The divine names in this psalm are very frequent and significant, and
the order in which they are used is evidently intentional. We have the
great covenant name of Jehovah set in the very first verse, and in the
last verse; as if to bind the whole together with a golden circlet. And
then, in addition, it appears once in each of the other two sections of
the psalm, with which we have nothing to do at present. Then we have,
further, the name of _God_ employed in each of the sections; and
further, the name of _Lord_, which is not the same as _Jehovah_, but
implies the simple idea of superiority and authority. In each portion of
the psalm, then, we see the writer laying his hand, as it were, upon
these three names--'Jehovah,' 'my God,' 'Lord'--and in all of them
finding grounds for his confidence and reasons for his cry.
Nothing in our prayers is often more hollow and unreal than the formal
repetitions of the syllables of that divine name, often but to fill a
pause in our thoughts. But to 'call upon the Name of the Lord' means,
first and foremost, to bring before our minds the aspects of His great
and infinite character, which are gathered together into the Name by
which we address Him. So when we say 'Jehovah!' 'Lord!' what we ought to
mean is this, that we are gazing upon that majestic, glorious thought of
Being, self-derived, self-motived, self-ruled, the being of Him whose
Name can only be, 'I am that I am.' Of all other creatures the name is,
'I am that I have been made,' or 'I am that I became,' but of Him the
Name is, 'I am that I am.' Nowhere outside of Himself is the reason for
His being, nor the law that shapes it, nor the aim to which it tends.
And this infinite, changeless Rock is laid for our confidence, Jehovah
the Eternal, the Self-subsisting, Self-sufficing One.
There is more than that thought in this wondrous Name, for it not only
expresses the timeless, unlimited, and changeless being of God, but also
the truth that He has entered into what He deigns to call a Covenant
with us men. The name Jehovah is the seal of that ancient Covenant, of
which, though the form has vanished, the essence abides for ever, and
God has thereby bound Himself to us by promises that cannot be
abrogated. So that when we say, 'O Lord!' we summon up before ourselves,
and grasp as the grounds of our confidence, and we humbly present before
Him as the motives, if we may so call them, for His action, His own
infinite being and His covenanted grace.
Then, further, our psalm invokes '_my_ God.' That names implies in
itself, simply, the notion of power to be reverenced. But when we add to
it that little word '_my_,' we rise to the wonderful thought that the
creature can claim an individual relation to Him, and in some profound
sense a possession there. The tiny mica flake claims kindred with the
Alpine peak from which it fell. The poor, puny hand, that can grasp so
little of the material and temporal, can grasp all of God that it needs.
Then, there is the other name, 'Lord,' which simply expresses
illimitable sovereignty, power over all circumstances, creatures, orders
of being, worlds, and cycles of ages. Wherever He is He rules, and
therefore my prayer can be answered by Him. When a child cries 'Mother!'
it is more than all other petitions. A dear name may be a caress when it
comes from loving lips. If we are the kind of Christians that we ought
to be, there will be nothing sweeter to us than to whisper to ourselves,
and to say to Him, 'Abba! Father!' See to it that your calling on the
Name of the Lord is not formal, but the true apprehension, by a
believing mind and a loving heart, of the ineffable and manifold
sweetnesses which are hived in His manifold names.