I’ve been exploring some of the very modern worship songs as an old guy 😀. But now, I’ve decided to alternate between very modern hymns, old hymns, and in-between hymns, namely the worship songs from the 60s to the 90s that feature in hymnbooks such as Mission Praise. Today it’s the turn of the very modern hymns.
Today’s song is Your Name It’s from 2006.
Names are much more significant in the Bible than they are in everyday life. I can’t remember thinking long and hard about naming our children. I was probably influenced by pop songs, but I was happy to leave it to my wife who gave birth to them and had the lion’s share of raising them. God’s name is particularly significant in Scripture.
The Hebrew name, Yahweh (sometimes transliterated as Jehovah) was considered so sacred that the Jews didn’t speak it aloud. In my Roman Catholic upbringing, we were taught to bow our head when we spoke the name of Jesus. We didn’t do anything like that in evangelical churches, but we do revere God’s name, and so much Scripture in the Old and New Testament emphasizes the significance of God’s name, which signifies His character.
Matthew 6:9
Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.
Philippians 2:9-11
Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
The notion of God’s name being a strong and mighty tower sounds a little strange, but it is a Scriptural metaphor:
Proverbs 18:10
The name of the Lord is a strong tower: the righteous runneth into it, and is safe.
Perhaps it’s emphasizing that your are safe in God’s hands. I think of Martin Luther’s hymn, A Safe Stronghold Our God is Still and it’s other translation, A Mighty Fortress is our God:
God’s name is significant because it reveals who God is, not just what He is called. And it’s not for us to invent god and create or chose His characteristics. We learn all about Him from His Word. So, the word Yahweh is often understood to mean “I am what I am” or “I will be what I will be”. It’s not, “I am what you shape me to be”. Nothing shapes or manipulates God. He is above all and controls all. And we delight that we’re in the hands of a good, loving, all powerful God, who’ll work in the interest of all those who trust in Him.
Here are some other versions of today’s hymn:
John 14:13
And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
Acts 2:21
And everyone who calls
on the name of the Lord will be saved.’
Acts 4:11-12
11 This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone.12 And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”
This all got me thinking about all the hymns that mention the word “name” in their titles. Here are some examples:
Hibernia Gospel 