Sing to God, sing in praise of his name, extol him who rides on the clouds; rejoice before him—his name is the LORD. – Psalm 68:4

Today's Scripture Reading (July 15, 2022): Psalm 68

Do you know the name of God? A friend of mine got into a discussion with me about the name of God and the idea that people won't know God's name in the last days. But then the question becomes, about what name are we talking. Most Christians probably only know the Father of Jesus as God. It is the more generic name for the Almighty One. Muslims and Arab Christians know our Creator by the name Allah, but Allah is just the Arabic translation of the word God. Add to this idea that we often think that "taking the name of the Lord in vain," the third Commandment, is using the word God inappropriately. We sometimes try to spell the word differently, gawd, hoping God won't hold us responsible for taking his name in vain. But is God the name of the Supreme Being who we worship?

Part of the problem is that Jewish people refuse to say the name of God. The name of God is unpronounceable and usually symbolized by the Tetragrammaton, YHWH. In English, the name of God is either Yahweh or Jehovah. But even that is not quite right. When Moses met God in the wilderness and was confronted by the burning bush, Moses asked God what his name was. And God responded with the phrase "I am that I am" or "I will be what I will be," a phrase that in Hebrew amounts to "haya haya," possibly the root of Yahweh. The meaning behind the expression is that God is the God who exists; he is real, while other gods are products of our imagination, and we really don't need to know any more.

Because YHWH is unpronounceable and should never be written down unless we are willing to save the page on which it is written forever (so please don't print this page), the Jews usually substituted the words Adonai or Elohim in place of the name of God. In this verse, the word that we have translated God in verse 8 is Elohim. Elohim is a word for "gods" but it is always considered singular when referring to the God of Israel. The name listed at the end of the passage, and the name that we are to rejoice before, is "ya," likely a shortened form of Yahweh or Jehovah.

But, the point that my friend was trying to make was that all of this information is data of which most Christians sitting in the pew on Sundays are blissfully unaware. We no longer know the name of God. Does that matter?

I don't know that deciding which name to use for God is really the point. We praise the name of God and rejoice in his presence, regardless of what name we might use to describe him. I am not sure that it matters what name you use to address our Supreme Being; he is still the God who exists that met with Moses in the wilderness. And the God who exists is exactly who we need right now. Or, as William Shakespeare so appropriately wrote in "Romeo and Juliet," "A rose by any other name would smell as sweet."

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Psalm 69