Where everybody knows your name
As a pastor in a small town, I spend my share of time in our Co-op drinking coffee in the mornings. There is a regular crowd that I can expect to be there each day. It is one of those places where everybody knows your name.
If we are honest with ourselves, the depth we know people in our small towns is both comforting and at times frustrating. Each town has people with whom we would prefer less interaction. Perhaps it is that someone who makes their political beliefs abundantly clear, the exact ones they know are opposite of yours. Perhaps it is the older gentlemen whose stories are moderately inappropriate. Maybe it is just that person who is always grumpy.
Yet there is also something sweet about some of those people. Some have known you since you were young. They saw you in your awkward teen years. They were there the year that hail destroyed your entire crop. They came and paid their respects when you had a family death. Maybe they were there the day you got married.
The familiarity we have with these people reminds me of Psalm 9:10 which says, “Those who know your name trust in you, for you, Lord, have never forsaken those who seek you.”
When we think of knowing somebody’s name, that probably brings different connotations than what the author of Psalm 9, David, had in his mind. You see, we know many people by name in our lives. There was a scientific study recently that revealed that by the end of our lives we can recognize the faces of around 10,000 people and remember the names of up to 5,000 of those. That doesn’t mean we know much of who they are. Some of those may be simple acquaintances.
In the ancient Hebrew mind, knowing somebody’s name was to know something about them. People took seriously the meaning behind names. Parents would speak blessing or curse over their child in the name they gave them.
For David as he wrote, he was acknowledging that knowing God’s name was to know something about him. There are many names that God revealed to his people which provide insight into his character.
Jehovah Jireh means the God who provides. Jehovah Shalom means the God of peace. El Elyon means that God is the Most High God, with power greater than any other.
David says that those who know God’s name trust in him. David is basically saying that anyone who really knows God trusts him. So, the opposite is also true. Struggling to trust God can be an indication of lack of intimate relationship with Him.
There will be many people in your life who will try to tell you about who God is. But you need to more than just know about God. You need to personally get to know him. You can do that more and more each day through reading His word, through prayer, through silence before him.
I believe King David did know God himself. Out of his personal experience with God, in that same Psalm David said with confidence that the Lord is a refuge for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble.