Who Can but Be Thankful?
by Lonnie Lane
A friend sent me a list of some of the names of God recently.
As I began to ponder each one, I thought how grateful I am for each of those
aspects of God. I thought of how good He is to us in so many ways, which I may
take for granted. We all long for a deeper understanding of Who He is. What
aspiration could ever compare? That was certainly David’s aspiration, to know
his God. I’ve been parked in
Psalms for a while. I’m always awed by how David knew the Lord and what he
evidently knew of Him. We read his Psalms and think, “Yes, I relate to that
about God.” We’re familiar with
those qualities of God, but how did he come to know those things? No one else,
even Moses, knew what he seemed to know about God. Did he actually see the things he describes in his
Psalms? Take Psalm 97:1-6, for
instance:
The LORD reigns, let the earth
rejoice;
Let the many islands be
glad.
Clouds and thick darkness surround Him;
Righteousness and justice
are the foundation of His throne.
Fire goes before Him
And burns up His
adversaries round about.
His lightnings lit up the world;
The earth saw and trembled.
The mountains melted like wax at the presence of the LORD,
At the presence of the Lord
of the whole earth.
The heavens declare His righteousness,
And all the peoples have
seen His glory.
Did David really see the very throne of God? Did he see
these things in vision? Or did God take him there the way He took Paul
centuries later? Did God download such awesome understanding and revelation to
him so that he just knew these
things? Remember, he wasn’t born
again as we are, though he did have the Holy Spirit or he wouldn’t have cried
out to God, “Do
not cast me away from Your presence and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me” (Psalm 41:11) when he sinned.
You can almost hear the desperation in his voice when he pleads with God not to
leave him without His Holy Spirit. He obviously knew God by His Spirit. He had
to have gained the understanding of God he did as he sat alone with Him and communed
with Him and sang back to Him what He showed him. As I read his Psalms, I want
to know what David knew, to see what David saw. His understanding of God was
what made him the man he was in leadership as a warrior, a king, and as a
‘pastor’ (shepherd), in integrity and mercy, in wisdom and discernment, and
most of all anointing to be one through whom “all the earth may know there is a God in Israel” (1 Kings 17:46). David was pleasing enough to God that
God made him the prototype of the Messiah who would come. That Messiah would be
called “the son of David.” No one
else, Moses included, had that honor.
David wrote, “The LORD
has looked down from heaven upon the sons of men to see if there are any who
understand, who seek after God” (Psalm 14:2). It would seem that David knew
that God was looking down from heaven to see if anyone was looking up to heaven
to seek Him. Was David alone in his love for God and desire to understand God
and His ways? Was he the only one who really sought God in those days in which
he lived? He did have Samuel, but “then Samuel died” (1 Samual 25:1).
Perhaps David had no spiritual fellowship except to fellowship with God
Himself. Makes me wonder, am I missing some significant understanding and
“knowing” of God if I’m not looking to God Himself in my quest for
understanding of Him, if I let fellowship with others take that place of
fellowshipping with Him. The same can be said for where I look for
understanding of God. Do I look to Him first or elsewhere (books, teachings,
even articles on this website) for what I desire to know about Him?
Periodically I get emails from people wanting to know what sources
I use for my research. They want to know where I am getting my “understanding”
from so they can go looking for more. Well, folks, mostly I get it from God. I
occasionally do some research if it’s about historic issues or to look up
meanings of words in Hebrew, but as for the essence of the articles, most of
them come out of my daily times with God or the things that happen to me
personally that I know God is in. I look up verses or do a word search as I go
along and I see what God’s Word says, I get further insight into what He’s
saying. I don’t think it through first; He leads me as I write.
BUT YOU CAN DO THE SAME THING! If you don’t do it already, start journaling your times with
Him. Don’t write for what it will sound like if someone finds your notebook one
day. Just talk with God. Dialog with Him. Write down your thoughts about what
you just read in His word. Ask Him questions; write down what thoughts come to
you. Ask more questions; ponder what it could all mean on paper so you don’t
lose the thoughts. Ask Him for understanding. He’s no doubt still looking down
from heaven to see who is seeking Him and wanting understanding from and of God.
