The Majesty of God’s Name

King David was most moved by the majesty and glory of God when writing the Psalms.  Nothing compares to the glory of God’s name and we learn that God is majestic and exalted by everything he does.  

We frequently hear judges and governmental dignitaries addressed by the honorific your honor.  In countries led by royalty the honorifics your grace, or your majesty are frequently used.  I once read where Scottish monarchs were honored with the honorific your grace and the English kings favored your majesty.  Have you ever wondered wondered “why the difference?”

The history is that Scottish monarchs were addressed as “Your Grace” before the Acts of Union in 1707 whereby Great Britain was created. Afterwards, British monarchs were addressed as “Your Majesty.”   

The word Grace is from Latin gratia meaning “favor, esteem, regard, pleasing quality, good will, and gratitude.” It is from an ancient word root indicating “to favor.” In Church use it translates the Greek word kharisma meaning "favor, divine gift." Which is from from a Greek word meaning "to show favor to," from kharis "grace, beauty, kindness." The story I read indicated that the Scottish kings viewed their rule as a divine gift and favor, hence they preferred your grace.

Majesty is from the Latin word maiestas meaning “greatness, dignity, elevation, honor, excellence.  It is related to major which compares to magnus from ancient word roots meaning “great.”  It is easy to see why the royalty of GREAT Britain would choose majesty as their honorific. 

In this study we look at another king.  King David was most moved by the majesty and glory of God when writing the Psalms.  Nothing compares to the glory of God’s name and we learn that God is majestic and exalted by everything he does.  David, in Psalms 138 exalts God’s name because of God’s Love and Truth.  Let’s look at David’s instructions:

Psalm 138

1  I will give you thanks with all my heart; I will sing your praise before the heavenly beings.

2  I will bow down toward your holy temple and give thanks to your name for your constant love and truth. You have exalted your name and your promise above everything else.

3 On the day I called, you answered me; you increased strength within me.

David opens by stating “I will give you thanks.” In ancient times the word from which the word thanks derives expanded from “a thinking of, a remembering” or “remember fondly, think of with gratitude.”  More than just “boy am I grateful” David is telling us that “he will always remember fondly and think upon God with gratitude.” He tells us that he does so with “all my heart.”  More than just “remembering fondly” in his head, he thinks upon God with fondness and gratitude with his heart – the core of his being.  

Even when it seems that one is alone and in error, as David sometimes was, the core of David’s being remembered God with fondness and gratitude.  He even says that he will sing the praises of God “before the heavenly beings.”  The Hebrew word used for sing is zamar and indicates making music on an instrument.  The overall “big picture” of this statement is that David will “sell God” (promote, praise, put forward) before the “heavenly beings”.

Heavenly beings could be referring to angels, gods, human rulers, and the like.  It might refer to the classification and hierarchy of angelic beings or be as simple as before anyone who is “Of God”. It is safe to say that David says in verse one “the core of my being will remember God with fondness and gratitude and my music will  always promote God before anyone who is a living being of God.”  Or even shorter, “I will promote the praises of God before anything that is living”.

David tells us of another action he will take, besides praising and thanking God.  He will “make himself low before”, i.e., make himself subordinate to, God. We could phrase it “I will always be your servant and you will always be the master of my being.”  While God lived among his people in the tabernacle, David planned for a permanent building for the presence of God to live among the people of Israel in Jerusalem.  

A holy temple was a place where a god lived, and where the priests of a god performed work.  For humanity a Temple might be a specific location set aside for the paying of respect to a god. The god of metal might be worshiped, as a loose example, in the local blacksmith shop.  The god of agriculture as the local grainery as an example.  In Moses’ day THE God, YHWH, chose to live with the Jewish people and came down from Heaven to live with them as they wandered for a generation.  He lived in a tent, as they did, and the Tabernacle was set apart as the local place where the Hebrews could draw near to God and seek the help of those who ministered to God, those more expert than themselves, in conforming to God’s desires.

Even after they were invested in the Promised Land, the Tabernacle resided at Shiloh until it was “lost” to the Philistines. When he became king, David desired to make a more permanent place for God to live, and he made preparation and acquired materials so that his Son Solomon could complete the project.  Solomon’s Temple became that place, the permanent structure that the God of Creation chose to inhabit among humanity.  David and Solomon – the warrior and the wiseman – created such a Temple.  

So as David always praises, honors, worships, respects, gives thanks, sings and promotes God in any manner that he can think of he chooses to always be “lower than God”.  While some see such a subservient role as being “God’s servant” or some other “helper “role” I choose to think of this as “GOD is always the boss and I will strive to ALWAYS heed the guidance of the Boss.”

David also tells us WHY he does so: “for God’s constant love and truth.”  The phrase “the name of the Lord” represents the character and attributes of God, as we discussed last week. Humanity can perceive the character of the creator God all around themselves, but we know the personal name of God as YHWH because he choose to reveal himself to humanity.  In David’s time, while the presence of God was still living in the Temple of Solomon, humanity had the “wisdom” to perceive the character of Love and being love that YHWH represented, and that David and Solomon honored.  

