OK, time to take the “bible study” part of the title seriously for a little while. Most of the time what I do in this space is provide musings about the passage with a little exegesis (that’s fancy seminary talk for doing bible study!) thrown in here and there. Mostly to sneak up on you. Sorry, seen too many eyes glaze over when doing some of this stuff.
But this time I need to be up front about the study part of it all. Set aside for the moment the musings, the contemplations that deal with reactions to the words and images. And the reason I need to do this is because it is Trinity Sunday.
I’ve never been a big fan of Trinity Sunday. One reason is that it causes us to change colors from the dramatic red of Pentecost, back to the white of majesty. White is used at Christmas and at Easter and the seasons that follow, and on Trinity Sunday. It is about authority, about purity, about Lordship. A powerful color, appropriate for these occasions. But we have just gone from a white season - Eastertide, and are teased with red for one Sunday and then it is back to white again. And technically, the tradition is that after trinity Sunday we switch to green for the whole summer - or Ordinary Time as the old calendars had it, Sundays after Pentecost we call it in our tradition today.
So Trinity Sunday bumps the red off the chancel, and I’ve never liked that. (I do sneak some red back in for the early part of Ordinary Time, just to keep the excitement up. Yeah, I’m easily amused.) So, I would usually give Trinity Sunday a passing reference, but not much attention. But I’ve decided to mend my ways and jump into it this year. And I’ve selected the Psalm as the reading for the week. So, here it is. See if you can figure out how this is a Trinity Sunday passage.
Psalm 8:1-9 O LORD, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens. 2 Out of the mouths of babes and infants you have founded a bulwark because of your foes, to silence the enemy and the avenger. 3 When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established; 4 what are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them? 5 Yet you have made them a little lower than God, and crowned them with glory and honor. 6 You have given them dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under their feet, 7 all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, 8 the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas. 9 O LORD, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth!
How majestic is your name. That’s the line that stands out. Maybe because the Psalm begins and ends with those same words. How majestic is your name. Sounds wonderful. Can’t read those words without hearing the Michael W. Smith song in your head. “O Lord, Our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth.” It is one of those 7/11 songs that people complain about. “Seven words you repeat eleven times.” You’ve heard that, I’m sure. And yet sometimes it works. Sometimes it is the repetition that carries the meaning. It is only in saying it over and over and over that it makes any sense at all. Like the seraphs flying around the temple in Isaiah 6, and they kept singing “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of hosts, the whole earth is full of his glory.” Over and over they sang those words. And it was in the singing, and in the repetition that it began to make sense.
Or did it. What was that sense, what do these words mean? “How majestic is your name”? Does it mean that God’s name is kinda cool? Well, sort of. But in an Old Testament sense, not in a modern day “hey I like that name Raymundo!” kind of sense.
In the Old Testament, knowing a name was a way of having power. That is why it is so incredible that God would give away the name. That’s why that burning bush is such a singular moment. And the people of God knew that, so they were reluctant to say the name of God. The letters YHWH form the name of God in the Hebrew text. We would pronounce it Yahweh, because our understanding is different. Words are just words, names are just names. So, you’ve heard the name “Yahweh” in some circles. And perhaps rightly so, since God gave us this name to use.
But the early followers didn’t want to abuse the gift, so whenever the text would have those letters, YHWH, then the reader of the text would substitute the word “adonai” for the name. Adonai means Lord, it is a title instead of a name. Adonai was used for human beings at times, to acknowledge a superior. It was an honorific.
So, now when translators heard the word “Adonai” inserted where they saw the letters “YHWH” they substituted the vowels from the first into the consonants for the latter and came up with a new word. “Yahovah” or since they were German translators where the “Y” letter is pronounced like a “J”, the word was Jehovah. We now use that word as a substitute for both the name and title of God. But in fact it doesn’t appear in the original text of the bible anywhere.
OK, fascinating, but what does it have to do with Trinity Sunday or the Psalm for that matter? Well, I’m not sure. Except that it is a bit of a mystery. This name thing, I mean. And how can a name be majestic in all the earth? And does constant repetition of praise bring glory to God’s name? And what aspect or dimension of God are we praising anyway.
The Psalm is about the Creator God. Which we usually understand to be the Father. (Oh, right, Happy Father’s Day, dad. And all other dad like creatures out there.) So, how is this a Trinity Sunday passage. Where are the other dimensions? Or aspects? Or persons? Or whatever you call thems?
“When I look at the heavens, the work of your fingers...” I’m amazed, I’m astounded, I feel small. Not a bad feeling to have every now and then. That in the vastness of this created universe we are but a tiny speck. And yet this isn’t a humbling psalm. It isn’t about our speckness, it is a psalm of amazement that we are anything but speckish. We are a “little lower than God, crowned with glory and honor.” We share in God’s glory, by God’s choice. We are significant because God made us so.
That is the aspect of God we know as Jesus, or the Son. The Redeemer aspect of God is what lifts us up beyond where we might be, could be, perhaps should be. Elsewhere we are told this was done because of love. Because God so loved us, we might know eternity, we might stand in glory.
So, how else could we respond but by saying “O Lord, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth!” Like babes we coo and gurgle to the one who cares for us, or so says the Psalmist. And those coos and gurgles silence those who say there is no God. And those coos and gurgles are what brings majesty to the name of God. It is us, our words, our lives, our power that gives majesty to God’s name. We are bearers of that name. A name that is beyond us, bigger than us, more than we can carry, unless we are strengthened by the God whose majesty we proclaim with our words and deeds and being. Unless the Spirit, the consolation, the comforter and guide is with us.
