Call on Him
I was knee-deep in Psalm 116:7 in my last post. And I'm still finding myself drawn to that beautiful song. It is so rich! So full of imagery! Such a beautiful testimony!
[Also, I need to come clean. I referred to the author of Psalm 116 as King David but I hadn't really checked. Biblical experts aren't sure who actually wrote it. I just thought it sounded so much like David that I assumed it was. I'm sorry.]
Today I'm drawn to a different phrase in Psalm 116:
"Because He turned His ear to me, I will call on him as long as I live," (verse 2).
"Then I called on the name of the Lord; 'O Lord, save me!'" (verse 4).
"I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord," (verse 13).
"I will sacrifice a thank offering to you and call on the name of the Lord," (verse 17).
In one Psalm, the Psalmist speaks of calling on the Lord four times. In Scripture, any repetition at all should make us pay attention. A quadruple occurrence should make us dig. Immediately.
But it wasn't just the repetition that drew me to the phrase; it was the fact that I had seen it just last week in my own personal Bible Study. I've been walking very slowly through Genesis, and here are two verses I came across when studying Abraham:
"From there he went on toward the hills east of Bethel and pitched his tent....There he built an altar to the Lord and called on the name of the Lord," (Genesis 12:8).
"From the Negev he went from place to place until he came to Bethel...where his tent had been earlier and where he had first built an altar. There Abram called on the name of the Lord," (Genesis 13:3-4).
Abraham "called on the name of the Lord" multiple times. So did the man who wrote Psalm 116.
But what does that really mean?
In both Genesis and Psalm 116 it's all the same Hebrew word, qara, which means "to call, summon, announce, proclaim; to be invited as a guest, be appointed; "to call on the name of the Lord" means to proclaim or praise the excellence of Yahweh, to worship Yahweh, or to summon Yahweh by name for help," (Zondervan NIV Exhaustive Concordance, Second Edition).
Calling on the name of the Lord makes me think of the best telephone story I know. In college, my parents were on vacation a few hours away. My sister and I were going to meet them. I was supposed to pick her up at my mom's house and she was going to ride with me. I guess I was running a few minutes late because she decided to call my cell and see where I was. However, our cell numbers are only different by the last digit. So when she picked up my mom's house phone to call my cell, she called her own instead. Immediately, her cell started ringing. Completely clueless, she looked at the screen and saw that it said, "Mom." Thinking that now my mom was calling her, she held Mom's home phone to one ear as she held her cell up to the other ear and said, "Hello?" She heard only her own voice speaking into both phones at the same time.
And, many times, that's how we call on the name of the Lord. We're not really calling Him at all. We're just talking to ourselves.
I know you've done it because I've done it. We "pray" but we don't really have a conversation with God. It's a one-sided rant and we never give God the chance to speak. And, honestly, sometimes we never invite Him to the conversation in the first place.
It's one of the reasons prayer is so hard and frustrating and abandoned. Because we were never really calling on the name of the Lord in the first place.
(I wrote a post about prayer last year. It kinda talks about this.)
But calling on the name of the Lord is different. Deeper. More desperate. It requires more faith and confession and something else: the realization that you can't do it without Him.
Abraham called on the name of the Lord when he left his family and when he failed miserably at following God in Egypt (Genesis 12:10-20). The Psalmist called on the name of the Lord when God "delivered [his] soul from death," (verse 8).
Calling on the name of the Lord requires hitting rock bottom.
Or does it?
Maybe--hang on now--maybe we actually live at rock bottom, but we don't always realize it. Maybe we should start each day admitting that we are at rock bottom: sinful, weak, selfish, maybe even terrible.
Then we call on the name of the Lord. We admit He is the only good in us. He is our entire strength. He is all we need in every situation and, whether or not we know it or feel it, HE IS IN CONTROL.
Calling on the name of the Lord is more than worship. More than prayer. More than confession. It's recognizing who He is and who you are, admitting it, and inviting Him into the conversation where He belongs: in charge.
Calling on the name of the Lord means letting Him be LORD of your life.
Real LORD. God Almighty. The master. The boss. The one you go to over and over again and say, "What would you have me do, Lord?" Waiting for Him to speak. Learning what His voice sounds like. Obeying when He gives you direction.
Maybe try it today. Call on the name of the Lord. Read Psalm 116 aloud but personalize it by inserting your own story. Your own testimony.
And invite Him to be God.
(He is anyway. But it's time we call Him that.)
THANK YOU for subscribing! If you haven't yet, please do at the upper right. Put your email address in the box and then respond to the email you get.
