“I will proclaim your name to my brothers and sisters. I will praise you among your assembled people. Praise the Lord, all you who fear him! Honour him, all you descendants of Jacob! Show him reverence, all you descendants of Israel!”
Psalm 22:22-23 NLT
A distinct shift in perspective from David, now that he has moved on from writing about his enemies, the “bulls of Bashan”. After declaring that God was his strength and writing down his prayer for salvation “from the horns of these wild oxen”, David moves on into the realm of praising God. He starts with a proclamation about the name of the Lord to his “brothers and sisters”. What would he have said? It would not have been just a straight mentioning of the word “God”, or “Lord”. There is so much more behind the “name of the Lord”. To the Jews, there was something so sacred about the “name of the Lord” that they wouldn’t say it out loud, instead using some other reference. So sad that today the name of God has been degraded to become a swear word, a ubiquitous utterance to many. Exodus 20:7 means nothing to such people, “You must not misuse the name of the Lord your God. The Lord will not let you go unpunished if you misuse his name”. But we pilgrims know the implication and significance of God’s name, as did David. In Proverbs 18:10 we read, “The name of the Lord is a strong fortress; the godly run to him and are safe“. Paul wrote in Romans 10:13, “For “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved””, and Paul was under no illusions about the name of Jesus when he wrote, “Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honour and gave him the name above all other names, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue declare that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:9-11). So, all those people who misuse or denigrate the “name of the Lord” are in for a nasty shock one day.
We pilgrims have much to say about the name of God, and we proclaim His name at every opportunity, realising and understanding what it means. We speak of God with reverence and awe, with a “fear” that acknowledges that we are in His presence continually, human beings created by God and walking in and upon God’s creation wherever we go, and of course aware that He is all-powerful. And that’s the thing. People, in particular those who have rejected God, generally think, with an arrogance that is breathtaking, that their Godless ideologies can exclude God from their lives totally. They think that they were born by accident in a world that accidentally happened, with life upon it again the result of an accident, thus reducing God to the margins, to be rejected and considered the domain of the feeble and unintelligent. And in that environment of lies they, of course, have no time for God, let alone His name. Jesus warned about disregarding God when He said, “Dear friends, don’t be afraid of those who want to kill your body; they cannot do any more to you after that. But I’ll tell you whom to fear. Fear God, who has the power to kill you and then throw you into hell. Yes, he’s the one to fear” (Luke 12:4-5).
But we pilgrims have much to say about God’s name. There are all the wonderful Old Testament names of God, such as Elohim, Jehovah Nissi, Jehovah Jireh, and many more, each displaying and proclaiming a truth about God, and His many character facets. We will never, this side of eternity, ever fully understand God and our feeble attempts to name Him are just that – feeble. But on our journeys through life we find new things about God almost daily, as we ponder His name, through reading His Word, through our interactions with His people, through prayer, through meditation in the Word, and more.
It is sad that many Christians lack the opportunity to proclaim and praise His name in the assemblies because they have perhaps given up on churches and fellowships or lack the opportunities to get to one. In some parts of the world, there are no churches because the authorities have closed them down or don’t allow them to exist in the first place, for example in North Korea. But here in the UK we have plenty of choice and it is sad to find fellow brothers and sisters in Christ who have denied themselves the privilege of being able to worship God in a corporate setting. But David was always seeking any opportunity to “praise [God] among [His] assembled people”. In fact, David was so keen to be in God’s presence that he wrote, “How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord of Heaven’s Armies. I long, yes, I faint with longing to enter the courts of the Lord. With my whole being, body and soul, I will shout joyfully to the living God” (Psalm 84:1-2). He continued, “What joy for those who can live in your house, always singing your praises“, and verse 10 reads, “A single day in your courts is better than a thousand anywhere else! I would rather be a gatekeeper in the house of my God than live the good life in the homes of the wicked”. I think David liked nothing better that praise God with his brothers and sisters!
I would encourage all pilgrims to heed Hebrews 10:25, “And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near“. Of course God can speak to us on our own and in isolation – with Him all things are possible – but He also brings His Word through our brothers and sisters. And there is something special about worshipping with fellow believers, “praising [God] among [His] assembled people”. After all, we will have to get used to it as Heaven will be full of corporate worship (Revelation 7:9-10).
Dear Father God. For those of us without a spiritual home, please help us find the church or fellowship You want us to join, so that we too can spend time praising You with our brothers and sisters. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
Being a Pilgrim 