I have no idea how many people in Central Florida are repeating the words of this Psalm today. David said, “I will praise thee, O Lord, with my whole heart; I will show forth all thy marvellous works.” The CHRISTIANS who have suffered through Hurricanes Helene and Milton, know that God is omnipotent. They SHOULD know that nothing can touch them without the permission of the Lord. They SHOULD know that all things work together for their good, according to Romans 8:28. But I don’t know how many are actually praising God “with all their hearts,” rejoicing in His recent display of power. Furthermore, I don’t know how well I would use this verse in my worship, if I had suffered what those saints in North Carolina, or Florida have recently suffered.
The point and purpose of this message today is preparation. I need to prepare my heart for that day when tragedy enters my life. We all need to learn from David, Jeremiah, Daniel and others and prepare ourselves to face similar problems. But it needs to be the right kind of preparation based on the kind of information this Psalm contains.
If I could, I’d remind those saints back east, that David, too, knew what it was to suffer. He hadn’t experienced a hurricane, tsunami or a fire storm, destroying his home and his opportunities to earn a living. But he had felt the unjust wrath of powerful men. He had endured privation out in the wilderness, he knew what it was to be hungry and thirsty. He had faced the humiliation of begging for food and receiving the aid and assistance of kind individuals. He had been separated from his family and been burdened about their welfare. Yet despite the drama – and the trauma – he still could say, “I will be GLAD and REJOICE in thee; I will sing PRAISE to thy name, O thou most High.” He looks into the past and reminds himself of God’s former blessings as well as God’s rebuke of David’s enemies. He acknowledges that the power of the wicked is temporary, “but the Lord shall endure for ever.” He knows the Word of God well enough to admit that, God “hath prepared his throne for JUDGMENT, and He shall judge the word in righteousness.” And even when our human homes have been destroyed, “the LORD also will be a REFUGE… a REFUGE in times of trouble.”
At that point – in verse 10 – David refers a second time to the Name of the Lord, saying, “and they that know thy NAME will put their trust in thee.” That is a profound and important statement. It is an absolutely true statement. Those who really know the Lord will immediately and constantly put their faith in Him. And if you have NOT put your trust in Jehovah, it is because you don’t know what you are missing. When we know God – truly know Him – even within the limits of our spiritual intelligence… When we know the LORD, we will throw ourselves at His feet and trust in Him for all our needs, even in the midst of our adversities. But – this verse doesn’t say “they that know GOD put their faith in Him.” In a somewhat confusing way, it says, “And they that know thy NAME will put their trust in thee.” That is a profound statement, while at the same time – perplexing and problematic.
The Bible speaks of the Name of God in a manner that is not common to us today.
I have said it many times, but has to be constantly repeated – the Name of God is not a title or an alias. Our God – the one true and living God – isn’t simply identified by the name “Jehovah.” “There He is, Jehovah.” He IS all that is contained in the name/word/description – “Jehovah.”
My wife is known as “Judy Lynn Oldfield” in order to differentiate her from most other people in the world. The other day, in a doctor’s office, a nurse came out and called a name which ended in “eee.” It sounded like she said, “Judy?” When no one else jumped up, my Judy did. But when the woman looked at her she asked quite skeptically, “What is your LAST name?” As we discovered, the woman had actually wanted some man. A few minutes later another nurse came out and said, “Judith? Judy?” and once again when no one got off their chair, we got up and walked over. As we told her about our earlier confusion, again she asked, “What is your last name?” Again, she didn’t want “Judy,” she was right the first time, looking for “Judith.” Eventually, the first nurse appeared and called for “Judy,” and we got in to see the doctor. “Judy Lynn Oldfield” is the name which identifies my wife. But the truth is, as Shakespeare said, “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” And if you called my wife “Sally” or “Frederica” I would still love her, and she would still be my wife. In the human world, names are nothing more than identifying terms, not much different from Social Security numbers.
