Three weeks ago, my son Jonathan got married. In her speech, his bride Bonnie spoke about the first time she heard his name – Jonathan Grace. She originally thought he had developed a stage name, and it took her some time to believe this was his real name! Bonnie’s recount made Sue and me reminisce about how we selected each of our children’s names.
When Sue and I chose a name for each of our three children, we initially flicked through the baby name books and were overwhelmed by all the possibilities. We knew we needed criteria to guide us. We agreed that we both had to like the name; it should have two syllables, because our last name only has one syllable; it needed to be biblical; and finally, we wanted to use a second name to honour past family members. Using this, we landed on Samuel Robert (Robert after Sue’s dad), Jonathan Ross (Ross after me and my mum’s grandfather), and Sarah Louise (Louise after Sue’s grandmother, making this the third generation with Louise).
After naming each of our children, we soon found out that even their first names had long histories on both sides of the family!
Every so often, I wonder: does your name shape who you become?
A biblical perspective on life would suggest that it is a bit of both, but your name does define who you are. Your name is an insight into your character and personality. Your name is deeply influential and therefore significant.
Understanding God’s names, like Yahweh Jireh (The Lord Provider), El Shaddai (God Almighty), Yahweh Shalom (The Lord Is Peace), and El Olam (The Everlasting God), gives us insight into who God is, His nature and what He is like.
King David had this insight and was able to write in the Old Testament book of Psalms:
“Ascribe to the LORD, O heavenly beings, ascribe to the LORD glory and strength. Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name; worship the LORD in the splendor of holiness.” (Psalm 29:1-2)
Understanding God’s name is an insight into His nature that enabled King David to worship and praise Him as a response to all that he knew about Him. We worship God for many reasons, among them the fact that He exists and that He has done so much for all of us. David, in Psalm 29, draws our attention to another reason why we ascribe glory to God: because of His name.
A basic life principle is that relationships are transformed when we are able to call a person by their name. This principle also applies in our relationship with God. God has revealed Himself to us as a personal God. Our praise, therefore, is not something that is unfocused, but rather centred on Him and His name.
One of the key acclamations of the Bible is Hallelujah, which is often translated as “Praise the Lord”. It is a word that is made up of two parts: hallel (to praise) and yah, or Yahweh, which is God’s covenant name, made known to Moses at the burning bush when God declared, “I AM WHO I AM.” Jesus also took this special name of God and linked it to simple things that we can understand when He said, “I AM the gate, I AM the light, I AM the good shepherd, and I AM the way, the truth and the life.”
Biblical worship has many facets, one of them being a joyous celebration of the fact that God has revealed to us His name – a name that demonstrates and introduces to us His faithfulness, His reliability, His love, His mercy, His deliverance and His compassion, to name but just a few. How wonderful it is to know God’s name!
One of the desires of the staff and I is that we can help students understand that, as we remember the significance of a name, we can be a people who are so thankful that we do not worship and follow an ‘unknown’ God, but a God who knows our name and whom we know by name.