Psalm139:20

Psalm 139:20

Do not abuse His Name

In Romans 5:10 Paul writes, “For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to Him through the death of His Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through His life!” 

In Colossians 1:21 the apostle says, “Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behaviour.” 

These passages teach us that we were all alienated by our sin and rebellion, we opposed God and rejected His love and sovereignty over our lives. We were in a very treacherous place for we disregarded the One who created us and gave us the rights and ability to enjoy a life on His earth. Only the gospel could change this and thank God, He opened our eyes and brought us into His family as sons and daughters. Wow!

The verse from Colossians above tells us that evil behaviour is what cuts us off from God and makes us His enemies. Included in that is the way we speak about Him and David highlights this failing here in the Psalm. Those who speak of God with evil intent and who misuse His Name, are His enemies. There are many ways in which God’s name may be misused, obviously blasphemy is one of them, people today try to couch this in acceptable language and say, “OMG” or “JEEZ”. But any form of abuse of the Divine Majesty of God is unacceptable and should never pass the lips of His children. People also abuse God’s name when they call down curses on others or make promises or oaths using His Name when they have no intention of keeping their word. God’s name is profaned by those who repeat sacred promises in things like wedding vows, even though they do not believe in Him! Even Christians can abuse the name of the Lord if they lie about His character or use Him as a threat to make financial gains. If our motives are not right then we lie, and this is abuse. Anyone who accuses God of being evil or having wicked intentions is His enemy, for instance the Pharisees who attributed the miracles of Jesus to the Satan! Let’s keep our motives clean and let’s ensure that our words do not in any way impugn the name of our God. 

 

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