Ps. 54.1 (the name and deliverance)

O God / save me / by your name
and defend me / by your might.

We have had occasion to mention this before but it can bear repeating. The divine name, when given over to Moses (and, therefore, to Israel), was provided at the very beginning of the most profound and decisive acts of liberation within the old covenant. This ‘power of the name’ is captured in ‘name theology’ when it is said that the name represents (or, is) the person named. Hence, when Solomon completes the Temple and God comes to reside with his people, it is said his ‘name’ comes to the Temple while he is also said to rule ‘in heaven’. This reality is captured well in this psalm. It begins by appealing to the name for deliverance and then goes on to appeal to God’s “might” (vs. 1), his “true faithfulness” (vs. 5), his “goodness” (vs. 6), and his “deliverance” (vs. 7). The ‘name’ takes on every characteristic of God himself. In addition, as mentioned above, the ‘name’ and the Temple are utterly wed together. Indeed, it is the name that makes the Temple more than a building and turns it into the very house of God. Later, after deliverance will be offered, he will return and “offer sacrifice” and “thankfully praise your name” (vs. 6). It is these twin acts of liturgy (sacrifice and ‘name praise’) that must occur within the Temple. For that reason we understand that the psalmist, here, has come to the Temple in order to be in the presence of the Name and present his petition. It would seem as if the normal avenues of justice have failed him.