As the greatest of songs buds and opens, like a flower in the life-giving rays of the sun, the Beloved says to the Lover, “Your name is as perfume poured out…”. The heartfelt recognition and celebration of the supreme delight he brings.
You likely know that in the Bible ‘name’ is not simply a combination of letters and sounds. It denotes far more, especially as it relates to the Lord himself. ‘Name’ is about the person, their character and ways, their inner being, the fundamental realities of who and what they are.
The Lord’s name conveys everything that he is in his divine nature and in his engagement with all he has made. The Lord who is holy and good. The God of all mercy and compassion. The Lord, the Lord, the everlasting, all-wise God. Jesus, the lover of our souls.
This name - his name - is “as perfume poured out”. Beauty bestowed and diffused for the delight of those who know that name. It is sweet, intoxicating; heady and refreshing, lifting the soul into a realm that is at once both real and scarcely imaginable in the weight of its glory. Page after page of the Gospels declares that name to us - as we read, so the air around us is infused with the fragrance of his loving heart and the scent of his supreme worthiness.
He proclaims his name to us, in the pages of scripture and by the gift of his Spirit indwelling our hearts. He is the Rock whose work is perfect, whose ways are entirely just. The God who is love and who is light, in whom is no darkness and whose presence banishes the deepest gloom. The Maker of heaven and earth, the one who has numbered all our days, recording them in his book before a single one came to pass. He is the Author of Life, the Champion of our salvation.
And that is only the beginning.
When the Lord adopted us as his own, he named us with his own name. We are not simply spectators to the display of his name but we live within its reality, enveloped in his character and being. When we meet together, pray together, we do so ‘in his name’. Gathered under the banner of his love, owned and cherished as those who are named with his name. Governed by grace, decorated with the designs of his loving-kindness, the family crest of covenant love that will never fail.
In Psalm 9, David writes that “those who know your name trust in you”. Having tasted and seen that the LORD is good, that the goodness inherent in his name has been lavished upon us, what would move us to not trust him? We know his name - it is near and so we praise him and tell of his wonderful deeds, the revelation of his Name.
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How sweet the Name of Jesus sounds
In a believer’s ear!
It soothes his sorrows, heals his wounds,
And drives away his fear.
It makes the wounded spirit whole,
And calms the troubled breast;
’Tis manna to the hungry soul,
And, to the weary, rest.
Dear Name! the rock on which I build,
My Shield and hiding-place,
My never-failing treasury filled
With boundless stores of grace.
Jesus! my Shepherd, Brother, Friend,
My Prophet, Priest, and King,
My Lord, my Life, my Way, my End,
Accept the praise I bring.
Weak is the effort of my heart,
And cold my warmest thought;
But when I see Thee as Thou art,
I’ll praise Thee as I ought.
Till then I would Thy love proclaim
With every fleeting breath;
And may the music of Thy Name
Refresh my soul in death!
(John Newton, 1725-1807)
