Ps. 48.10a (name, praise and "for")

“As is your name / O God – so is your praise!” At first glance this opening statement seems to make little sense. It seems to find a type of correlation between God’s name and the praise that is due him. The question is why or how this link is made. The first step, I think, is to see this in its context, within the litany of praises to God’s covenantal concern and care for those who are in his temple (the ‘citizens of his city’). It would be seen thus: lovingkindness—name/praise—righteousness—judgment. When seen in this light, the ‘name’ and its relation to praise must carry with it a type of covenantal assurance. There is, I think, a second clue to this. In the previous verse ‘lovingkindness’ was contemplated in the temple. We noted how, usually, we think of either God’s ‘face’ or ‘glory’ or, importantly, his ‘name’ residing in the temple and is an object of contemplation. If there is something to this switch (lovingkindness for name), then the name itself is the embodiment and expression/manifestation of lovingkindness; they are, in a sense, interchangeable. And, that, it is clear, is a source of praise for it is both that which makes Zion shimmer, causing it to be the exultation of the world and to be face of terror to those who would wage war against her children/citizens. One of the points to make about this is that God’s “name” is his being “for us” or “with us”. There is, here, no seemingly arbitrary distinction between God ‘in himself’ and God ‘for us’. God’s name is covenantal. “I am who I will be” is also “I am for you” as the name is delivered precisely in the context of covenant. He is not, first, in himself and then expressed. In his expression of himself he reveals himself to be ‘for’. As we see in this psalm, the closer one moves into his presence the more one moves into this dynamism until, at the very center, is ‘lovingkindness’.