and small letters on the second Lord. This alerts us to the different names of God and the character traits that coincide. LORD, in all capital letters, is the covenant-making, covenant-keeping name of Yahweh; it is the more intimate and personal side of God. Lord, small letters, Adonah, indicates a more authoritative name: like master, ruler, or husband, meaning Messiah or Christ. God’s names in scripture are used with purpose, showing us His divine attributes, however, sometimes we have to search out their meaning. If, as in Ps. 8, His name is full of majesty, as it reads from beginning to end, then we should see what’s in between those bookends. Read it over this week for context but for now I want to discuss the Name of the Lord.
If we just concentrate on the book of Acts we see the phrase ‘name of the Lord’ (or Jesus, as He is Lord) used extensively and with definite purpose. There was salvation (2:21), physical healing (3:6), spiritual healing (22:16), deliverance (16:18), fear (19:17), boldness (9:27-28), persecution (5:40), and disgrace (5:41); all given at the mention of this powerful Name. The book of Acts is the story of the how the Church began and this beginning shows us, the later Church, the importance of this Name. You may ask yourself, “Why was the name of Jesus so important?” The answer is that you don’t stand in the authority of your own name as it carries no power of its own but we stand in His name which carries all rights and authority.
You are drawing your strength from His attributes; He indwells you for that specific reason. You are immersed in that Name at your baptism, standing in the authority of that Name that is above all others: in heaven, under heaven, or in the underworld. As an ambassador stands in the authority of the sending nation, likewise, we stand with rights, as believers, in the name of Jesus Christ (John 1:12) in our mission. I want to delve into the Church aspect a little more in the next couple of Midweek Messages but for now, be encouraged to live your life with resolve as a believer in the power and authority of that Name and all its meaning. If the early Church needed it, how much more does the Church around the world of our day?
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