Psalms 9:10

They that know Thy name will put their trust in Thee.

The name of God

Know Thy name! What does that imply, but to know all that is included in the revelation of the nature and attributes of Almighty God? Every reader of Scripture is well aware of the infinite importance which it attaches to the word Name in speaking of God. It signifies not merely a designation, however expressive and full of meaning, but a manifestation of the Eternal Deity. The trust of His rational creatures in Him is commensurate with their knowledge of all that is involved in the name. The early patriarchs knew Him by the name Elohim, a marvellous name, containing implicitly the mystery hereafter to be revealed of a plurality of persons in the unity of the Divine nature. They knew Him so far, and adored Him with deep awe and absolute trust in His power, righteousness, and goodwill. That name raised them out of earthly and debasing associations, delivered them from the fetichism of idolatry, and brought them into near contact with the spiritual world; they trusted in Hint according to the measure of their knowledge, and were saved by their faith. A further disclosure of the Divine goodness and love was made by the revelation of the name Jehovah, when the Lord made all His goodness pass before Moses, and proclaimed, “Jehovah, Jehovah Elohim, merciful and gracious, long suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth.” With that revelation was associated an entire system of typical institutions, preparing the way for a still more perfect discovery, at once quickening the conscience, making it sensible of the extent of human sinfulness, and indicating the conditions and principles of a future atonement. The forms of the living Word, of the living Spirit gradually disclosed themselves to the prophetic vision, never fully revealed, yet ever approaching nearer to a personal manifestation. But the Name itself in its highest sense was first suggested, then declared, by the voices which heralded the incarnation, and by the utterances of the incarnate Word. The full meaning of the words of angelic adoration, “Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of hosts!” flashed upon the spirit of man when the Saviour commanded the initiatory rite, the pledge and condition of a new life, to be administered “in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.” To the exposition of that meaning the purest and highest intellects of Christendom have devoted themselves from the beginning; and if the forms in which their exposition has been accepted by the Church are true and scriptural, can it be questioned that they involve issues of infinite importance to our souls? Can it be a matter of indifference to us whether any one of the leading propositions in such a confession is true or not? can it be a matter on which we can err in wilfulness or negligence without peril? We are responsible indeed only for so much truth as we have the means of knowing. Every man is judged “according to that he hath, not according to that he hath not”; but for so much as we have received we are, and must be, responsible. The warmth and earnestness of our devotions, of our endeavours to do God’s work, will be proportionate to the sincerity and good faith with which we receive into our hearts that truth which the Eternal Father has communicated to us through the Son and by the Holy Spirit. Our salvation from evil here, and from the penalties of evil hereafter, can only be secured by the access which God the Holy Spirit opens through the Son to the Father--an access of which the conditions vary according to circumstances known only to our Judge, but of which the certain assurance is inseparably bound up with knowledge of the Name by which the Church adores the Triune Jehovah, three Persons, one God--Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. (Canon F. C. Cook.)

