March 21, 2024

Psalm 8.1 (and 9) (NIV)
O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth.

Know him as he revealed himself.*

Your name is what is on your birth certificate. It can also be your reputation, your title, your character, or merely your nickname. If you could have named yourself, what name would you have picked? Is that a cute name? A manly name? Does it tell us something about you? In some cultures, most names are also words, so everyone’s name “means something.”

In Exodus 3.15, God introduces himself by his name: I Am Who I Am. Since God had to have named himself, his name tells us what he wants us to know about himself. He is who he is. God’s name also tells us what his purpose is. In Matthew 1.21 and 23, we read that Mary named her baby “Jesus,” but that he would be called, “Immanuel,” which makes it a nickname of sorts. Both names illustrate his purpose – “Savior” and “God with us.”

By proclaiming that God’s name is majestic in all the earth, the psalmist is merely using the grandest illustration he could think of to describe our God, knowing that words are inadequate. Perhaps our vocabulary will improve when we meet him face to face!

Jesus claimed the name “I AM” for himself when he said, “Before Abraham was born, I am!”*