However, that is not true when we are talking about God. David’s God could not be called “Baal,” “Molech” or even “Allah,” because the Name of God has meaning. Actually, God has several names, and they all reveal His heart and display His attributes. Take for example the name “Jehovah” or “Yahweh.” By definition, it means “I am that I am.” When Moses wanted to know what to tell Israel about the God who had commissioned him, the Lord said, “Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.” Tell them “I am that I am.” In the Hebrew language, three times in that verse (Exodus 3:14) we find the name, “Yahweh.”
Contained in that name are a number of important concepts. “Yahweh” means that Jehovah is the eternal one, and He never changes. He is not confined to time. And this is particularly helpful in our understanding of the Lord Jesus. In Revelation 1, He tells us, “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending… which IS, and which WAS, and which IS TO COME, the Almighty.” And in the midst of an argument with the Jews, when they said to Him, “Thou art not yet fifty years old, and has thou seen Abraham,” Jesus replied, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, BEFORE Abraham was, I AM.” At that point they picked up stones to kill Him, because they considered what He said to be blasphemy. And it would have been blasphemous, if hadn’t been absolutely true – Jesus Christ is Jehovah. He was the “I am” before Abraham was born, while Abraham lived, and He is the “I am” yet TODAY. The triune God is always in the present; He is always “I am.” So “Jehovah” is not simply the name of God; “Jehovah” is who He is. And David said in prayer to God, “They that KNOW thy NAME will put their trust in Thee.” And I will add, “They who know that Christ Jesus is Jehovah – the I am – will put their trust in Him.”
But God has several names, and David doesn’t point to any one of them in particular. All of those names, whether simple or complex, directly reflect the Lord’s nature. “Elohim” for example is the plural form of “god” and points to His triune nature – the Trinity. “Almighty God” is self evident; it speaks of the Lord’s omnipotence. Thursday I texted Erik Berg, asking him how his sons were doing there in Florida after Hurricane Milton. He replied with: “Good – just minor property damage,” and then he added “Jehovah Jireh.” That name of God comes from the lips of Abraham after the Lord gave him a substitute for the sacrifice of his son Isaac. In Hebrew it means that God provides. It is the nature of God to graciously give, and give, and give. He is “Jehovah Jireh.”
The Lord is also “Jehovah-Shalom” – the God of peace. Jesus said, “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you. Not as the world giveth give I unto you.” If distressed, convicted, conflicted people knew th Lord as the God of all peace and comfort, they would put their trust in Him.
And our God is “Jehovah-Shammah” – the Lord who is always there. Isaiah 43 tells us, “Now thus saith the LORD that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel, Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine. When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee. For I am the LORD thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour…” There are people in this world who feel abandoned – people who HAVE BEEN abandoned. The God whom I represent has never abandoned of His people. What a blessing to know the God who has said, “I will never leave thee nor forsake thee” – Hebrew 13.
Among the other names we might consider there is “Jehovah-Tsidkenu” – the Lord our righteousness. Sometimes a knowledge that God is infinitely holy is scarey. It ought to terrify us. But on the other hand, to know that our God will always do right because He is righteous is a blessing. And then there is the fact that Christ, the great “I am,” has been made the righteousness of the believer. “Of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption” – I Corinthians 1:30. I was born with a sin problem, just as you were born. We need righteousness in order to stand before the Lord. To know that Christ is our “Jehovah-Tsidkenu” is a blessing of extreme importance.
David’s statement to God, “They that know thy NAME will put their trust in thee” is profound.
But it is also a PROBLEM to those who only partially understand it.
Let’s go back to that person I know as “Judy.” My wife, Judy, was sitting beside me in my study on Thursday, when her eye fell on a framed, 8×10 photograph of her. I believe that it was taken for her senior year in high school, sometime before or around 1967. Being silly, she nodded toward her photograph, demanding, “Who is that?” It depicts her with shoulder length brunette hair, dark eyebrows, a soft, flattering sweater and a killer smile. I like the picture – that’s why I have it sitting on a shelf where I can easily see it, and I look at it often. But if I preferred that photograph over the person who was joking about it, I’d be in trouble. And similarly, if I preferred Judy’s NAME to the person the name represents, again, I’d be in trouble. If I loved people simply because their names were “Judy” I’d be in trouble.
