Psalm 54│Isaiah48.1-11│1 Thessalonians 3│Matthew 15.21-28
Psaume 54| Esaïe 48.1-11| 1 Thessaloniciens 3|Matthieu 15.21-28
The
greater name
Save me, O God, by your name; vindicate me
by your might.
Hear my prayer, O God; listen to the words
of my mouth.
(v. 1,2)
A miniature from the Mount Athos Psalter, MS. Pantocrator 61, Byzantine, 9th century, http://www.pantokrator.gr/library.htm.
God
revealed his name to Israel as Yehovah. It is a portmanteau word, combining the
future, present, and past tense of the Hebrew verb “to exist” (yihyeh-hoveh-hayah).
It could be translated along the lines of “He-will-be-is-was-being”. It speaks
of eternal uncreated self-existent essence. This was the name that
distinguished Israel from the nations around. This was their name of power.
This was the name of salvation.
Just
before the time of Jesus, the Israelite leaders concealed the Name. Now the
Jewish people no longer speak it. But Christians were given, instead, a greater
Name. This is the name of Jesus or Iesous. “Iesous” is the Greek form of a late
Hebrew-Aramaic contraction of the name Yehoshua (Joshua). Yehoshua is composed
of a short form of Yehovah joined to a contracted form of the verb “save” or
“deliver”. (Yeho[vah]+[yo]shia). It means “Yehovah saves”. It says that the
eternal self-existent one, whom none can withstand, will save. It is, as Paul
says, the name above all names (Phil. 2:9). Neither is there salvation in
any other: for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind, by which
we must be saved. (Acts 4:12).
So
David called on the great name of Yehovah. He did right, and he was saved. But
we should call on the greater name of Jesus, the name with greater promises and
greater power. So shall we be saved from our enemies.
David
Mitchell
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