GOD’S ‘EXCELLENT NAME’ - PSALM 8
READING
Psalm 8:1-9
1. INTRODUCTION
Psalms 8:1 … O LORD our Lord, how excellent is Your name in all the earth.
In Psalm 8, we will look at God's name and its meaning for Believers today. In verse 1, we see two different words that are used for God; what do they mean?
* The first word is ‘LORD’ which is printed in capitals. This is the sacred, personal name of God, which we transliterate as ‘YHWH;’ this is called, by theologians, the ‘sacred tetragrammaton’ – the sacred 4 letters of God’s name. It is the name that is best known as ‘Jehovah.’
This personal name of God was considered so holy that when scribes wrote it, they took off their clothes, bathed, put on clean clothes, cut a new quill pen and wrote ‘YHWH.’ Once they did this, they would put on their original clothes, destroy the pen they used to write the sacred name and then they would continue their work. As this would occur 6,528 times every time the Old Testament was copied, you can see the amount of work and time involved.
* The second word in this verse for God is ‘Lord’ (‘Adon,’ from ‘Adoni’), which is in lowercase. This indicates the office of God, not His personal name.
To explain this, we think in terms of our head of state, Grand Duke Henri. ‘Henri’ is his name; ‘Grand Duke’ is his office. In Ps 8:1, ‘LORD’ is His name (‘YHWH’); ‘Lord’ is His office.
The verse continues with, “How majestic is Your name …,” where ‘addiyr’ [ad-deer] is the Hebrew word for ‘majestic.’ This word is very difficult to translate. Some applicable English words are large, powerful, excellent, famous, gallant, glorious, goodly, lordly, mighty one, noble, principal and worthy.
2. FIRST REVELATION OF JEHOVAH TO MAN
The first time God revealed His personal name to man was at the burning bush in Ex 3:2, to Moses. Let us consider Moses. He was a person so like us, who felt God sometimes takes too long to solve our problems. In Moses’ case, it concerned rescuing the Hebrews from the Egyptians.
Now, if God says it (in this case His promise to give them the ‘Promised Land’), then He will do it. If He does not do it, then He did not say it. This is an important lesson for us today.
God had certainly heard His people and would free them, but Moses was convinced he could help to speed things along. He even got to remove the first Egyptian, but then found there were around 7 million more coming after him. So, he had to run to the desert, into Midian. If we ever step out to destroy the Enemy in our strength, we may be successful with the first demon, but we stir up the next 7 … or even 7 million.
So, Moses was forced to flee to the desert in Midian, where he met a priest, married his daughter and became an assistant pastor – well he spent 40 years tending his father-in-law’s sheep. After 40 years of nothing but sheep, he was out one day and saw a bush burning, but not being consumed. Now, after 40 years with nothing but sheep for company that was very interesting indeed. Moses went to see it and met God. Now the NT tells us there was an angel in the bush, which is why it was not consumed (Acts 7:30-34) and from it, God spoke to Moses.
In their conversation, God gave Moses a commission, “Go tell Pharaoh, let My people go.” Now, let us put that into modern context. It would be like telling an industrial country the size of Britain, France or Germany to decommission all its electricity systems and destroy all its automobiles and trucks. It would incapacitate Egypt in no less a way. In addition, remember, this commission would be doubly difficult for a wanted criminal – Moses.
3. HEARING GOD, REALLY HEARING GOD
A lesson from Moses’ encounter with God concerns listening. Sometimes we only listen to God with our ears and not with our spirits – let Moses’ encounter explain.
Moses asked who he should say sent him. This is a good question when you are given such a weighty message. God replied, “I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: `I AM has sent me to you.’” (Ex 3:13,14)
a. LEARNING TO WAIT ON GOD
When God speaks to us, our spirit hears far more than our brain can translate.
An example to help us understand this is to consider a pebble thrown into a pond. You hear a loud ‘plop,’ but then you see a ring then more rings appear, until they eventually fill the surface of the pond.
This is how it is when God speaks. We hear the ‘plop’ and go off with that ‘plop’ in our ears. If, though, we would learn to be quiet and reflect/meditate, we might see a ring, then more and more. You see, spirit bears witness with spirit. God does not speak to your brain; His Spirit resides in your spirit and He communicates to you spirit to spirit. For you to communicate God’s truth to another, it must come from your spirit to your soul, where your brain operates, where you give vocabulary to this truth.
