Not to us, but to your Name give glory
Scripture references: Psalm 115:1, Genesis 4:17, 25-26, Genesis 6:4-8, Genesis 11:4, Genesis 12:7-9
Introduction:
Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory,
for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness!
-Psalm 115:1 ESV
I was watching a documentary recently. The documentary featured a well-known professional athlete, and during an interview, he made the comment: “My name is all I got. It’s my legacy…it’s everything”. To paraphrase the rest of his comments, what he was basically getting at was: ‘If I don’t have my name…what do I have?’
It seems that throughout life…we often get wrapped up in our own image, our legacy, our reputation…our ‘brand’. So much so, that it becomes our ‘end-all, be-all’. God speaks to us in amazing ways…because after I was finished watching that documentary, I pulled out a book to do some reading. As I read…I noticed something very interesting that may have confirmed God was trying to teach me something…
Devotional:
The book was titled: ‘Exodus Old and New: A Biblical theology of Redemption’ by Michael Morales. Morales references Genesis 4:17 which says:
“Cain knew his wife, and she conceived and bore Enoch. When he built a city, he called the name of the city after the name of his son, Enoch.” -Genesis 4:17 ESV
Morales comments on this by saying:
“Cain’s city building marks corrupt humanity’s transition to a new goal of fulfillment, a fabricated purpose, the quest for self-realization apart from God’s own agenda for creation and human history. Cain has set in motion the city-of-man project. The narrative betrays his city building as founded on three motivations: the desire for glory, protection, and permanence.
First, Cain built a city and named it after his son – this marks the quest for glory and immortality. In the ancient Near East as elsewhere, one’s name lived on through building projects, battle glory, or childbearing.”1
This theme of ‘name’ in the first chapters of Genesis does not stop with Cain. While Cain and his family line in Genesis 4 display more themes of self-glorification, boasting and self-preservation…we see a contrast when we get to the family line of Seth at the end of the chapter. Morales comments on this saying:
“While Cain’s family builds a city, the family of his brother Seth would become known as those who “Call upon the name of Yahweh” (Genesis 4:25-26), an act that portrays a life of dependance on and loyalty to God”1
So here we see the contrast. Cain’s line glorifying their own name…Seth’s line calling on the name of the Lord. As we continue into Genesis 6…the corruption and self-glorification intensifies:
“The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of man and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown.” – Genesis 6:4 ESV
This phrase ‘men of renown’, Morales points out literally translates to ‘men of name’ (or in Hebrew: ‘men of shem’). This pursuit of self-glorification and self-preservation leads to increased corruption and violence over the earth. Eventually this gets to the point where God says ‘enough’:
The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 6 And the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. 7 So the Lord said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them.” 8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. -Genesis 6:5-8 ESV
God…abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, preserves a faithful remnant in Noah to continue moving His plan of redemption forward. Someone who ‘calls upon the name of the Lord’ as his ancestor Seth once had done. But even after Noah…this human pursuit of self-glorification just doesn’t seem to stop. As soon as we move on from Noah…we encounter another ‘city-of-man’ project…
Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.” -Genesis 11:4 ESV
It’s happening again…a city building project ‘a la Cain’ that would no doubt begin another cycle of corruption on earth. What does God do? He confuses their language and disperses them. When considering what the first self-glorifying ‘city-of-man’ project led to…God’s act of judgment here also seems like an act of mercy upon an unfaithful humanity. God cuts this off right then and there…and what do we see in the very next chapter (Genesis 12)? We see God call ‘out of Babylon’ a faithful servant who will once again ‘call upon the name of the Lord’…this is Abram…
Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built there an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him. 8 From there he moved to the hill country on the east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. And there he built an altar to the Lord and called upon the name of the Lord. 9 And Abram journeyed on, still going toward the Negeb. -Genesis 12:7-9 ESV
…’and called upon the name of the Lord’. God’s plan of redemption is not built on humanity’s sinful desire to make our own name great. It is built on faithful servants who call upon the name of the Lord.
It is only when we stop pursuing our own ‘quest for self-realization’ (as Morales puts it) and put His name above our own – that we can truly find rest.
I think it bears repeating, as a foundational theme pulled from the Biblical prologue of Genesis: God’s plan of redemption is not built on humanity’s sinful desire to make our own name great. It is built on faithful servants who call upon the name of the Lord.
Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory,
for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness!
-Psalm 115:1 ESV
Amen.
Sean Wagner
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- Morales, L. Michael. Exodus Old and New: A Biblical Theology of Redemption. IVP Academic, 2020. ↩︎