We praise you, God, we praise you, for your Name is near; people tell of your wonderful deeds. – Psalm 75:1

Today’s Scripture Reading (June 30, 2019): Psalm 75 & 76

What is the name of God? It sounds like such a simple question, but maybe it is more complicated than we realize. We simply call him “God.” We rebel against the name “Allah,” insisting that that is not the name of the God that we serve, but misunderstanding that “Allah” is just the word “God” in Arabic.

In actuality, we seem to serve a God of nicknames. The earliest name of God is “Elohim” or “God Almighty.” In Christian circles, he is often called “Jehovah,” which is a misunderstanding or mispronunciation of the Hebrew name “Yahweh.” But I am becoming more and more convinced that Yahweh is the name of the God of the Midianites, one that Moses learned from his father-in-law, who was the Priest of Midian and was likely the source of much of Moses’s adult religious education. One of my favorite names or nicknames of God is El-Roi or the “God Who Sees Me.” El-Roi arises from Hagar’s escape away from Sarah with Ishmael at a time when she felt particularly vulnerable and needed to know that God was there and that he saw her. It is an emotion with which I can identify.

There are other names of God, but fundamentally they are all nicknames; names that we call him because they mean something to us. I have had several nicknames throughout my life, but they were all authored by others, they were never the names that I chose for myself. For God, the name that he chose for himself is more than a little mysterious. Only once does God seem to answer the question “what is your name?” directly. And his answer was “Hayah Hayah” (Exodus 3:14). The name translates into “I am that I am,” or maybe “I will be who I will be.” The name itself seems to be a criticism of Moses’s question, “Who should I say has sent me?” God seems to be telling Moses; I am the God who exists, the only one who can speak to you. What does it matter what you should call me? It should be enough to know that “I Am.”

The Psalmist agrees. He argues that the name of God has come near to his people. The words of the Psalmist take me back to the words of Hagar. Surely you are El-Roi, the God who sees me. And to Moses, you are the only God who exists and can come to my aid. He is the God who has decided to draw near to his children because that is who he has decided to be. He really is the God who sees me, and the one who continually draws near.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Psalm 77