Ps. 75.1 (the Liturgy of the Name)

We give thanks / to you / O God
we give you thanks / and your name / is near
your wondrous deeds / declare it. 

Here, at the opening of the psalms, we find a type of introductory summary of the entire psalm. The movement is one of thanks, to the ‘nearness of the name’, to the ‘declaration of wondrous deeds’. The sense here is of almost a type of ‘transaction’ or exchange—thanks going to God, the name ‘coming close’. In this way, we find more than a simple summary. Rather, we find a ‘positioning’, a movement of the psalmist and the community directly into this exchange. This is their ‘giving thanks’ that, in turn, will draw God’s name ‘near’. We will have reason to complicate this statement later. But, for now, we should note this clear dynamic between God’s name and his people. Further, the context of this opening is likely one in the Temple, for the Temple is where the divine name dwelt. It was where the name ‘was near’; whereas other people had idols within their Temple precincts, Israel had the divine Name. Along these lines, it should be pointed out that this Name is not merely a designation of God but the power-presence of God. To speak the Name is to bring that power ‘into play’. We can see this clearly by the fact that not only is the psalmist “giving thanks to God” but God’s works, his “wondrous deeds”, declare the Name. There is the sense that the acknowledgment of God also flows from his works as such; they are liturgical ‘enactments’ of his Name and, in this way, “declare it”. Their power is their “declaration”. As such, when one contemplates (and “gives thanks” for) the “wondrous deeds” one contemplates the Name—one enters, in a sense, into the ‘liturgy of the Name’. This is why, at the end of the psalm, it will not be the wondrous deeds that declare the Name, but rather the psalmist and his community that will “declare forever your wondrous deeds” (vs. 9). They will move into this “liturgy of the Name” and, from within that space, offer to God their “thanks”; they will, in other words, speak with the wondrous deeds which are the manifestation of the Name