What does it mean to PROCLAIM HIS NAME, to proclaim the name of Jesus?
Here’s Psalm 105 verses 1-6 for us, where these words come from today:
Give praise to the Lord, proclaim his name; make known among the nations what he has done.
Sing to him, sing praise to him; tell of all his wonderful acts.
Glory in his holy name; let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice.
Look to the Lord and his strength; seek his face always.
Remember the wonders he has done, his miracles, and the judgments he pronounced, you his servants, the descendants of Abraham, his chosen ones, the children of Jacob.
‘Give praise to the Lord, make known among the nations what he has done.’ Words to guide us, to remind us what our purpose is, what God has done for us and what he calls us to be part of.
So to understand what it is to PROCLAIM HIS NAME – the name of our good and gracious heavenly Father, the name of his son Jesus who died and rose again for us, the name of the Holy Spirit who is always with us and works faith in our hearts – we’re going to consider three other words we just heard from Romans (12:9-21) > LOVE, BLESS and REJOICE.
What do the words LOVE, BLESS and REJOICE have to do with PROCLAIMING HIS NAME?
First of all let’s look at what the word PROCLAIM means:
We understand PROCLAIM as to ‘announce, declare, or make something known publicly and clearly’ (dictionary definition).
What are some ways we might see a proclamation, a declaration, an announcement? In wedding vows, in a court of law, official statements from governments, things like that. All very official and public!
But here in the OT text the concept of PROCLAIMING here can be to ‘call upon,’ not only to tell other people about it, but to call upon the same name ourselves…
To PROCLAIM HIS NAME is to CALL UPON his name, to say who God is is connected to believing who he is. Something deep and rich going on there.
So we can think of PROCLAIMING HIS NAME as telling others about him yes, but also declaring our own faith in him, our belief in him, our trust and hope in who he is for us and for others. It goes both ways doesn’t it! What we say about God is not only for others to hear, but for us to hear ourselves. We need to hear, to listen to the words we’re saying ourselves.
So that’s PROCLAIM, now what about those other three words from Romans – LOVE, BLESS, and REJOICE.
You might be able to put it together – PROCLAIMING HIS NAME is the ‘what,’ and LOVE, BLESS and REJOICE are the ‘how.’ The what and the how of calling upon his name, bearing witness to our good and gracious God, telling others about him as we receive what he has done for us.
PROCLAIMING is not simply telling, standing up here and talking about God. Not simply hearing words from the bible being read out to us.
What we hear from God is not a news report, that’s what our announcements after church are for! Hearing from God is not only hearing information, hearing what’s what, but as it comes to life in us by the work of the Spirit we can live it out, it takes hold of us, it goes with us wherever we go and whatever we do – and not only for our benefit but for the benefit of our church community, our loved ones, the people we interact with in our everyday lives.
To LOVE is to PROCLAIM HIS NAME >
When God loves us, when we love others.
We have to understand this dynamic, it is so important for us!
God loves us yes, but it doesn’t stop there – he loves us so we can love others! His love flows through us for our own benefit and the benefit of those around us.
What does Romans say about LOVE today?
‘LOVE must be sincere. Be devoted to one another in LOVE.’
That’s what LOVE is, that’s what LOVE does.
The words ‘sincere’ and ‘devotion’ there – gives us a hint this is not a minor, small thing. This is serious, this is important, this really matters. We need to pay attention to what LOVE is and what LOVE does > not only for our own work and our own relationships with other people, but because we need to know how God LOVES us.
Our God is absolutely ‘sincere,’ he’s absolutely ‘devoted.’ Good to know we’ve got a God like that, we can trust him to continue to show up and continue to be there for us.
So that’s LOVE, what about BLESS >
To BLESS is to PROCLAIM HIS NAME >
When God blesses us, when we bless others.
The word BLESS in this passage has the original meaning of ‘praising,’ of ‘speaking well’ of others.
Interesting way to think about it > have you ever thought of blessing as ‘speaking well’ of someone else? That’s what we do when we PROCLAIM HIS NAME, we call upon his name, we sing, we pray, we tell others about God.
This passage says to bless, even to ‘speak well’ of those how persecute you, and do not curse them. How do we do that??
Let’s think about God’s blessing for us > Have you ever thought about it like this, that God would ‘speak well’ of you?
We usually think yes God has blessed me by giving me all the things I have, this life to life, the people around me all that sort of stuff. But what if your God blessed you by ‘speaking well’ of you, how does it feel to know your God ‘speaks well’ of you, says you are good – not only for you to hear but others to hear it too – because he made you, you are his, your good works are his good works in the world. That’s pretty encouraging isn’t it!
Like God seeing you, looking at you and saying ‘yes this is my child, I love them, I’m backing them in, they’ve got what it takes because I’ve got what it takes.’ The love of our heavenly Father going on there.
God does that for us, we can do that for others.
To LOVE is to PROCLAIM HIS NAME, to BLESS is another way to PROCLAIM HIS NAME.
And lastly we come to REJOICING >
To REJOICE is to PROCLAIM HIS NAME >
When God rejoices in and with us, when we rejoice with others.
‘Rejoice with those who rejoice’ we read in Romans, join in the celebrations we could say! Get around it, be excited for others who are excited, share in the joy.
We know we always have joy in our God-given status as his own children, but those moments in life where joy comes along for us and the people around us are really worth enjoying aren’t they, worth acknowledging, worth celebrating.
Our rejoicing about the good things in life – the little ways God reveals himself like a beautiful day or a rainbow or a nice view, and the big ways like a community celebration or a birth of a child or someone achieving a goal they had set for themselves – all this rejoicing is a way God’s work and his presence are made known and pointed back to, ways his name is proclaimed among us and for others.
God gives us things to be thankful for, to be grateful for, to REJOICE about > even as things come along that are afflicting, challenging and even lead to mourning as we read in this passage. We see how God meets those needs, he brings himself into our afflictions, our challenges, our times of mourning with his presence, his peace and his love.
So to REJOICE is to PROCLAIM HIS NAME.
So we can avoid getting stuck thinking that PROCLAIMING is simply to say or to tell, that it’s just for people who do the saying and the telling – it’s really through our whole lives that God’s word is PROCLAIMED, that what he has done is ‘made known among the nations,’ wherever we go and whatever we do!
That he is praised, that his wonderful acts are seen and known.
When we PROCLAIM HIS NAME our hearts rejoice, what a beautiful thing that is, rejoicing hearts!
May your hearts be rejoicing as you go out and PROCLAIM HIS NAME through love, blessing and rejoicing in your week ahead!
We have reason to rejoice don’t we – we get to seek his face as his chosen ones – we get to seek his face, we get to be his chosen ones. Selected by Jesus himself to be part of his family.
Receive that PROCLAMATION in your life today, receive that LOVE, that BLESSING, that reason to REJOICE.
Let’s pray.
Lord we thank you for the many reasons we have to rejoice in you, in what you have done for us and what you have given us. Help us when afflictions, challenges and even times of mourning come our way, remind us you are always with us and always working in our lives even if we can’t see it. Help us to proclaim your name Lord as we love, bless and rejoice as you have loved us, blessed us and rejoiced over us. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.
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Tom Kitson 