Under the new name

Be lifted up, O ancient doors!

That the king of glory may come in. Psalm 24:9

 

Read Isaiah 62:10—12

If the children of Israel, the people of Judah, had been sitting morose, exiled from their promised land, and had run through what the prophets had said, they could have heard themselves called ‘Lo-ammi, you are not my people and I am not your God.’[1] It would have fit very well. I can understand that, too, if I have had a bad day. Perhaps I have had. Perhaps I really feel like a no one. And if all I have to hold onto for my sense of well-being is what this day has brought, Lo-ammi is the name I would choose. But the new name is quite a mouthful. It is so long that it really is a story in itself: ‘The Holy People. The Redeemed of the Lord. Sought Out. A City Not Forsaken.” This name comes from somewhere else than the present day. It brings with it a future. It is a promise. It is the Lord’s name for his people and for me. Very truly, he wants me to live up to my name, and I can only do that by living not out of today but into tomorrow.

 

Gracious Lord, all that you promised Israel you have fulfilled in Israel’s Messiah. Whatever today has brought, whatever has been achieved, whatever has been lost or tinged with failure or regret, in Jesus Christ I am part of what you are unfolding. I am among The Holy People, The Redeemed of the Lord. I am Sought Out. I am a citizen of A City Not Forsaken. This is a grand new name. If I have been in exile from you today, I leave behind me now what I cannot take on the way, on the highway you have cleared for your people. I leave it as discarded baggage. Thank you that you have lifted your ensign over your people. You have lifted your sign over me. It is under your ensign that I can move into tomorrow.

 

 

[1] Hosea 1:9