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Hi Beloved,
It has been some time since I wrote anything for Andy’s Corner.
My wife has become an invalid, and I’m her 24/7 Care Giver with not
much time and energy to do anything else.
Here’s something that I’ve been meditating about for a long time.
Indeed, I bless Jehovah.
Through trial He has brought Fay and me closer to each other and Him.
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My favorite Psalm, 103, begins:
Praise the LORD, O my soul;
all my inmost being, praise his holy name.
Praise the LORD, O my soul,
and forget not all his benefits.
The word LORD is capitalized in both the King James and New International
Versions. You will notice that the capital letters are small capitals.
The reason is that the name which is supposed to be there is changed.
The name should be Jehovah.*
For some reason Jehovah was not the name of God that Nehemiah liked to
use (Neh. 1:5; 5:13; 8:1). Perhaps he was influenced by the growing
feeling among the Jews that God's most descriptive name, Jehovah, was too
reverent to use in common worship and they substituted the word LORD.
"Jehovah" ceased to be pronounced in worship and was not used in the
Septuagint, the Greek version of the Old Testament.
The fact that the name Jehovah should be used in the Psalm is clear from
the statement in verse one, "praise His holy name." His name is Jehovah,
and only when we realize the meaning of Jehovah can we see the
importance of this.
Exodus 3:13-15 tells us the meaning of God's holy name. It is,
"I AM." God, who is timeless, who existed from eternity past, will
exist into eternity future. The name Jehovah, which means "The Existent
One," reminds us that He didn't have a beginning and will have no end.
This fact is important when we ask where creation came from. Where did
the human race come from? Something always had to exist in eternity past
to bring about all of this.
The evolutionist would tell us that a "germ of life" or a gas of some
sort produced all we see today in the universe. Just from the standpoint
of logic, let alone the Bible, it seems to me that an Omnipotent,
Omniscient, Omnipresent Holy Being brought this all about.
When I think of this, I can feel what the Apostle Paul was speaking about
in Romans 9:21 where he compares the human race to lumps of clay and
Jehovah to a Potter making what He will of the clay.
I am nothing compared to Jehovah, yet He has chosen to bless me with
grace, mercy and peace through the cross of Christ and make of me what
He will.
I like the King James Version of Psalm 103 in which I put back into the
text the "holy name."
Bless Jehovah, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless
His holy name.
Bless Jehovah, O my soul,
and forget not all His benefits.
*L. S. Chafer says that the Authorized Version of the Bible (King James)
uses capital letters, LORD, to name Jehovah and small capitals to render
adonai, which means "master." Girdlestone's Synonyms of the Old Testament
says that the word Lord spelled in small capital letters is usually
substituted for Jehovah which occurs 5500 times in the Old Testament.
The context of Psalm 103 is all important. Jehovah seems to argue more
for a "holy name" than adonai or master.
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