So, it is us in the end, or is it God in God’s self that brings majesty to the name? Yes!
But this time I need to be up front about the study part of it all. Set aside for the moment the musings, the contemplations that deal with reactions to the words and images. And the reason I need to do this is because it is Trinity Sunday.
I’ve never been a big fan of Trinity Sunday. One reason is that it causes us to change colors from the dramatic red of Pentecost, back to the white of majesty. White is used at Christmas and at Easter and the seasons that follow, and on Trinity Sunday. It is about authority, about purity, about Lordship. A powerful color, appropriate for these occasions. But we have just gone from a white season - Eastertide, and are teased with red for one Sunday and then it is back to white again. And technically, the tradition is that after trinity Sunday we switch to green for the whole summer - or Ordinary Time as the old calendars had it, Sundays after Pentecost we call it in our tradition today.
So Trinity Sunday bumps the red off the chancel, and I’ve never liked that. (I do sneak some red back in for the early part of Ordinary Time, just to keep the excitement up. Yeah, I’m easily amused.) So, I would usually give Trinity Sunday a passing reference, but not much attention. But I’ve decided to mend my ways and jump into it this year. And I’ve selected the Psalm as the reading for the week. So, here it is. See if you can figure out how this is a Trinity Sunday passage.
Psalm 8:1-9 O LORD, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens. 2 Out of the mouths of babes and infants you have founded a bulwark because of your foes, to silence the enemy and the avenger. 3 When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established; 4 what are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them? 5 Yet you have made them a little lower than God, and crowned them with glory and honor. 6 You have given them dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under their feet, 7 all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, 8 the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas. 9 O LORD, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth!
How majestic is your name. That’s the line that stands out. Maybe because the Psalm begins and ends with those same words. How majestic is your name. Sounds wonderful. Can’t read those words without hearing the Michael W. Smith song in your head. “O Lord, Our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth.” It is one of those 7/11 songs that people complain about. “Seven words you repeat eleven times.” You’ve heard that, I’m sure. And yet sometimes it works. Sometimes it is the repetition that carries the meaning. It is only in saying it over and over and over that it makes any sense at all. Like the seraphs flying around the temple in Isaiah 6, and they kept singing “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of hosts, the whole earth is full of his glory.” Over and over they sang those words. And it was in the singing, and in the repetition that it began to make sense.
Or did it. What was that sense, what do these words mean? “How majestic is your name”? Does it mean that God’s name is kinda cool? Well, sort of. But in an Old Testament sense, not in a modern day “hey I like that name Raymundo!” kind of sense.
In the Old Testament, knowing a name was a way of having power. That is why it is so incredible that God would give away the name. That’s why that burning bush is such a singular moment. And the people of God knew that, so they were reluctant to say the name of God. The letters YHWH form the name of God in the Hebrew text. We would pronounce it Yahweh, because our understanding is different. Words are just words, names are just names. So, you’ve heard the name “Yahweh” in some circles. And perhaps rightly so, since God gave us this name to use.
But the early followers didn’t want to abuse the gift, so whenever the text would have those letters, YHWH, then the reader of the text would substitute the word “adonai” for the name. Adonai means Lord, it is a title instead of a name. Adonai was used for human beings at times, to acknowledge a superior. It was an honorific.
So, now when translators heard the word “Adonai” inserted where they saw the letters “YHWH” they substituted the vowels from the first into the consonants for the latter and came up with a new word. “Yahovah” or since they were German translators where the “Y” letter is pronounced like a “J”, the word was Jehovah. We now use that word as a substitute for both the name and title of God. But in fact it doesn’t appear in the original text of the bible anywhere.
OK, fascinating, but what does it have to do with Trinity Sunday or the Psalm for that matter? Well, I’m not sure. Except that it is a bit of a mystery. This name thing, I mean. And how can a name be majestic in all the earth? And does constant repetition of praise bring glory to God’s name? And what aspect or dimension of God are we praising anyway.
The Psalm is about the Creator God. Which we usually understand to be the Father. (Oh, right, Happy Father’s Day, dad. And all other dad like creatures out there.) So, how is this a Trinity Sunday passage. Where are the other dimensions? Or aspects? Or persons? Or whatever you call thems?
“When I look at the heavens, the work of your fingers...” I’m amazed, I’m astounded, I feel small. Not a bad feeling to have every now and then. That in the vastness of this created universe we are but a tiny speck. And yet this isn’t a humbling psalm. It isn’t about our speckness, it is a psalm of amazement that we are anything but speckish. We are a “little lower than God, crowned with glory and honor.” We share in God’s glory, by God’s choice. We are significant because God made us so.
That is the aspect of God we know as Jesus, or the Son. The Redeemer aspect of God is what lifts us up beyond where we might be, could be, perhaps should be. Elsewhere we are told this was done because of love. Because God so loved us, we might know eternity, we might stand in glory.
So, how else could we respond but by saying “O Lord, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth!” Like babes we coo and gurgle to the one who cares for us, or so says the Psalmist. And those coos and gurgles silence those who say there is no God. And those coos and gurgles are what brings majesty to the name of God. It is us, our words, our lives, our power that gives majesty to God’s name. We are bearers of that name. A name that is beyond us, bigger than us, more than we can carry, unless we are strengthened by the God whose majesty we proclaim with our words and deeds and being. Unless the Spirit, the consolation, the comforter and guide is with us.
So, it is us in the end, or is it God in God’s self that brings majesty to the name? Yes!
Shalom,
Derek C. Weber
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