YHWH Cela

Names of God: part 43:

The LORD my rock

YHWH is God’s actual name which he revealed to Moses from the burning bush, it implies the personal nature of God.

The second part of the name here is how God relates to us: Cela means rock and is derived from a word meaning high place.

God our rock appears many times in the Bible. Two that take my interest are in Psalm 18:2 and 2 Samuel 22:2. The words in 2 Samuel are the same, with only minor variations, as Psalm 18, yet come from two very different times in David’s life. The Psalm is from a time before David was king, it has this preface:

To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David, the servant of the Lord, who addressed the words of this song to the Lord on the day when the Lord rescued him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul. He said:

A song of praise to God for his rescue at a time of grave danger. It places the psalm towards the end of the reign of King Saul. David still had most of his life including his reign as king ahead of him.

At the end of the said reign, we have the same psalm again, complete with the introduction above in case the link to the psalm is missed. In the first we have someone actively trusting in God for the present day, in the last, we have the same words used by the same psalmist looking back on God’s protection. This shows that God can be trusted to protect us. David looks back on when he said God I am trusting in you and saying thankyou God for being trustworthy.

Can you pray these words of David?

I love you, O Lord, my strength.
The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer,
    my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge,
    my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.