Here is the problem with many of the scriptures which speak about the “Name of God:” They are NOT talking about God’s title or alias, or even His nickname. They are talking about the divine being behind the name. When David said, “they that know thy NAME will put their trust in thee,” he was not creating an idol. He was not elevating the name of God over the Lord Himself. When he said, in Psalm 5, “Let them also that LOVE thy NAME be JOYFUL in thee,” he wasn’t talking about the joy that the two syllables, “Yahweh,” produce when they flow off the tongue. When he said, in Psalm 7, “I will praise the LORD according to his righteousness: and will sing praise to the NAME of the LORD most high,” he wasn’t worshiping the name without regard for the God of that name.
David referred to the name of God several times in Psalm 20. He begins by encouraging us, saying, “The LORD hear thee in the day of trouble; the NAME of the God of Jacob DEFEND thee.” Then seven verses later he adds. “Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we will remember the NAME of the LORD our God.” I dare say that the Jews who read and sang David’s Psalms fully understood what he was saying. Neither he, nor they, were using the name of God like a lucky charm to ward off their enemies. They knew to reach behind the name to put their trust in the omnipotent God for their needs. “The LORD will hear thee in the day of trouble; the God of Jacob will defend thee.” “Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we will trust Jehovah our God.”
About 800 years before Christ, the Prophet Joel was preaching to the people of Judah. In chapter 2 he uttered some well-known and often-repeated words: “It shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions: And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit. And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the LORD come. And it shall come to pass, that WHOSOEVER SHALL CALL ON THE NAME OF THE LORD SHALL BE DELIVERED: for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the LORD hath said, and in the remnant whom the LORD shall call.” The people of Joel’s day knew what he meant when he said “whosoever call on the NAME of the Lord shall be delivered.” He was saying, Those who call on the God whose name is “the Lord,” shall be delivered. And 800 years later when Peter was preaching to the great grandchildren of those people, saying, “And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the NAME of the Lord shall be SAVED, “ I believe that those people understood what he was saying.
It was with the same intent, and the same meaning, that Paul told the Romans, “whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” The context explains it. “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed?”
Paul spoke of the “NAME of the Lord” in same way as David, Joel and Peter. But dozens of centuries have passed since those men. And we are not Jews, having been trained in the Hebrew way of thinking. We are gentiles, raised in secular and linear thinking. Generally speaking when we hear the words “whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved” our minds think of something Paul didn’t intend.
I fear that there thousands of people who picture themselves as Christians, who have uttered the name of Jesus, thinking that there is a magic sin-eraser contained in pronouncing or praying that name. While their evangelists have been pointing to this verse, they have put their trust in the name – but without trusting the Saviour who is contained in that name. There have been thousands of people who have asked “Jesus to come into their hearts,” without ever opening to Him the recesses of those hearts. There have been multitudes who have asked “the Lord” to save them, who didn’t know what is meant by the word “Lord.”
“They that KNOW thy NAME will put their trust in thee.” The names of the Lord reveal His holiness, His love, His grace, His eternal patience, and even salvation. Joseph was directed in regard to Mary’s son, “And thou shalt call His name JESUS, for He shall save His people from their sins.” The name “Jesus” means “Jehovah saves.” When we begin to know the names of God, we are drawn to Him like hungry souls to a Thanksgiving feast. But, to put trust directly in a name – an accumulation of syllables – even if it is a true and proper name of God – is folly.
You and I, as sinners, need the Saviour. We need the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. It is important to humbly trust in the Person who bears the name “the Lord Christ Jesus.” Can you honestly say before God and men, “I KNOW who God is, and my FAITH for all eternity is in Jesus Christ my Saviour?”