When God said, “I AM WHO I AM,” Moses’ spirit probably heard far more than just those words. We can only surmise, that Moses likely heard God say more than his mind could cope with at that moment. He only understood “I AM WHO I AM,” but his spirit could have heard, “I could be no more than I am, I need to be no more than I am, for I am that I am.” Now, that would give him all the courage necessary for this humanly impossible commission.
b. IMPROVING OUR PRAYER LIFE
Usually, the first part of prayer is spent giving God ‘unknown information,’ which of course He knows very well, but we insist on telling Him anyway. The second part is spent trying to convince God to become what we think He needs to be, to do what we told Him to do.
God would like to shout through our fears and insecurity and say, “Knock it off. I do not need to be anything more than I am. I am more than you can ever draw upon.” However, today, the norm seems to be that we tell God all our problems and then we instruct Him as to how He must solve them.
If we can only believe God is who He says He is, then we need only let faith cause us to realise how great He is – despite us and our limitations – and see Him do the miracles in our lives. Give Him that opportunity and we will see greater prayer times as we experience a revitalised relationship with Him.
4. GOD RESTORES OUR RELATIONSHIP WITH HIM
We know that our sins separate us from our God (Isa 59:2), but two other things also separate us from God.
a. OUR CONCEPT OF GOD
The first of these is our concept of God. God cannot be to us more than our concept of Himself, or we will not recognise Him. In the OT, Israel limited the Holy One of Israel.
Psalms 78:41 Yes, repeatedly they tempted God and limited the Holy One of Israel.
We also limit God by our concept of Him and if there is no increase in that concept there cannot be an increase in our responses to God – we stay as we were when first saved. We can only really worship God to the extent of our concept of God. If our concept is that God is a ‘needs meter’ – a Genie in a lamp – then we will not get past thanksgiving.
Now, this is still good, but it is only the start. Remember the Bible says:
Psa 100:4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name.
We will just stay at the gates, but we need to move into the courts with praise. We will not get into real praise unless we get beyond this ‘needs’ point. Often, we just do not let our concept, our view, of God grow, so God is only able to relate to us according to that concept – we stay as immature babes. It is in this way that we limit the Holy One of Israel.
b. THE PLACE OF PRAISE AND WORSHIP
A second way we are separated from God is through our failure to understand the place praise and worship play in bringing us into a relationship with Him. Praise releases from the heart what is in that heart. It is what is in our heart that motivates us and makes us what we give into. This is the real limit of our image of God; for it is to what we respond that determines the level at which God can meet with us.
We need to learn to praise the name of our God in His revelation of Himself, not in our image of Him. God does not need worship to meet His ego. He does not need our praise, but we need to praise our God.
Praise opens a pathway that lets God into our presence and then that praise becomes a pathway that lets us into God’s presence.
i) WORSHIP RELEASES
Worship releases God in us to be who He is in the heavens.
Psa 50:23 “Whoever offers praise glorifies Me; and to he who sets a way, I will show the salvation of God.”
The word translated as ‘glorifies’ is ‘kabad’ [kaw-bad] and this is a huge word to put into a modern language. Literally, it means to ‘make weighty;’ other meanings are to elevate, honour; be numerous, rich, abounding with glory, to make glorious, honourable, noble etc.
How do we glorify God though? As an example, think of the desert. It is a place that is dry, very hot, little rain. Nevertheless, for people who live in these places, local weather reports give out three pieces of important information. First, they provide the temperature, so you know how hot it is going to be. Secondly, they give out something called relative humidity, which provides the amount of moisture that is in the air. Even in the driest desert, there is always moisture in the air, but it is present as an invisible and not very useful vapour. The third information given is the dew point. This is the temperature at which the invisible moisture condenses out of the air and onto the ground on what vegetation there is. It coalesces on the leaves and stems and runs down to the ground where it nourishes the roots. The invisible, useless water becomes life-giving water.
ii) THE DEW OF PRAISE AND WORSHIP
What has this to do with worship? Well in Hosea, God refers to Himself as ‘dew.’
Hosea 14:5 I will be like the dew to Israel; he will blossom like a lily. Like a cedar of Lebanon, he will send down his roots.
