Above All Your Name

“You have magnified your word above all your name” – Psalms 138:2

So vast and manifold is the nature of God that numerous names have been used to describe Him in scripture, each portraying dimensions of His many attributes.

Through His names God has made Himself known, revealing aspects of His nature, character and qualities. He revealed Himself as the provider and so was named Jehovah Jireh. He manifested Himself as healer and so was named Jehovah Rapha. He manifested Himself as our peace and so was named Jehovah Shalom. He manifested Himself as a Shepherd and so was named Jehovah Raah. He showed Himself as a jealous God and was named Qanna. He demonstrated His might and power and so was named Elohim. To many He is known as Savior, Comforter, Counselor, Advocate, Helper and many others too numerous to mention.

In fact there are records of hundreds of names used to describe God throughout scripture. Thus, the mention “all your name” refers to all the attributes of God that He had revealed to His people.

The visitations of God through the ages have been experienced by His people in this way so that they could encouter Him and know Him at the measure in which they walked.

And yet one cannot truly grasp the absolute fullness of who God is through one of His attributes or names. In fact we have witnessed from various movements and denominations that an overemphasis on one attribute can lead to error. And while particular characteristics of God may be more recognized, admired and celebrated than others, they find their true and ultimate meaning and purpose in their totality. This is what David portrays to us when he says your word has been magnified above all your name.

Above all the expressions of God’s attributes through His names, there is a higher and clearer manifestation of Himself, of His being, of His perfection, of His nature and that is Christ – the Word. For we read that the Word was God (Joh. 1:1). Christ, the Word, the logos of God was in the beginning with God and He was God. The original language reads that the logos was with theos and the logos was theos. It was the logos that was made flesh and dwelt among us.

All the expressions of God’s nature and characteristics as Provider, Healer, Shepherd, etc. and all of God’s power, peace, wisdom, knowledge, righteousness are encapsulated in Christ who is the Word of God. For before the ‘I am’ expressed Himself by a name, He was and remains the Word.

In Christ we discover the full and complete expression of God. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the perfect imprint and very image of God’s nature (Heb. 1:3). Other translations portray this beautiful truth declaring Him as the exact expression of God’s substance, the perfect representation of His being, and the express image of His person.

In the Son dwelt all the fullness of the Godhead bodily (Col. 2:9). The Son personified the fullness of God who is the inexhaustible origin of all things. In the Son the manifold nature of God finds a balanced and complete manifestation.

This is why God has highly exalted Him and given Him THE NAME which is above EVERY NAME (Phil. 2:9-10).  For God set Him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and EVERY NAME that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come (Eph. 1:20-21).

No wonder then that the name of the rider on the white horse, which John saw in vision, who goes forth conquering is called “The Word of God” (Rev. 19:13). Truly, God has magnified His Word.

In the early days of our walk with the Lord we all experienced dimensions of His nature. We knew Him in an in-part measure. We tasted of His provision and learned to lean on Him for tomorrow’s bread. We discovered Him as our shield and fortress. We were touched by His healing hand. We experienced His faithfulness and goodness. Countless are the testimonies of which His saints can bear witness.

But in this new day of the ministry of the fullness of the Spirit of God, we are to know the depths and fuller revelation of His nature. And this we are to appropriate through identification with the indwelling Christ, the Word of God, as our very own life.

The Word being magnified is this inward journey of our transformation unto the fullness of God. Of this journey Paul encourages us to press forward to lay hold of our supreme and heavenly purpose; to leave behind the in-part and fragmentary to lay hold of the perfected life of the Son who dwells in us in full measure. Of this truth the Spirit affirms that not only did the fullness of deity dwell in Christ Jesus but that we are complete in Him (Col. 2:9-10).

Today the Lord is magnifying the Word in His sons. And more than our encounter with His many attributes He desires for us to know Him in greater measure that we may be filled with all the fullness of God. He desires for the Word (the full measure of His nature) to become flesh in us and for the heavenly man to be established in the natural realm as the complete expression of God the Father.