Names are important to God. (Trust me that it's an entire sermon to just work through the scriptural principle of the progressive revelation of the name of God, consider that saved for another day.) We see that in bible times people also took names very seriously, sadly not something that has survived the passage of time, with modern names selected for the most random of reasons and from the most random of sources.

In his interactions with humanity, we see that God influenced many names, changing some and re-emphasizing others. The classic example of name changing would be that of Abram and Sarai who he renamed to Abraham and Sarah (Genesis 17:5, 15-16). As God changed the directions of their lives, he gave them new names that would match their newfound standing.

The foremost example of a re-emphasis of names is often wrongly thought to be a renaming. People often believe that Paul was renamed from Saul to Paul, as we see him called Saul up to a point and thereafter known as Paul. He already had both names (Acts 13:9), so it was in fact a re-emphasis. The reason for this is that while Paul was a Hebrew (Philippians 3:5), he was also a Roman citizen (Acts 22:27). As a Pharisee, his Hebrew name of Saul was his first choice. The dislike, bordering on hatred, of the Romans among the Jews would have limited his ability to operate as a religious leader of the Jews if he had gone by his Roman name Paul. Upon his appointment as the apostle to the Gentiles (Romans 11:13), many of whom were Roman or highly influenced by Roman culture and who often disliked Jews as much as the Jews disliked them, Paul found more acceptance of his teaching when favoring his Roman identity. Interestingly, the switch of usage from Saul to Paul was not God ordained. Paul chose the emphasis change for the afore-mentioned reasons.

The switch of emphasis of Simon to Peter was directed by God (Matthew 16:16-18). Simon's full name was Simon Peter and he did in fact use that name in his second epistle, but Jesus emphasized Peter because it means rock and corresponded to Peter's revelation of the messiahship of Jesus, which is the rock and foundation upon which the coming church would be built.

Marriage is an amazing thing. That two strangers with completely different backgrounds, personalities and goals can come together, become one, share everything, raise mini versions of themselves and live together in (mostly) complete harmony is a miracle.

After the creation of everything else in the universe, God created Adam and provided living accommodation, food and an abundant supply of pets. Even with all of this the Lord found that Adam was still lonely (Genesis 2:18). He took a rib from Adam, fashioned Eve from it (Genesis 2:21-22) and presented her to Adam, who promptly exclaimed “Wo! Man” and thus were half of the human race labeled. This God ordained relationship was the first marriage and sets the pattern that we would do well to follow (other than guys rightly being cautious of unexpected offers of fruit from their wives).

The scriptures offer no explanation of why God chose to fashion Eve from one of Adam's ribs. Upon careful reading and contemplation there appear to be two possibilities, but as one of them is a very bad joke with the punchline of "What can I get for a rib?", I'll skip over it and go to my preferred sensible answer.

I believe that God used a rib because he firstly wanted Eve to be of the same substance of Adam. Everything else in the universe was spoken into existence during creation, but Adam was specifically hand made by God from the dust of the ground and provided life by the breath of God (Genesis 2:7). This alone made him unique in the universe and a compatible mate would need to be similarly constituted. Secondly, a rib is from the side of the body. Eve was neither intended to be above nor below Adam, but to be his help meet who would be by his side all of their lives. And finally, a rib's purpose in life is to protect the most vital organs of the body: the lungs and especially the heart. Adam's rib shows that Eve was under his protection and that she was a vital part of his being that he would defend with his life.

We men have such potential to affect the spiritual well-being of our entire families. To this end, Gideon and Noah are an interesting study in contrasts for their effects upon their family.

23 And every living substance was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground, both man, and cattle, and the creeping things, and the fowl of the heaven; and they were destroyed from the earth: and Noah only remained alive, and they that were with him in the ark.

Genesis 7:23

Noah lived in a world that was evil and wicked and grieved the Lord. Noah stood out as one who was just and perfect and who walked with God (Genesis 6:9). This brought him the grace of God (Genesis 6:8) and he and his family were spared the death of the flood (1 Peter 3:20 & 2 Peter 2:5). While Noah's positive report saved him, we see that his family are not so described, yet are saved because of Noah. It is my observation that spouses and children of good people are most often also good, but Noah's wife, sons and daughters in law were saved regardless of their spiritual status and exclusively by Noah's good standing with the Lord.

27 And Gideon made an ephod thereof, and put it in his city, even in Ophrah: and all Israel went thither a whoring after it: which thing became a snare unto Gideon, and to his house.

Judges 8:27

5 If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.

James 1:5

Wisdom is a constant topic through the scriptures. The Lord considers wisdom to be an important facet of man's life and being the source of all wisdom is ready and willing to provide to any who feel that they lack.

The greatest concentration of wisdom is found within that foremost of the wisdom books, the book of Proverbs. We shall surely spend time visiting the proverbs, but on this occasion, we shall visit some of the wisdom found in the book of Psalms. The psalms are Hebrew poetry that were sung as songs. The majority of the psalms, but not all, were written by King David. David, although a flawed man, had a powerful relationship with the Lord and gave us both prophecy and wisdom in the psalms that he wrote. Much of what we know about God, his attributes and his perspective towards his creation comes from the anointed writings of David.

Let's look at the first psalm written by David, conveniently labeled as number one, that the scriptures present us with. It's difficult to be certain that this is the first one he wrote, but is presented to us first by the scriptures, so that gives it an importance and urgency, which we shall heed by reviewing it carefully. We'll cover the last psalm that David wrote, number 150, another time.

Democracy is a form of government in which it is permitted to wonder aloud what the country could do under first-class management.

Doug Larson