Your Name Above All (Psalm 138:2)

 


Tuesday, 26 August, 2025


Psalm 137; 138

2 Samuel 24:15-25

Acts 21:15-26


Your Name Above All (Psalm 138:2)


I bow down toward your holy temple
    and give thanks to your name for your steadfast love and your faithfulness,
    for you have exalted above all things
    your name and your word.


As traffic around the city gets worse and worse, I wonder how it will affect the way we interact with one another when outside our cars. There is a very great opportunity for traffic woes to spill out into a general nastiness between people. But there is also a very great opportunity for us as a group of people to learn how to get along. Because if we want to be able to navigate these very busy roads, we would do well to follow not only the road rules, but conventions of social etiquette. Particularly in the sense of allowing other cars to come in front of us when it makes moral sense to do so.


Having everything in its place not only allows the roads to flow smoother, but the entire created order. Our Psalmist today is worshipping God for a reason that sticks out amongst the Psalms: because God has placed his name and his word above all things. If the created order is to run smoothly, then everything must be in its place, most importantly with God above all.


This is not just because God is the only one with the power and wisdom to make everything go as it should. It is also, as our Psalmist says, because of God’s steadfast love and faithfulness. From the source of love and faithfulness comes out everything else, and this is a very lovely system indeed!


As humans, we play a very important role in God’s created order. And our Psalmist seems to think that God’s created order flows out of God’s position as supreme, both in order, as well as love and faithfulness. How then might we follow in God’s example? Are we blocking his stream of love and faithfulness? Or are we doing our part to increase love and faithfulness wherever it is needed?


God of steadfast love and faithfulness, your name and your word are exalted above all things, compelling us to worship you with thanksgiving: give us grace to cooperate in your love and faithfulness, that we might bless your world with you, and by doing so enter into your love and faithfulness more deeply.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

For The Sake Of Ten (Genesis 18:32)

Image
  Monday, February 3, 2025 Psalm 78:16-38 Genesis 18:22-19:11 Luke 2:1-7 Observance: First Anglican Service at Sydney Cove, Conducted by Richard Johnson, Sydney, 1788 For The Sake Of Ten (Genesis 18:32) From this wonderfully pastoral tableau, of the old man and his wife entertaining three divine guests, comes a dark shadow. Approaching from the valley below them comes the cries of iniquity of the cities of the plain: Sodom and Gomorrah. Rising from their feast, the three men turn from blessing Abraham and Sarah to executing divine judgement. And the story just gets darker from here. But Abraham, in his boldness, has this immortal conversation with God, a conversation that uncovers for us whispers of Jesus’ words about people who are “salt” and “light”. God desires that none should perish, but that all should turn from their sins and live. And for the sake of just ten righteous people, the disaster about to befall Sodom and Gomorrah could be turned away...
Read more

The LORD will make you a house.

  Friday, July 28, 2023 Psalm 71 2 Samuel 7 John 8:1-11 Observance: Samson, bishop (d. 565) The LORD will make you a house. We learn three things from this conversation between David, Nathan and God. First, it is that we do not invite God into our presence. Rather, God comes alongside us, where we are, hiking through the wilderness. God gets down into the dust with us and puts up a tent. There is a reason why John made so much of this tent language in his first chapter: that the Word became flesh and pitched His tent among us. Whichever part of the Bible we are reading, we see God coming to the people, rather than the people moving towards God. This is of particular comfort when we feel like we haven’t prayed enough, or regularly. We might have been distracted by the dust on our feet, but God has always been there right beside us. We just have to look up. Second, it is that God’s presence among us is not something to be feared. Have you noticed that,...
Read more

Monday, July 25, 2022

  Monday, July 25, 2022 Psalm 62; 63 Hosea 1 Romans 4:1-12 He only is my rock and my salvation: my strong tower, so that I shall not be moved. The prophecies of Hosea are rich with vivid imagery. Look at these names: firstly, “Hosea” means “salvation”. So too do the names Joshua and Jesus. Then Hosea has three children: “God scatters”, “Not pitied”, and “Not my people”. This is because the children are part of the marriage between Hosea and Gomer, which is an image God is showing to the nation. It is to our profit that God has used real-life events to communicate spiritual imagery and divine truths. We find it very easy to understand our relationship with God as being a faithful wife to a loving husband. We can reconcile this message with what Paul has to teach us today in Romans. He makes the very important observation that Abraham was given God's righteousness as a result of his faith before, not after, his circumcision. Again, this is God using real-life events...
Read more