Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth. — Psalm 124:8

Reading: Psalm 124

Reflection:

Psalm 124:8 was said to be John Calvin’s favorite verse in the Bible, and because it so aptly captured the nature of our relationship to the Almighty, he used it to begin all his worship services in Geneva.

Psalm 124 is a Song of Ascents sung as Jews made pilgrimage to Jerusalem for the three major Jewish festivals (Passover, Pentecost, and the Feast of Booths). Jerusalem is situated atop a mountain, so all inbound roads involved treacherous terrain that made travelers vulnerable to bandits, robbery, and loss of life. Psalm 124 is a doxology based on a singular reminder: that if the Lord had not been on our side, we would have succumbed to our trouble. But because he was on our side, [w]e have escaped like a bird from the snare (v. 7), and therefore he is worthy of our blessing. What a great comfort as we face danger and uncertainty! Even though the journey was full of terrors, God would be our help.

How, though, would these pilgrims access God’s help? As we can conclude from what many Jews believed by the time Jesus came around, many believed their access to God would come at the end of their long journey, after they had offered sacrifice and ensured God was again on their side. That put them in a precarious spot — a sort of limbo — along the way. They missed the beauty and power of that last verse: Our help is in the name of the Lord (v. 8; emphasis added).

According to his commentary on this verse, this is how Calvin understood those words and why he treasured them as he did: The name of God is nothing else than God himself; yet it tacitly conveys a significant idea, implying that as he has disclosed to us his grace by his word, we have ready access to him, so that in seeking him we need not go to a distance, or follow long circuitous paths (emphasis mine).

He is saying that God — the one who made heaven and earth, who made all things and knows all things and controls all things — has given us "ready access" to him when he revealed a name we could speak to call upon him who is beyond words. We don’t need to complete our journey to him in order to have his help. We don’t need to comprehend all things. We don’t need to correct all things. We need only open our mouths to call his name. That is the beauty of what God has done. He has made his whole person, inexpressible and incomprehensible as it is, accessible to us because he told us his name.

God revealed himself so we could come to him, but he did more than tell us his name. He came down and gave himself for us, so that he might remove from us everything that keeps us from saying his name. Every doubt, every sin, every darkness, he has overcome that we might call on the name of Jesus and be saved.

Response:

1. In your prayers, call on the name of the Lord. Here is a list of the names of God revealed in Scripture to help you — it may take you a while to get through them. Thank God for who he has revealed himself to be, but also thank him that he has revealed himself to us at all.
    
2. NBA great Michael Jordan rarely gave his personal phone number to other players, but he did with a young Kobe Bryant. Kobe then proceeded to relentlessly call and text Michael Jordan at all hours of the day to get his thoughts on anything he could think to ask. You have access to someone far greater, but do you call on God as relentlessly? In what areas of life do you hesitate to call on the Lord’s name? In what ways do you think and act as if God is far off and hard to access?
    
3. God made himself near to mankind and he did it out of his grace. How can you reflect to the world that aspect of God’s heart in your life by making yourself more available? How can you reflect God’s nearness to your family, your spouse, your friends and neighbors, or your colleagues? How can you draw near to the ones who don’t benefit you or even to those who have earned your distance? How can you draw nearer to people so that you know the help they need? Going further, how can you explicitly point people to God's nearness?