THY NAME IS NEAR

For the believer, the truths of God’s glorious character and His gracious closeness to His people have always been a source of delight. Asaph wrote Psalm 75 nearly three thousand years ago, but he, too, finds cause for thanksgiving in the Lord’s Name, and in the Lord’s nearness, v. 1.

Psalm 75 reveals Jehovah as the God of Judgment, who “putteth down one, and setteth up another”, v. 7. The sobering truths touched on in Psalm 67 are here elaborated so as to emphasize that universal sovereignty is uniquely in His hands, v. 6. How foolish for feeble man to boast, v. 4, when it is God alone who “removeth kings, and setteth up kings”, Dan. 2. 21. In days of international crisis, when men’s hearts fail them for fear, the believer can rest in a God who reigns. But He is also the God of Jacob, v. 9. What a marvel of grace that the Eternal One should be willing to associate His Name with such a trickster as Jacob the supplanter, Isa. 41. 14. By nature, each one of us is a Jacob, rebelling against God’s purposes and reliant upon our own cunning. Yet grace has stretched out and saved us, making us princes with God, Gen. 32. 28; Rev. 1. 6. The use of the old name Jacob reminds us of the continuing, debilitating presence of the flesh in God’s people. Yet God never deserts His own. The Lord Jesus would not turn His back on the disciple who had denied any knowledge of Him, Luke 22. 61. And He is still the God of Jacob, and of Simon, and of all His saints, for His unchanging mercy and faithfulness mean that the “sons of Jacob are not consumed”, Mal. 3. 6.

This God condescends to be near His children. The Son of God humbled Himself and stooped to us in our desperate need as the Incarnate Lord, John 1. 14. One so infinitely high became so low! As the Invisible Lord, He remains the close companion of the believer, James 4. 8, delighting to walk with those who will humbly walk with Him, Isa. 57. 15. But shortly, faith will give place to sight and He will return as the Intervening Lord, whose coming “draweth nigh”, James 5. 8. Let us give thanks for a Saviour whose very name, Immanuel, tells that He is “God with us”, Isa. 7. 14. “Jesus himself drew near, and went with them”, Luke 24. 15.