Then ask Him to make real in your life what He shows you. And expect Him to.
Faith for Him giving you understanding will get you more of God than being
remorseful that you don’t know more than you do now. Pray expecting Him to
answer. Rejoice that He will.
Perhaps before you read the rest of this article – well, it’s
more like worship as I’m talking to God here, not you – (though I don’t mind if
you listen in. You can worship with me.) You may want to read the bolded names
of God below and tell Him yourself what He means to you as relates to His names.
(A good ‘Devotional’ perhaps. You may even want to journal it.) Then come back
and read the rest and see if we’re seeing the same things.
The name of
God is Yahweh – The Self Existent One. O Lord, how wonderful to know that You
depend on nothing and no one but that You in all Your goodness are entirely
Self-sufficient, yet you have reached out to us with Your great generous heart.
Nothing can change You, Lord, or influence you to be other than You are. You
are unchanging, and utter reliable because all that exists comes out of You. You
have established ‘being’ in the earth and the heavens. All things have their
essence of being in You. You are not affected by good or by evil; You remain
the Truth always. You are altogether Holy. Your lovingkindness is immutably
wrapped up in Your holiness, Your mercy dwells with Your faithfulness forever.
You always were and you will always be. You give ‘being’ to all who exist. We see Your essence in
everything that exists and “in You we
live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28). Nothing is outside of You!
The name of
God is Elohim – My Creator. Lord, I am, because You
created me and assigned me a place in You before the foundations of the earth
were set in place. All there is, is Yours. “The
earth is the Lord’s and all it contains, the world and those who dwell in it”
(Psalm 24:1). To know that You are my source, the source of all that I am and
all that I need enables me to rest in You because I know that “my God will supply all (our) needs
according to His riches in glory in Messiah Yeshua” (Phil 4:19). In You dwells
power and majesty. In You is found all respect and honor and dignity. You are
great in wisdom. Your will is accomplished despite the plans of men. You Word
is carried out by Your doing in the affairs of people and nations. The trees stand up because of you, the
planets rotate because of you, the seasons come again and again because of You.
Babies are birthed right on time. Time is in Your hands and all Your creation
obeys what You have set in motion. Thank you for this beautiful earth that You
have prepared for us.
The
name of God is El Elyon – Most High
God (Sovereign Over All). Where can we go where You are not, O
Lord? “Where can I go from Your Spirit” (Psalm
139:7)? Whatever comes, You remain solid and faithful as Lord over all that
concerns me. O Lord, when the wisdom of man proves to not be wisdom, all is
still in the palm of Your Hand. Life or after-life, “we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to
His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will” (Eph 1:11). You see the beginning from
the end, and from Your vantage point, You “guide
me in paths of righteousness for Your name’s sake” (Psalm 23:3). There is
nothing hidden from you and I find great comfort in knowing that You know all
and yet you love me still. What is there to fear when we “dwell under the shadow of the Most High and
abide under the shelter of the Almighty” (Psalm 91:1)?
The name of
God is Adonai – My Lord, My Master. I would want no Master but You, Lord.
You alone are just, You alone are no respecter of persons, never preferring one
above another. Righteousness
and justice are the foundation
of Your throne; Lovingkindness
and truth go before You” (Psalm 89:14). We are
not “mastered” (1 Cor. 6:12) by
anything any longer, but by Your grace You have set us free so that “our only Master and Lord (is)
Messiah Yeshua” (Jude 1:4) Whom we gratefully serve.
The name of
God is El Roi – God Who Sees. It brings me rest and relief in my soul
every time I am reminded that You are Omniscient, that You know EVERYTHING.
There is nothing that you can find out at some point that would cause you to
rethink making me Yours. I want everything in my life to be subject to You, for
as You see into my life and my heart, You will do according to Your covenant
unto me. Nothing in this world
escapes You, Sovereign God. No man and no nation, no political entity or spiritual
realm is outside of Your Lordship! To the faintest thought we have or the
loudest shout that ricochets throughout the earth through the media, from the
smallest microbe or ion to the fullness of the galaxies, You see them all and
all there is to see. You Who are outside of time and space are not hindered by
either. You see the need and way to meet it before it happens. You see the
problem and the solution before it’s needed. Even before the earth was founded,
You saw the Cross, and those who would be born and be saved by it. How
wonderful, Lord, that You have given us spiritual eyes that we might behold
Your Kingdom and live as those who see as You see. Glory to Your name!