Trusting in God

Few words are more frequently used in the Bible than the word faith, and the thing which it is intended to describe is of prime importance. The author of the Epistle to the Hebrews devotes an entire chapter to showing its majesty and weight. In the Epistle to the Romans the word faith plays a leading part, but the word is not defined. Still, the word is not always used in the same sense. Sometimes it is applied to what a man believes, the body of doctrine which constitutes the Divine deposit of the Church. Sometimes the word is used to describe the firmness of a man’s personal convictions, or the consistency of his conduct, as when it is said that whatever is not of faith is sin. In the great majority of instances, however, faith describes a personal relation of unqualified confidence between man and God. This is the simple root from which the other forms of faith grow. Faith is trust, a trust without suspicion or fear, trust passing into glad and habitual surrender, so that He in whom we trust becomes our teacher, guide, and master. Such trust, if intelligently exercised, promotes fixedness of conviction and steadiness of moral purpose--it issues in deliberate fidelity and loyalty. And when this trust is challenged by the reason, either the reason in me, or the reason in others, the answer forms a bed of truth which takes the name of “faith,” because it represents the rational basis of trust or conviction. Faith as a system of doctrine simply states what I believe, or why I trust. Faith as fixedness of personal conviction simply describes trust as perfect and habitual. Primarily, therefore, faith is neither a body of doctrine nor a mental and moral quality, but a purely personal relation between myself and another, the relation of trust on the part of man in God. Saving faith is just this, confidence in God issuing in consecration. For it is plain that I can neither trust nor distrust an imaginary being, a being of whose existence I have no evidence. To trust in God is to affirm that He is. Still, that alone does not provoke confidence and surrender. We do not trust all whom we know. Knowledge of another may prevent confidence, as well as provoke it. His character may be such that we are repelled from him, instead of being attracted to him. They in whom we trust must be trustworthy. It depends altogether, therefore, upon what God really is, whether the knowledge of Him is fitted to provoke our trust. It is plain, therefore, that the statement of the Psalmist must not be made to mean that all men will put their trust in God when they come to have a right knowledge of Him. Ignorance is not the sole cause of unbelief and sin. The real thought is this, that wherever men come to put their trust in God, it will be because they have come to know what God really is. Knowledge may not issue in trust, but without knowledge trust cannot be. There is nothing magical about it. Faith, or trust, is not a supernatural gift of God, bestowed or withheld at His pleasure; it is His gift only so far as His enlightened Spirit is His gift, only so far as a true knowledge of what God is is the gift of God. Three conceptions of God we can trace in the history of the world; but of these three there is only one, the Christian conception, which provokes to sweet and sunny trust. We may think of God as the embodiment of almighty power, personally indifferent whether He creates or destroys, with countenance as cold, as impassive, as that of the Egyptian Sphinx, eternally rigid in His will, eternally frigid in His emotions, without either smiles or tears, without hate and without love. Or we may think of Him as the embodiment of almighty energy, rooted in and confluent with eternal reason and absolute justice, never Himself guilty of folly or of wrong, keeping Himself beyond the reach of deserved reproach, but enforcing His law with pitiless severity, claiming His pound of flesh, whether the surgery kills or cures, exacting the debt to the last farthing, deaf to all entreaty, granting no reprieve, proffering no help. Or, we may think of Him as in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself, as righteousness and love incarnate. The first repels; the second chills; the third alone attracts and warms. The first is a monster of cruelty; the second is an iceberg; the third alone is a life-giving sun. The first deifies power; the second deifies reason; the third deifies love, love carrying the cross in its heart, and which is indifferent to none. The gods of paganism simply represented superior power and cunning. They were greater than men, but they were no better than men. Faith in the gods there was none, and there could not be. And it is not otherwise with that more refined conception of God which identifies Him with force, the energy by which all things are constituted, without personal consciousness and without moral qualities, without either love or hate, without either vice or virtue, hearing no prayer, rewarding no obedience, punishing no disobedience. Such a god is only a god in name. He does not care for me; He does not know what care is, and how then can I care for Him; how can I bring myself to trust in Him? Nor is the case much better with that truer and deeper conception of God which identifies Him with the absolute reason and the moral order of the universe. It was impossible for thoughtful men to rest in a conception of God which robbed Him of thought and character. The law of cause and effect assorted itself. The ground of the universe must be possessed of all that appears in the universe. But there is thought, at least in me, and there is conscience, at least in me. And if these be in me, they must be in the First and Universal Cause of all things, whether that cause be regarded as distinct from the universe or not. And so, even the ancients came to look upon the universe as embodied reason and justice. Things were not loose and disjointed; they were compact and ordered. Plato regarded the Idea as formative and eternal energy. Aristotle dilates at length, and with warmth of eloquence, upon the universal presence of design. Science has itself dug the grave of vulgar materialism. A rational origin and a moral end of the universe are everywhere recognised. The very word “evolution” is a confession of universal reason and of orderly movement, Neither the old nor the new philosophical theism can produce faith. It is like an iceberg, majestic and imposing, but chilling the air. It may produce, it has produced, moral awe and resignation to one’s lot; but it has not produced, and it cannot produce, trust--with the quiet heart and the radiant face and the laughing, singing lips. It may produce Ecclesiastes, but it cannot write Psalms 23:1. For in all this reign of reason it discovers no indulgence for ignorance; in all this reign of justice it hears no gospel of mercy for the sinner. There is no pity for the weak and the wicked. The name of God is not unconscious and unfeeling energy, from which we shrink; nor is it crystallised and crystallising reason and justice, before which we are self-condemned and dumb; but it is Jesus Christ, who came to seek and to save the lost. The omnipotence of God does not make Him attractive to me. The omniscience of God sounds the death knell of my hope. The justice of God thrusts me into the dungeon of despair. In such an atmosphere there cannot be the first breath of faith. But when you make it clear to me that this omnipotent, omniscient, holy God is also infinite in His tenderness, that He loves me and wants me, that He is my Father, and that in Christ His Fatherhood has become Incarnate, so that when I see Him I see the Father, my faith is kindled and my trust knows no misgiving. “Perfect love casteth out fear.” But perfect love in you and in me is the response to perfect love in God for you and for me. So faith will be perfect, trust in God will be fearless and sunny only as we know God’s name, and hide ourselves beneath its sheltering wings. Here is the secret of peace; all is well, because God loves me. (A. J. F. Behrends, D. D.)

