Psalm 138:2 I will worship toward your holy temple, and praise your name for your loving kindness and for your truth… The term "word," in the last clause of this verse, means "promise." So great are God's promises, and so faithful and complete is his performance of them, as even to surpass the expectations which the greatness of his Name has excited. The psalmist often speaks of Jehovah's Name, or reputation, or honor, being at stake. Here the poet can say that the praise won is beyond anything that could have been anticipated. Generally, the Name of God stands for the whole manifestation of himself. Or we may render thus, "For thou hast magnified thy characteristic of fidelity to promises above all the other characteristics implied in thy Name Jehovah." I. GOD'S NAME IS THE BASIS OF OUR EXPECTATIONS. A name gathers up the characteristics of the person to whom it is applied, whenever it is a true name, and not a mere fanciful appellation, as names given to children now are. A true name embodies our apprehension of a person, fixes our relation to him, expresses the grounds of our confidence in him, and becomes a basis on which we rest our expectations of him. And so we give our own special names, pet-names, to those whom we more especially love and trust. And in the same way God's Name gathers up into a term his attributes; not, however, as intellectually conceived only, but also as personally experienced and apprehended in the experiences and relationships of the individual, and of the race. On that Name we' build our expectations. "This God is our God for ever and ever; he will be our Guide even unto the end." But this has to be taken into careful account - man never raises expectations that compass the possibilities of the Name. II. GOD HIMSELF GOES BEYOND THE EXPECTATIONS BASED UPON HIS NAME. "Thou hast magnified thy Word above all thy Name." God does not go beyond himself; but he does go beyond our expectation. He does for us more than we can ask or think. In special emergencies of life this is precisely what the godly man feels. He was sure God would help him; but when the help has come, he has found that God surprised him with the fullness and the grace of his arrangements. This we can associate with Nehemiah. We can realize his almost overwhelming delight and surprise when God overcame his difficulties for him in such a quick and gracious way. - R.T. Parallel Verses KJV: I will worship toward thy holy temple, and praise thy name for thy lovingkindness and for thy truth: for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name. |
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