The name of
God is El Shaddai – God Almighty.
You “uphold all things by the word of (Your)
power” (Hebrews 1:3). It is
through Your Mightiness that You bless us, Lord, and enable us to be fruitful
and to prosper. None of it happens on our own, though we may think so. You are
the strength and the power to do good and even to become Your people. So I pray
for all who are reading this, “May God Almighty
bless you and make you fruitful and multiply you, that you may become a company
of peoples” (Genesis 28:3) who give praise
to Your name, O Lord.
The name of
God is Yahweh Ezer – The LORD
our Helper. I
can attest to the truth that “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble” (Psalm 46:1). You help us have
strength when we have no strength. I am no longer afraid of my weaknesses
because in You, I have found that Your “grace is sufficient… for power is perfected
in weakness…so that the power of Messiah may dwell in me. (2 Cor. 12:9). In the smallest things, and the big things, Lord, when I
look to You for help, You are there, so I can boldly say with King David,”God
is my helper; the Lord is the
sustainer of my soul” (Psalm 54:4).
The name of
God is Yahweh Jireh – The LORD Will
Provide. You depend on no one but we entirely depend upon
You for all of life. Nothing exists outside of You and Your provision for us. You
made us with needs so we could look to You for them. You are faithful to
provide for Your people. This causes me to want to thank you not only for all I
have need of, but that so often You grant that which is more a want than a
need. You provide what sustains me physically and emotionally, Lord. Open our
eyes to see all You have provided for us that we have missed until now and we
give you thanks for it all.
The name of
God is Yahweh Rapha – The LORD our
Healer. Ah, Lord, how often You have healed us. Time and
time again. It is You “Who heals all our
diseases” (Psalm 103:3). Our hope is in You because You have told us, “I will remove sickness from your midst”
(Exodus 23:25). We thank you, Lord, that
Yeshua “Himself bore our sins in His body
on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His
wounds you were healed” (1 Peter 2:24). You not only heal us physically but
you have healed us spiritually as You have made us “even the righteousness
of God through faith in Messiah
Yeshua for all those who believe” (Romans 3:22). What greater healing can
there be than that? We’re grateful, Dear Lord.
The name of
God is Yahweh Roi – The Lord is My
Shepherd. Ah, Lord, how I love that I can trust you to “lead me beside quiet waters” (Psalm
23:2) in the midst of life’s challenges. You “restore my soul” (:3) when adversities afflict my inner most being.
I am continually led by You to walk the path of righteousness. When I stray,
Your staff reaches out to put a crook around me to bring me back to Your side.
I depend upon Your rod to keep my enemies far from me. When I am hurt or
wounded, You pick me up and carry me so I can feel Your closeness near me. My
delight is to follow You all the days of my life, Yeshua, to follow you as You followed Your Father. (See all of Psalm
23.) You are “the good shepherd (Who laid) down His
life for the sheep” (John 10:11). My greatest joy is to know that You know me and I am
Yours, Lord, for you have said, “I
am the good shepherd, and I know My own and My own know Me” (John 10:14). When thoughts buffet me and storms come, I stay poised on
this, that You are good and that I am Yours!
The name of
God is Yahweh Sabaoth – LORD of hosts
(of armies). Oh,
Lord, open our eyes to see the multitude of angels that minister to us and war
on our behalf that we might stand the battles of life as Elisha when You opened
his eyes to see as Elijah asked. Thank you that though I do not physically see
them, You have ordained the hosts of heaven to bring about Your will in the
earth and to protect Your people. Thank you for all the times they save our
lives and bring us to safety, or help us find our lost keys, or lost children,
or whisper wisdom to us as You instruct them to do so. Thank you, Abba, that
what we see here in the natural is not all there is of Your Kingdom but we know
and are assured that we are part of a great expanse of the realm of God.
