Mensa Otabil - I Will Declare Your Name
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Psalm 22, verse 22. I will declare your name to my brethren; in the midst of the assembly, I will praise you. This is a statement of confidence in God’s deliverance; it is a statement of assurance of praise and choosing praise in a panic.
So when enemies surround you, you choose to praise the Lord. You choose to trust Him; you choose to believe in Him. And when we do that, we are not denying the reality of what we are going through; we are not in self-denial and deceiving ourselves, thinking everything is okay. No, we are fully conscious of the danger facing us, but we are also fully aware of the deliverance of the Lord. That’s where the Christian stands. We don’t stand in self-belief that avoids reality but in belief in God that overcomes our natural reality. We trust God in spite of what we see with our eyes, and He says that because of that, I’m coming out of this situation. And when I do, I will declare your name to the brethren.
What does that mean? Literally, it means I will shout the name of the Lord. I will declare the name of the Lord; I will shout the name of the Lord. You know, in Old Testament times, that’s what they did when they went to the temple to praise God. They just shouted the name of the Lord: «The Lord is good! The Lord is good! The Lord is merciful!» They just proclaimed His name.
So literally, it means shout the name of the Lord. If God has delivered you, then you have to shout His name. But it also means to ascribe your victory to the Lord. If God has delivered you, then shout His name. You know, the danger sometimes in life is that we pray and pray and pray, and God does the thing for us, but we don’t shout His name; we shout somebody else’s name. Sometimes we shout our own name, saying, «Oh, I worked so hard, and so I got it all!» If you go to church, you might say, «My church is the one which has delivered me,» or «My pastor is the one who has delivered me,» or «the anointing or the grace of my pastor is that which has delivered me.»
When you do that, you are not shouting the name of the Lord. You may be shouting the name of the church, the name of a pastor, or the anointing on a pastor. But when God gives us a victory, we don’t give it to man; we don’t give it even to the church. We give it to Jehovah God Almighty. We proclaim His name; we ascribe our victories to Him; we lay our victories at His feet. And these days, the danger of Christianity is that we are elevating churches, people, and whatever we call anointing above the name of the Lord. Be careful not to give God’s glory to your church or to a pastor. Honor the name of the Lord. It also means to announce the works of God. We proclaim God’s works; we make a public announcement: «God has done it! God has done it! He has delivered me; He has given me victory!» And then the psalmist says, «I will praise Him in the midst of the assembly.»
It’s okay for us to praise God individually, but it’s important for us to go to the house of the Lord and there proclaim the works of the Lord, joining the throng of other Christians to sing unto the Lord, pray to the Lord, and thank the Lord. Worshiping in the assembly is part of our obligation as Christians. That is where we go to proclaim the name of the Lord. You can do it privately, but here He says, «I will do it publicly in the assembly of the righteous.» If God delivers you-which He has; if God helps you-which He has; if God supplies all your needs- which He has-be careful to proclaim His name, give the glory to Him, go to the assembly, the congregation of other Christians, and go and worship the Lord, praising and thanking Him for what He has done for you.
Let us pray. With me, Heavenly Father, I declare your name in all the earth. It is you who causes me to triumph over all adversities. In Jesus' name, amen and amen.