But, let us look at the prophet Hosea a little more.
Hosea 14:1,2 Return, O Israel, to the LORD your God. Your sins have been your downfall! 2 Take words with you and return to the LORD. Say to him: “Forgive all our sins and receive us graciously, that we may offer the fruit of our lips.
In verse 14:1, God calls His people to return to Him. In verse 2 we see, as God shows He did not just want ritual sacrifice, how He wanted words that expressed inner attitudes. God did not want words in place of sacrifice; He did not want sacrifice in place of words. What He is commanding here is that when the people brought their offerings, they brought their words. This verse is quoted in the NT, in Heb 13:15 and in this verse it reveals what these words are – praise, the fruit of our lips
Heb 13:15 Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise--the fruit of lips that confess his name.
iii) PROMISES FOR THE RESTORATION OF GOD’S PEOPLE
Back in Hosea, God promises three things, if we will return to Him, take our words with us and offer up the sacrifice of praise. In Hosea 14:4,5:
Hosea 14:4,5 “I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely, For My anger has turned away from him. 5 I will be like the dew to Israel; He shall grow like the lily and lengthen his roots like Lebanon.”
Now, when and how does this dew come? When praise is being released. Why? Because praise cools the atmosphere of our spirits to the point where the presence of God – initially invisible – is released by the cooling of our hearts with praise.
5. GOD REVEALS HIMSELF
a. GOD REVEALS HIS GLORY
Now, how did God reveal His glory in the OT? Generally, by allowing His people to drop themselves into trouble. He did not cause it and He never need to. God just let His people go their own way. He allowed this so that He could then reveal an aspect of His name or nature.
You may well ask if God must do it this way. He does not, but it is just that most of us do not come to God because we want Him; we come to God because we need Him. Because of our character and attitude, He utilises those needs, so we keep coming back. Moreover, He does this to draw us back into a vital, living relationship. Why? Because of His great love for us.
b. GROWTH THROUGH TRIALS
Trials are not the average Christians’ ideal. However, the Apostle James does not tend to agree with that way of thinking.
James 1:2-4 My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. 4 But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.
Every time we hit trouble; it is worth asking ourselves if we let it happen before we assume it is the devil at work. Too much credence is given to the devil. He can only work in and through the disobedience of our lives.
If difficulties come through the hand of God, ask yourself, “What am I to learn?” Once we have learned it, the problem is over. We often do not learn the first time, so we must go through the process again … and maybe again.
When we have brothers & sisters who are in trouble, we often embrace them and ask, “How’s it going.” Often the response is, “Well I’m learning to cope.” Cope? The last thing God wants is for us to adjust to the problem. He wants us to learn to praise. If all we do is cope, then the problem will only get worse. If you only learn to adjust to the pressure, then the pressure will increase. God wants us to turn to Him in the positive response of praise & worship.
When we praise and worship, there will come a revelation of God greater than we have ever known before and we will find that what seemed to be an obstacle is now a pedestal that we can step onto, to see something in God that we have never seen before. This is possible when we live in who God is and we can do that only as we praise and worship Him for who He is … not for what we can get out of Him.
c. GOD PROVIDES US WITH OPPORTUNITIES TO MEET WITH HIM
God foresaw the history of the universe before He laid the foundation of the earth and prepared the plan of salvation. But some would say, “There’s no free will if God knows everything.” This is wrong; you do have free will. If you choose to turn left, then God has a provision for you. If you decide, though, to turn right God still has a provision for that direction. You choose, but God has a provision available that seeks to bring you to His loving Son, out of His deep love for you.
Even if you rebel against God, or walk in sin, even there you will find His loving hand. King David knew the truth of God’s love, which he revealed in one of his Psalms.
Psa 139:8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
God loves you. Once you choose to follow Him, you are His. Then, He walks with you and fellowships with you. If you choose to cut off that fellowship, He still provides for you, seeking to bring you back to Himself.
6. WE NEED TO ACT
Let us talk to the One who is the Provider. If your need is salvation, then Jesus is here to meet with you. God has ordained that Jesus is the only path by which we can approach Him.
John 14:6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
If you are saved and you have a need, then come to God, who is your source, your provider, your sufficiency.
