Mensa Otabil - God's Name Is Precious
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We’re concluding our study of Psalm 8 with the last verse, verse 9. Oh Lord, our Lord, how excellent is your name in all the earth.
Psalm 8 ends the way it began. The same words that open the psalm are the words that conclude the psalm. So David, the psalmist that God is inspired to share uh this reflection with us, returns to the excellence of God’s name after talking about all the things you’ve talked about in the heavens and the moon and the stars and and then talking about God-given victory and talking about the purpose of man, he concludes everything with the excellence of God’s name. You know the scripture is a very beautiful revelation to us and uh anytime I read the Bible I am amazed at the sense of orderliness in the way the Bible is structured. I’m amazed at the beauty of how the thoughts of God are communicated to us.
Now many times I know some of you just read the Bible to get an inspirational word to verbalize or to use or to declare. Uh that’s one way of using it. But I think it it limits your understanding of scripture. You you don’t get to engage the mind of God as you you read the scripture because um it it’s just beautiful to see how God’s thoughts are portrayed to us. Remember when David starts uh he says, «Oh Lord our God, how excellent is your name». He talks about the creation and he talks about the moon and the stars because we say it’s a night reflection and and he talks about all the great things that that are out there and that makes him say God’s name is excellent but then he moves from the moon and the stars and creation to man and and then he asks what is man uh that you are mindful of him and he says you’ve made him like yourself and you’ve crowned him with glory and then he concludes boots, oh Lord our God, how excellent is your name in all the earth.
So the first time is creation that makes him wonder at God. But the second time it’s himself. It’s human beings and what God uses us to do that makes him wonder at God. You know many times we look at God’s creation and we are amazed but we forget that we are the greatest of his creation. We are the miracle of his creation. You are, your life is greater than the sun and the moon and the stars. And and and just looking at how God uses you out of the mouth of babes and and nursing infants, he ordained strength. How a little boy like David can bring down a giant like Golth. Uh just that you look at that and say, «Oh Lord our God, how excellent is your name in all the earth».
So let me leave you with three thoughts about the name of the Lord. As you reflect on all that he has done for you, always come back to honoring the name of the Lord. First is that the name of the Lord must be precious to us. It’s excellent. We must love the name of the Lord. We must honor his name. We must not take his name in vain. We must not use the name of the Lord for jokes that are not edifying. I mean there is a place for cracking jokes here and there as Christians but let us not dishonor the name of the Lord when we are making a joke or when we’re making a statement. His name is excellent.
The second thing is that the name of the Lord must be glorified in our lives. Why? Because we bear his name. He has put his name on us. And when we live our lives, people look at us and they judge God by us. So the the the the more we live for the Lord the more the name of the Lord is glorified amongst us. We must not let people say I ah if you say you are a believer or you you worship God then I don’t want to have anything to do with God because your life doesn’t reflect what God is. His his name is on us and through us his name must be glorified.
And thirdly God’s name must be known in our world. We must proclaim his name. We must share his glory. We must tell people about him. We must lead people to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. And we must make the name of the Lord known to all people in every tongue, in every tribe, in every station of life, the high, the middle, those at the bottom, everybody, men, women. Let’s make the name of the Lord known to them. So that’s how we end our study of Psalm 8. A very beautiful psalm. Oh Lord our God, how excellent is your name in all the earth.
Let us pray. Say with me, heavenly father, your name is precious to me. Thank you for making me a part of your creation in Jesus name. Amen.