The name of
God is Yahweh Mekeddeshem – LORD Who
Sanctifies. When You brought me to
Yourself, Lord, You began to change me. I rejoice that You accept me entirely
as I am but love me enough not to leave me vulnerable to the things of the
Fall, but are continually working within me to heal and make whole and give
understanding to my deepest heart of Your holiness and Your love and I am “predestined to be conformed to the image of
(Your) Son” (Romans 8:29). I
thank you, my loving Father, that Your mercy and Your truth are linked together
in a kiss which you place upon my forehead as Your mark that You have set me
apart for Yourself.
The name of
God is Yahweh Nissi -The LORD Our
Banner. Lord, You make it so that things in the natural
tell us of You. In war, warriors always look to their banner, their flag, to remind
them for whom they are fighting, and to locate them so they know where their
“side” is. Lord, in the battles of life, You remain always our banner, our
cause, our goal, our motive as well as our Leader, our Captain, and our Savior.
In times of rest, precious Lord, Your “banner
over me is love” (Song of Sol. 2:4). With Your banner over me I am
confident in Your saving power at all times and confirmed in Your love for me
as well.
The name of
God is Yahweh Shalom – The LORD our
Peace. In all of this, You are the Overseer of my peace.
Apart from You, there is no real peace. All things, my Lord, are under Your
authority and goodness. Nothing happens to me that does not have Your approval.
Even when hard things come upon me, I am assured that You are there with me to
bring me through the fires without being burned or the waters without drowning.
You hold my hand and walk me through to victory. You have promised that You
will “work all things together for good”
(Romans 8:28) because I love you and know that you have called me to Your
purposes. You grant revelation to me that I may know what Your higher purposes
are when I don’t understand what’s happening, Lord. You keep me in “perfect peace” (Isaiah 26:3) when my
eyes are on You, because I trust in You. You have taught me, one situation at a
time, that You are entirely trustworthy in all situations, regardless of what
they look like. In time, I will always see Your glory in everything that comes
into my life. For this and all things, I thank you, my Lord.
The name of God is Yahweh Shammah – The LORD is There. If you were not there, there would be
no light or hope. You alone are “the
light of the world” (John 8:12) and in You only can we truly hope. If you
were not here with me at all times, I would be lost. I rest secure that You
will always be with me and that you “will
never leave (me or) forsake (me)” (1 Kings 8:57; John 14:18) for all
eternity. You dwell within me! You
remain as close as my own thoughts. You delight me with Your words to me. I
rest in Your finished work and that there is nothing for me to do to earn your
favor and commitment to me but to believe in all Yeshua did. There is no more
work for me, but “this is the work of
God, that (I) believe in Whom He has
sent” (John 6:29). Because of Your blood and because of Your salvation, You
will cause me to “stand in the presence
of (Your) glory, blameless, with
great joy” (Jude 1:24).
The name of God is El Olam, The God of the Beginning and the End. I rejoice that there is nowhere I can go that is
outside of Your watchfulness over me. I applaud You, O my great Sovereign
Creator-God that all things are found in You. You are where all things begin
and to where all will ultimately be summed up. It is to You that all, mankind
or angel, will be held accountable. You have bound my life up in the bundle
with You, I cannot be separated from You, for you ordained my very being from
the foundation of the earth and my name is written in the Lamb’s Book of Life
and recorded in heaven. By Your mercy You saved me and by Your faithfulness You
will keep me. You prepare me for eternity with You where no unholiness exists. Your
holiness defines me as Your Spirit of Holiness conforms me to Your holy image. There will be an end – it will be of
evil and rebellion and of death. But in You, O Majestic One, is glory and power
and dominion forever. I thank you, Abba, for sending Yeshua – in Whom is found
the entire and complete Salvation of God. Amen.
Reprint of this article is permitted as long as you use the following; Use by permission by Messianic Vision, www.sidroth.org, 2010.
Scripture quotations are from the New American Standard Bible Copyright ©1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation, La Habra, Calif. All rights reserved. Used by permission.