The knowledge of God essential to trust in Him

The secret of all holy living is trust in God. The eleventh chapter of Hebrews is the great Bible proof of this. But how to obtain this faith? that is the question. For nothing is harder to a human soul. Diverse answers might be given.

1. Ask it of God, for faith is His gift. But our text tells another way.

2. Know God better. “They that know Thy name will,” etc. In earthly affairs we do not confide where we do not know. And so if God be unknown by us we shall not trust Him. Abraham was called the friend of God--he knew God so well, and so he got another name--the “Father of the faithful,” because he so trusted in God. Now this knowledge must not be merely theoretical, but that of the heart. Then such “will” trust in Him; they cannot help it. (C. M. Merry.)

Trust in God

The Psalm expresses the confidence of Israel in Jehovah. Some say that these Psalms are only patriotic odes, and that we have no right to draw inferences from them in regard to spiritual religion. Now, no doubt, many have read into these Psalms ideas and feelings that are not and could not be there, for they are Christian in their origin. But still we are justified in using them so as to maintain our own faith. For the religion of the Old Testament (compare the old Roman law) had a wonderful expansiveness. No doubt the trust told of here meant Israel’s confidence that when they went into battle Jehovah would be with them. Now consider--

I. The condition of this trust. Knowledge of Jehovah’s name, true heartfelt and experimental knowledge.

II. The trust itself--a confidence not for infallible success, but that life could not be in vain.

III. The reason for this trust. “Thou hast not forsaken,” etc. Experience proves this true. (J. A. Picton.)

Confidence

Names in Scripture are descriptive of character in those to whom they are given.

I. The name of God therefore tells of His character. The declaration of God’s name (Exodus 34:1). Now this name of God is different from our conceptions. Some rob Him altogether of the awful features of His character, and others of His goodness. All the attributes of Jehovah have met in Christ. Love, justice--see Gethsemane and the Cross as showing God’s hatred of sin.

II. The knowledge of this name. It means the knowledge of approval, of heart assent to what he finds in God. If we wanted to get a child to trust his parent, we would speak not so much of the child’s duty as of the parent’s character. Hence, to awaken trust in God, we are to show the excellence and beauty of the character of God. (J. Blundell.)

Vital knowledge necessary to real peace

At many a martyr’s stake, at many a dying bed, in many a scene of trial, these words have been proved true. His people have felt God near to them at these times, and this is file God in whom we must all trust. And this trust is through knowledge.

1. It is not a commonplace possession of every man. Far from it. What is it? It is not mere hearsay nor any theoretical knowledge of God.

2. But it is the knowledge of love. Love gains knowledge as nothing else can. The world does not love, and so does not know God.

3. And it is in harmony with the convictions of the understanding.

4. It is the knowledge of experience, resulting from holding communion with God. Love leads to such communion, and that to experience. We learn by experience the delicate excellencies of a character, which we could never have seen by a momentary glance; we understand its harmonious proportions which a cursory look would never have shown us. The man that loves to hear the ocean breaking on the shore, will detect harmonies in what is monotonous to everyone beside. Now this knowledge of experience or of communion is what God’s people have of Him. But you must make real effort to know His name. The mere repetition of Lord, Lord, will do but little. But to utter His name in the fulness of knowledge is to uncurtain heaven, and see its glories once. But if we will not know God as we should, then we are sure to misjudge Him. A guilty conscience makes everyone suppose that God is nothing but severe. And then you cannot trust. Look again; would you “see Him as He is”? See Him in His love, in His sacrifice for you, and then you will learn to trust Him. And this is most important, for there is DO shelter but in Him, and unless we trust Him we cannot enter that shelter. And that means death. Oh, then, may God give us to know His name. (P. B. Power, M. A.)

