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Morning Devotion for the Season after Pentecost

July 26, 2024

Reading: Psalm 54:1-4

Save me, O God, by your Name; *

in your might, defend my cause.

Hear my prayer, O God; *

give ear to the words of my mouth.

For the arrogant have risen up against me, and the ruthless have sought my life, *

those who have no regard for God.

Behold, God is my helper; *

it is the Lord who sustains my life.

Meditation - Peter Vanderveen

If the psalmist had had a modern editor, the first verse of this psalm might well have been shortened. The acts of saving and defending generally require some demonstration of power. But what sense can we give to the phrase “by your name?” Couldn’t that just as well have been omitted?

In the Old Testament it is common that the invocation of God includes reference to God’s name or the acknowledgement that God has a name. We, in contrast, have become comfortable with the idea that God needs no proper name at all; the generic term “god” seems adequate to our purposes, whoever that god may be or whatever god we may have in mind. Moses, in the book of Exodus, quite famously asked for God’s proper name. God replied, even more famously, by declaring that his name could only be rendered as “I am who I am” or “I will be who I will be.” This ultimately took the notation YHWH, which we have given the pronunciation “Yahweh.” In many English translations of the Bible, the word LORD in all upper case letters is specifically used in place of YHWH.

The name “I will be who I will be” gives a vast freedom to God. For us, this freedom can be both mysterious and surprising. And it keeps us from falling too easily into idolatry, which is our restricting YHWH to the kind of god we’d like to have on our side (the god who is supposed to act according to our definition of god). Hebrew, however, is notoriously difficult to translate with exactness. And Brevard Childs, a renowned professor of the Old Testament believed that the most accurate translation of YHWH should be: “I am there, wherever it may be – I am really there.”*

With Child’s translation in mind, the first verse of Psalm 54 – as written – acquires a new dynamism and vitality: “Save me, O God, for where you are, wherever it may be, you are truly there.” Such an opening line is far more assured than plaintive; it resets the entire posture of the psalmist. It also seems to me to be, in exactly this way, a nearly perfect opening to every prayer. The God being invoked is the one who is present in this way, as only God who is truly God can be.

Prayer

Our Father, who is there, wherever it may be – who is really there,

hallowed be thy name,

thy kingdom come, thy will be done

on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread.

And forgive us our trespasses,

as we forgive those who trespass against us.

And lead us not into temptation,

but deliver from evil.

For thine is the kingdom, and the power,

and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen