Prior Book | Prior Chapter | Prior Verse | Next Verse | Next Chapter | Next Book | Viewing NASB and Amplified 2015 | |
NASB | Philippians 2:9 For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Philippians 2:9 For this reason also [because He obeyed and so completely humbled Himself], God has highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, |
Subject: What's in a name? |
Bible Note: I confess to you that this is a trail that I have not gone down before. I agree with the idea that we should be careful and I trust that the scholars who inhabit this space will keep us in check. I hope they can do so without accusations if and when we get off track. It has been suggested before that we should worship the Lord and not worship his name. From what we have seen so far it seems that we can and should honor, glorify, praise his name. It is as though his name is his identity. It is not like any other item that one may wear awhile and then discard. God will be identified by his name forever. To praise the Lord’s name is the same things as praising him. Or is it? In Psalm 29:2 “Give unto the LORD the glory due unto his name” is the same as “worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness”. Or is it? In Psalm 66:4 “All the earth … shall sing unto you” is the same as “they shall sing to your name”. Or is it? Psalm 86:9 “All nations whom he has hast made shall come and worship before you” is equivalent to “They shall glorify your name”. Or is it? Psalm 135:1 “Praise ye the LORD. Praise ye the name of the LORD; praise him, O ye servants of the LORD”. The first and last clauses seem to be the same. I assume the one in the middle is saying the same thing. Or is it? It is my sense at this point that the phrases may not be exactly equivalent, but that the name of the Lord is as close as we get to the person of God this side of heaven. God is a spirit and we do not see him. We know him by his name. His name, meanwhile is revealed to us in his word. It stands for his attributes, the ones he has revealed to us. And is it not interesting in Revelation 19 that his name is called the Word of God (v. 13). We relate to him in terms of what he has said. It occurs to me that it is the way we relate to each other as well. We on this forum know each other by our words, and it is our words that communicate what we are. I say this advisedly. There may be some who know each other in other ways. But in some sense it is also true that we know no man after the flesh (2 Corinthians 5:16). In fact, those who had known Christ after the flesh did not focus on that part: his physical being or anything emanating from that. They do not talk at all about what he looked like or sounded like, and though some strain to say that he had a sense of humor or such, the writers of Scripture were not focused on those types of things. They were focused on what he had said and what he stood for, the word of God, and it is captured and summarized in his name. I agree also with the warning we had that we should not try to analyze God. His nature is beyond us, for who ca understand omniscience or omnipotence or infinity or eternity. Those characteristics cause us to fall down and worship him. But what else can we do before him who was, and is, and is to come, the Almighty (Revelation 1:8;4:8)? We cannot see all that he can do but we can worship him because of that name and because of the ability he has given us to understand some of what it means. But it is the name of God as much as his person that is help out to us for our response, be it worship or praise or thanks. When the Lord descended to the mount and stood with Moses there, it is the name of the Lord that he proclaimed. Moses was not allowed to see his person. But the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, “The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth …”, and Moses made haste and bowed himself and worshipped. It seems to me there is some danger in making this post. But these are the thoughts that occurred to me as I meditated on the word pertaining to the name of the Lord. I look forward to the thoughts of my fellow travelers here. I do not expect that it will be helpful to hear disparaging words, but I would like to hear the thoughts that others may have as they meditate on the passages cited, and specifically on the name of the Lord. |