@leslienotebook
myleslienotebook@gmail.com
PS--I also write a blog for runners. You might want to check it out :)
[Also, I need to come clean. I referred to the author of Psalm 116 as King David but I hadn't really checked. Biblical experts aren't sure who actually wrote it. I just thought it sounded so much like David that I assumed it was. I'm sorry.]
Today I'm drawn to a different phrase in Psalm 116:
"Because He turned His ear to me, I will call on him as long as I live," (verse 2).
"Then I called on the name of the Lord; 'O Lord, save me!'" (verse 4).
"I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord," (verse 13).
"I will sacrifice a thank offering to you and call on the name of the Lord," (verse 17).
In one Psalm, the Psalmist speaks of calling on the Lord four times. In Scripture, any repetition at all should make us pay attention. A quadruple occurrence should make us dig. Immediately.
But it wasn't just the repetition that drew me to the phrase; it was the fact that I had seen it just last week in my own personal Bible Study. I've been walking very slowly through Genesis, and here are two verses I came across when studying Abraham:
"From there he went on toward the hills east of Bethel and pitched his tent....There he built an altar to the Lord and called on the name of the Lord," (Genesis 12:8).
"From the Negev he went from place to place until he came to Bethel...where his tent had been earlier and where he had first built an altar. There Abram called on the name of the Lord," (Genesis 13:3-4).
Abraham "called on the name of the Lord" multiple times. So did the man who wrote Psalm 116.
But what does that really mean?
In both Genesis and Psalm 116 it's all the same Hebrew word, qara, which means "to call, summon, announce, proclaim; to be invited as a guest, be appointed; "to call on the name of the Lord" means to proclaim or praise the excellence of Yahweh, to worship Yahweh, or to summon Yahweh by name for help," (Zondervan NIV Exhaustive Concordance, Second Edition).
Calling on the name of the Lord makes me think of the best telephone story I know. In college, my parents were on vacation a few hours away. My sister and I were going to meet them. I was supposed to pick her up at my mom's house and she was going to ride with me. I guess I was running a few minutes late because she decided to call my cell and see where I was. However, our cell numbers are only different by the last digit. So when she picked up my mom's house phone to call my cell, she called her own instead. Immediately, her cell started ringing. Completely clueless, she looked at the screen and saw that it said, "Mom." Thinking that now my mom was calling her, she held Mom's home phone to one ear as she held her cell up to the other ear and said, "Hello?" She heard only her own voice speaking into both phones at the same time.
And, many times, that's how we call on the name of the Lord. We're not really calling Him at all. We're just talking to ourselves.
I know you've done it because I've done it. We "pray" but we don't really have a conversation with God. It's a one-sided rant and we never give God the chance to speak. And, honestly, sometimes we never invite Him to the conversation in the first place.
It's one of the reasons prayer is so hard and frustrating and abandoned. Because we were never really calling on the name of the Lord in the first place.
(I wrote a post about prayer last year. It kinda talks about this.)
But calling on the name of the Lord is different. Deeper. More desperate. It requires more faith and confession and something else: the realization that you can't do it without Him.
Abraham called on the name of the Lord when he left his family and when he failed miserably at following God in Egypt (Genesis 12:10-20). The Psalmist called on the name of the Lord when God "delivered [his] soul from death," (verse 8).
Calling on the name of the Lord requires hitting rock bottom.
Or does it?
Maybe--hang on now--maybe we actually live at rock bottom, but we don't always realize it. Maybe we should start each day admitting that we are at rock bottom: sinful, weak, selfish, maybe even terrible.
Then we call on the name of the Lord. We admit He is the only good in us. He is our entire strength. He is all we need in every situation and, whether or not we know it or feel it, HE IS IN CONTROL.
Calling on the name of the Lord is more than worship. More than prayer. More than confession. It's recognizing who He is and who you are, admitting it, and inviting Him into the conversation where He belongs: in charge.
Calling on the name of the Lord means letting Him be LORD of your life.
Real LORD. God Almighty. The master. The boss. The one you go to over and over again and say, "What would you have me do, Lord?" Waiting for Him to speak. Learning what His voice sounds like. Obeying when He gives you direction.
Maybe try it today. Call on the name of the Lord. Read Psalm 116 aloud but personalize it by inserting your own story. Your own testimony.
And invite Him to be God.
(He is anyway. But it's time we call Him that.)
THANK YOU for subscribing! If you haven't yet, please do at the upper right. Put your email address in the box and then respond to the email you get.
@leslienotebook
myleslienotebook@gmail.com
PS--I also write a blog for runners. You might want to check it out :)
Leslie, I am ALWAYS inspired by your blog. ALWAYS. This latest blog is just one of many that seem so inspired by the Holy Spirit that it's like a text from God Himself. Thank you for your heart for God and His Word.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Marie. I am so honored to count you as a reader.
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