Following the destruction of Solomon’s Temple when the Hebrew nation was dispersed to Babylon, the presence of God no longer “lived among the people.”  Though eventually the people sought to “rebuild the Temple of God” to recapture some of the previous glory of God being in Solomon’s Temple, according to the people at that time who wrote the Babylonian Talmud, the second Temple lacked the shekhinah (the dwelling of divine presence of God) or the ruach HaKodesh (the Holy Spirit) that was present in Solomon’s Temple.  It wouldn’t be until the return of Jesus to the Temple, that the divine presence of God and the Holy Spirit would again be in the Temple complex.  And guess what, humanity again ignored God and destroyed their relationship…again.

 David notes that God has exalted His name and promise above everything else.  To exalt is to “flow out from within” or “to grow tall from within.”  David tells us that God’s character and attributes – God’s name – matures and grows above everything else because God DOES what he says he will do.  God IS Reality.  “It will happen because it WILL HAPPEN.”

And now, though we live WITH the Holy Spirit within ourselves, we again await the divine presence to return to live with his people.  It has happened once.  It has happened twice.  The “third time’s a charm” as they say.  It is this loving adherence to his word that David is praising.  I would paraphrase it as “You SAID you would do it.  You DID do it.  You ARE doing it.  You HAVE done it before AND you are going to do it again.”  It is this consistency of God that David honors, promotes and praises.  This agape meeting of needs.  This LOVE makes God more majestic than any.

Next we also see that God’s name is exalted because of his promises – God’s solemn vow.

Psalm 138

4 All the kings on earth will give you thanks, Lord, when they hear what you have promised.

5 They will sing of the Lord’s ways,  for the Lord’s glory is great.

DAVID tells us that God is the King of Kings.  He notes that ALL kings on earth will give thanks to God. David also uses God’s “contractural name”, his personal name that he gave to Moses. David lets us know that every ruler on the planet will one day give thanks to “I AM that I Am”, “the being-one who is being,” to THE God because of what he promised.

In Moses’ era of Tabernacle worship, the promise was, basically, “I will live with you, navigate you to where you need to be, and protect you as long as you live with me.  If you leave me, you will be on your own and I will let you be alone.”

In David’s time of Tabernacle worship the promise was “Ok David, you can not  build me a permanent house, but your son will, and YOUR lineage will reign on earth forever.”

In Solomon’s Temple, God’s presence and Holy Spirit was again living with his people. The prophets of the Old Testament told of God’s Good News, his Gospel, that would come to pass at a future time when the messiah would come.

In Jesus’ time the Divine Presence and Holy Spirit was again living with his people.  Following the people’s rejection and Jesus’ death, burial, resurrection and ascension, people have been living with the Holy Spirit, but we are again awaiting the Divine Presence to come live among us.

At the end of the “end times” (in which we currently live) the Divine Presence will again return to live with his people and the Holy Spirit will live among his people and teach others how to choose to live according to the just and upright ways of God, while the Divine Presence will again return to be the King of Kings in the presence of Humanity.  

The rulers of the earth will promote the ways of God, for the power of God-goodness-is  majestic (great). We might paraphrase this as “it will be good when good returns, and when good is living among us again”; this is especially meaningful when you remember that the word good is derived from the word god.  

Next we see God’s name exalted because of his care for the humble.

Psalm 138

6 Though the Lord is exalted, he takes note of the humble; but he knows the haughty from a distance.

7 If I walk into the thick of danger, you will preserve my life from the anger of my enemies. You will extend your hand; your right hand will save me.

8 The Lord will fulfill his purpose for me. Lord, your faithful love endures forever; do not abandon the work of your hands.

The Hebrew word used here for humble is the term shaphal meaning “to be lower.”  More than “false humility,” shaphal, in my estimation, merely means to be “subordinate to” and indicates that when we realize that we are of a class that is subordinate to God, God will take note of us.  

Think back to Cain and Abel, whose names meant (basically) grabber and breath.  The one who thought he could grab God’s attention with his offering of vegetables that he gathered together, and the other who raised and cared for livestock and who sacrificed their breath of life to the God who gives the breath of life. The heartfelt humble sacrifice made God turn his face to take note of Abel’s actions.  The less-than-sincere going through the motions sacrifice did not grab God’s attention.

David describes God as exalted, which means high, and then used the word for haughty which also meant high, though in a negative sense.  Gavoah generally meant “to be tall” or “tower high.” David tells us that the “high God” knows “the high” from a distance, that is God is higher than “the high.”  Micah 6:8 Tells us “Mankind, he has told each of you what is good and what it is the LORD requires of you:  to act justly, to love faithfulness, and to walk humbly with your God.” It is difficult to do these things when one perceives oneself as being “above others in quality.”

David notes finally that though he be in the middle of a dangerous situation, God will rescue him.  The basis of this belief is “the LORD will fulfill his purpose for me.”  If we are truly subordinate to God and if we are truly pursuing God’s purposes, then God’s purposes will be done, even if it means that we, like Jesus, have to die and be resurrected by God.  Because God IS faithful LOVE; because God endures FOREVER; God’s LOVE will endure forever and God will NOT throw his faithful creation into the “trash bin” for NO PURPOSE, but should we find ourselves in the “trash bin” we can know that it is for GOD’S PURPOSE and that means that we ARE serving God and we can trust God’s majesty and God’s Grace to keep us secure with God.

God is majestic and exalted by everything he does, and is.  GOD ALONE is truly majestic. 

We should seek to think of ourselves as “your grace”, one who favored by the divine gifts of God rather than as “your majesty”, one who is great, or who thinks themselves “equal” to God.