Names

Posted on by korgrocker

O Lord, our Lord,
How excellent is Your name in all the earth,
Psalm 8:1 NKJ

What a tremendous Psalm of praise this is, as it acknowledges our wonderful God. The translator uses the word “excellent’ to describe the Lord’s name. Other translations use the word “majestic”. But no matter how hard we try, our dictionaries to not carry words of sufficient meaning to properly describe God. Looking at verse 2, perhaps His name should be “Child-Teacher” and “Enemy-Silencer”. Verse 3 perhaps “Star-Maker”. Verse 5 perhaps “Human-Carer” or “King-Maker”. It is a useful way of spending time with God, seeing how many different words or phrases we can find to describe Him. You will remember from the passage in Genesis how God brought all the animals to Adam, so that he could name them. So Adam named the giraffe and the zebra, the cow and the donkey. (I wonder what he made of the alpaca – strange looking animal, but that’s just my opinion). But we always have the option to reciprocate, and find words to describe God.

Giving a name to someone or something, tangible or intangible, is an essential part of communication. Dictionaries are constantly being updated with new words or with new meanings to existing words. Often the new word or meaning is helpful and relevant to the society and times in which we live, but sadly there are now old words assigned a new meaning, hijacked by godless people and now to be avoided. 

But back to our Psalm. It was written by David and in verse 3 you can just imagine him lying in a pasture with a flock of contented sheep, looking up at the heavens and musing over how great God is. Looking at the stars, countlessly forming an awesome canopy over him, unspoilt by light pollution and the astronomical familiarity of our scientists. The Psalmist said that the stars were put there by God’s fingers. Wow! This is a mind boggling place to be and totally beyond mankind’s ability to give it justice with our words, our language. It is in this place of wonder that I often find myself during my early morning prayer walks. Looking around at the constantly changing scenery, the leaves so recently formed now starting to drop as autumn advances. Listening to the bird song and the wind rushing through the tree tops. Watching a “V” of geese honking their way South to find pasture more suitable for them than Scottish fields, glens and lochs in winter.

And in my wonder I echo the first and last verses in this Psalm, praising and thanking our excellent and majestic God.

Positive Thinking

Posted on by korgrocker

“Sin whispers to the wicked, deep within their hearts. They have no fear of God at all. In their blind conceit, they cannot see how wicked they really are.
Your unfailing love, O Lord, is as vast as the heavens; Your faithfulness reaches beyond the clouds. Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains, Your justice like the ocean depths. You care for people and animals alike, O Lord.” Psalms‬ ‭36:1-2, 5-6‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Psalm 36 starts with a reflection on the attitudes of the wicked and their sin, but then quickly turns to these wonderful verses about God’s love, faithfulness, righteousness and justice. It’s almost as though the Psalmist, David, suddenly pulled himself back from thinking about sin and wicked people, to reflect instead on our wonderful Creator God. These wonderful words in verses 5 and 6 have been used as the basis for several songs; they capture so expressively the boundless limits of God’s wonder.

It is a common human trait, to allow thoughts to dwell on the negative. It is so easy to get focused on what’s wrong in life rather than what is right and good and beneficial. And once thoughts are in a negative groove, they will soon be followed by a downward mood swing, bringing depression or an emotional “low”.

On my morning prayer walks through Dean Woods close by to where I live, I often find that just looking at the wonders of God’s creation around me is sufficient to lift my spirits out of any negative groove. At this time of year I see the wild strawberries and flowers. The trees in a profusion of leafy growth. The birdsong dominating the audio realm. And David in his Psalm did likewise, by looking at the wonders and scale of God’s creation. In his world without light pollution the heavens would be a wonderful sight, full of little bright dots, so many in number that they merge into a canopy of light. And he relates the wonders of creation to God’s character, bringing out His love, faithfulness, righteousness and justice, and probably many more similar thoughts as he dwells on his wonderful God and the world around him.

Paul encouraged the Philippian church with the advice, “And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honourable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.” (‭‭Philippians‬ ‭4:8‬ ‭NLT‬‬). Sound advice that we would do well to obey. David realised it. So must we.