International Sunday School Lesson for October 3, 2010

What’s in a Name?

By

Jed Greenough

Psalm 8

O LORD, our Lord,
       how majestic is your name in all the earth!
       You have set your glory
       above the heavens.

 From the lips of children and infants
       you have ordained praise
       because of your enemies,
       to silence the foe and the avenger.

 When I consider your heavens,
       the work of your fingers,
       the moon and the stars,
       which you have set in place,

 what is man that you are mindful of him,
       the son of man that you care for him?

 You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings
       and crowned him with glory and honor.

 You made him ruler over the works of your hands;
       you put everything under his feet:

 all flocks and herds,
       and the beasts of the field,

 the birds of the air,
       and the fish of the sea,
       all that swim the paths of the seas.

 O LORD, our Lord,
       how majestic is your name in all the earth! 

When was the last time you read through all the Psalms?

Once having done so, you come away with a treasure chest filled to the brim with jewels for your daily walk.

There are some that enlighten you, some that educate, some that frighten and some that comfort.

You might want to break out in song like I did when I put today’s Psalm spontaneously into a musical praise to God, something that was originally done with this psalm, and I came away feeling better for having done it and I am confident that it was pleasing to God.

Today’s psalm also has much to say in only a few short verses.  David in praising God manages to remind me that not all hold God in high esteem or regard Him at all for that matter.

Right now as I write this I am in a place that for me is as easy as breathing to see God’s majesty by the things He has wrought, Jackson Hole Wyoming.

This day I will see snow capped mountains, picturesque streams, the smell of sage and spruce and pine will invigorate me and I will wonder in awe at God and I will praise Him and thank Him for these blessings.

But as I said not all who view these things will as David said consider the “heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars,” or that He made us “ruler over the works” of His hands.

In Romans 1:18-20 we read, “The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—His eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.

We all are and always have been without excuse if we do not acknowledge and praise and serve God for He is apparent, if nothing more than, by the things He has made.

One need not be in the shadows of the Tetons; look around, look at your spouse, your children.  An example of God in those we love should be the most apparent example of Him since we are made in His image.

David wrote how majestic God’s name is and in the study Bible that I am using on the note for Deuteronomy 12:5 it says, “in the ancient Semitic world “name” often stood for the essence of the thing named, God’s Name is equivalent to His presence.”

We stand surrounded by “His presence” so may we end this discussion as today’s psalm both begins and ends, “O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!”

Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 Biblica. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.