The name of God

The name of God is the revelation of the Divine perfections, through His works and Word. He is--

I. A just God and a Saviour. Much was said in words and by promises under the old dispensation bearing witness to this name. The sacrifices did the same. But Christ was the great witness of this name. The servants of Benhadad believed in the name the kings of Israel had for mercy, and therefore submitted themselves. And the Publican believed in God as merciful, and therefore appealed to Him. Thus the Lord proclaimed His name to Moses. And at last that mercy of God appeared in Christ. All His works while on earth confirmed it. And He was made perfect through suffering, made perfect in mercy thereby.

II. As Almighty. That name is impressed upon creation, but is seen most in Christ in delivering His Church. And in His resurrection and His dominion over the empire of death, and His upholding of His kingdom in the world, and giving success to the preaching of the Gospel.

III. As righteousness. This is seen in His atonement, whereby God’s righteousness is declared, so that He can be just, and yet the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.

IV. As wisdom. This seen in creation, but yet more in redemption. For in it the law and its transgressor are exalted together. Once the law might have said, “To spare him will be my disgrace”; but the wisdom of God appointed that to spare him would be its highest honour. The person of Christ is the chief wonder of this wisdom. This is the treasury of the Divine name. In Him all fulness dwells.

V. And this name will be trusted by all who know it. Many have heard of it who do not know it. The way to know it is to read it in Christ. (D. Charles.)

The effect of knowing God

By those who know God’s name, are meant those who know God Himself and His nature. Trusting in God, does very naturally take in all the expectations we have of what He hath promised, and knowing His name is a raising our minds to a just sense of His nature, by the contemplation of His works of creation and providence. Apply to three points--

I. The immortality of man. Men stumble at this, that our weak race, which is hasting to a change that hath all the appearance of ending, should not really die, but live on, and have their share in all the revolutions which the world is to undergo, as long as God Himself shall have His being. Consider what we have in the knowledge of God, and His works, which may further us in the belief of it. There must be an eternity of time and duration. Through it God must surely preserve His being, and He surely will preserve a world. He will always have creatures before Him. Is it most likely that God should choose to continue creatures before Him, by giving eternity to the souls of men: or by letting these die, and end as they do in appearance, and by raising up other new ones in their places? If the souls of men are really abolished, and end at death, I do not know; but we may say that they are the only substances in the whole compass of beings that are so. If the eternal duration be granted, there is--

II. The greatness of the glory and reward. Descriptions of heaven are but borrowed expressions from such things as we understand, but the happiness itself is something that is greater than we can yet conceive. The fabric of the world, wonderful as it is, is really a thousand times greater, and more wonderful in itself than it is in our thoughts. For we only behold creation through a perspective.

III. The punishments of the other world. To their fears of these, unbelieving men oppose the great goodness of God. But consider God’s providences and judgments upon us now. Evidently, we ought not to argue that God’s goodness will not suffer Him to punish, for it does. (Francis Hutchinson, D. D.)

Thou, Lord, hast not forsaken them that seek Thee.

Dilemma and deliverance

Let us note--

I. A fiery dart of Satan constantly shot at the people of God. It is the suggestion that God has forsaken us. Of all the arrows of hell it is the most sharp, the most poisonous, the most deadly. It is sent against us--

1. When we have fallen into sin. Then comes the suggestion, this fiery dart, “Ah, wretch that you are, God will never forgive that sin; you have been so ungrateful, such a hypocrite, such a liar.”

2. In time of great trouble. The deep waters are around and almost overflow you; just then, when in the very deepest part of the stream, Satan sends this suggestion into your very soul--thy God hath forsaken thee.

3. In prospect of some great toil and enterprise. When the trumpet is sounded for some dreadful battle, when there is a deep soil to be ploughed, there comes this dark thought. And this arrow is most grievous, and most dangerous; and it bears the full impress of its Satanic maker.

II. The Divine buckler which God has provided against this fiery dart. It is the fact that God hath not, no never, forsaken them that fear Him. How dreadful to think that the child of God might fall and perish. What witnesses these are to the truth of the text. From Abraham down to Paul. And your own experience, if you will be honest with yourself, will prove it yet again. And look at the teachings of nature as to the fidelity of God. We believe in the truth and love of earthly friends. Shall we not believe in God?

III. Let us wear this buckler, and so use our precious privilege to seek God in the day of trouble. You, afflicted ones, you oppressed with the sense of sin. (C. H. Spurgeon.)