Snapshot

In Scripture, to know God’s name is to know Him. A name is not a label arbitrarily attached; it is a self-disclosure — a window onto character, authority, and covenant relationship. When God reveals a name, he reveals something true of who he is and how he acts toward his people. This overview frames the whole study: why the names of God matter, what the third commandment teaches about reverencing the name, and how to study the names well so that knowledge leads to worship.

“Those who know your name put their trust in you, for you, O LORD, have not forsaken those who seek you.” (Ps. 9:10)

Why Names Matter in Scripture

In the ancient world, and emphatically in the Bible, a name carried weight. To name something was to exercise authority over it (Adam names the animals, Gen. 2:19–20); to change a name was to redirect a destiny (Abram to Abraham, Gen. 17:5; Jacob to Israel, Gen. 32:28; Simon to Peter, Matt. 16:18). A name expressed essence and reputation. So when God makes himself known by name, he is not handing us a term of address but unveiling his very being to creatures who could never have found him out.

The whole drama of redemption is bound up with God making his name known. At the burning bush he discloses the name YHWH (Ex. 3:14–15). In the Exodus he acts “that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth” (Ex. 9:16). At Sinai he passes before Moses and proclaims his name as the content of his glory:

“The LORD passed before him and proclaimed, ‘The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.’” (Ex. 34:6)

To know the name, then, is to know God’s character. The Psalms continually link the name to trust, praise, salvation, and refuge (Ps. 20:1; 54:1; 91:14; 124:8). The name is a strong tower (Prov. 18:10). The goal of history is that the name of the LORD be hallowed and exalted over all the earth (Ps. 8:1; Isa. 12:4; Mal. 1:11).

The Third Commandment: Reverence for the Name

“You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.” (Ex. 20:7)

Because the name discloses God himself, treating the name lightly is treating God lightly. The third commandment forbids every empty, irreverent, false, or careless use of God’s name — in speech, in oaths, in worship, in profession. The Westminster Shorter Catechism summarizes it:

• Q. 54. What is required in the third commandment? The third commandment requireth the holy and reverent use of God’s names, titles, attributes, ordinances, word, and works.
• Q. 55. What is forbidden in the third commandment? The third commandment forbiddeth all profaning or abusing of any thing whereby God maketh himself known.

This is why the first petition of the Lord’s Prayer is “Hallowed be your name” (Matt. 6:9) — that God’s name be treated as holy, set apart, and glorified in us and through us. A study of the names of God is therefore an act of obedience to this petition: we learn the name precisely in order to hallow it.

How God Reveals Himself by His Names

The names cluster into recognizable families, and seeing the families helps the whole come into focus.

The El names build on the ancient Semitic word for God/deity, El, and qualify it: El Elyon (God Most High), El Shaddai (God Almighty), El Olam (the Everlasting God), El Roi (the God who sees). These press into God’s transcendence, power, and eternity.

**The Tetragrammaton, YHWH**, is the personal, covenant name revealed at the bush — the name of the self-existent, eternal, covenant-keeping God. English Bibles render it “Lord” in small capitals out of the reverence that surrounds it.

The Yahweh-compounds join the covenant name to a redemptive act or attribute: Yahweh Yireh (will provide), Yahweh Rapha (heals), Yahweh Nissi (my banner), Yahweh Shalom (is peace), Yahweh Sabaoth (of hosts), Yahweh Raah (my shepherd), Yahweh Tsidkenu (our righteousness), Yahweh Shammah (is there), Yahweh Mekoddishkem (who sanctifies). Each shows the covenant God meeting his people at a point of need.

The titles of Christ (category 02) reveal that the eternal Son bears the name and nature of God, and fulfills every name. Supremely, the seven “I AM” sayings of John echo the divine “I AM” of Exodus 3 and culminate in the absolute claim, “Before Abraham was, I am” (John 8:58).

The titles of the Spirit (category 03) name the third person who applies redemption — Helper, Spirit of Truth, Spirit of adoption.

What This Reveals About God

That God names himself at all is grace. The infinite, incomprehensible God — whom no creature could discover by searching (Job 11:7) — has stooped to make himself known in words we can receive. Theologians distinguish God’s incommunicable attributes (those that belong to him alone: aseity, eternity, immutability, omnipotence) from his communicable attributes (those reflected, in creaturely measure, in us: love, justice, mercy, holiness). The names touch both. El Shaddai and Yahweh press on the incommunicable; Yahweh Rapha and Abba draw us into the communicable. Yet the names never reduce God to our categories — even in revealing himself he remains “God Most High.”

The names are also relentlessly covenantal. God reveals his name to a people he has bound himself to save. To know the name is to be invited to trust, to call upon him, and to belong to him: “I will be their God, and they shall be my people” (Jer. 31:33).

Seen and Fulfilled in Christ

Every name of God finds its yes in Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 1:20). The name YHWH, “Yahweh saves,” is spoken in the name Jesus — “you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins” (Matt. 1:21). The God who is Yahweh Yireh provides, at last, his own Son as the Lamb (Gen. 22:8, 14; John 1:29). Yahweh Tsidkenu becomes ours when Christ is “our righteousness” (1 Cor. 1:30). The “I AM” who met Moses is the “I AM” who walks the shores of Galilee (John 8:58). And the Father gives the Son “the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow” (Phil. 2:9–10). To study the names of God is, finally, to be led to Christ.

A Reformed Reflection

The Westminster Confession opens its doctrine of God by gathering up what the names disclose: God is “infinite in being and perfection, a most pure spirit, invisible, without body, parts, or passions, immutable, immense, eternal, incomprehensible, almighty” (WCF 2.1). Each of these is a name made into a doctrine. Reformed theology insists that we know God only because he has revealed himself, and only as he has revealed himself — chiefly in Scripture, supremely in Christ. The study of the names is therefore not speculation about a God behind the revelation, but adoring attention to the God who has spoken. And because God is triune, the names are Trinitarian: the one name of God is the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit (Matt. 28:19).

Application

• Let study become worship. Information about God that does not become adoration has missed the point. Begin and end each study by hallowing the name you are learning.
• Call on God by his names in prayer. When you are afraid, address him as Yahweh Shalom; when you lack, as Yahweh Yireh; when you are guilty, as Yahweh Tsidkenu. The names are given to be used.
• Guard your speech. Honoring the third commandment means refusing every careless, profane, or empty use of God’s name — and cultivating reverent, frequent, glad use of it.

Reflection questions:

1. Which name of God most directly meets the need or fear you are carrying right now?
2. In what specific ways do you take God’s name “in vain” — not only in profanity, but in empty worship or false profession?
3. How does seeing every name fulfilled in Christ deepen your worship of Jesus?

For Prayer and Worship

Father, you have not hidden yourself but made your name known — in your works, in your word, and in your Son. Teach me to hallow your name, to know you as you have revealed yourself, and to trust the One whose name is above every name. Let my study of your names end always in worship. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Key Scripture References

• Ex. 3:14–15; Ex. 20:7; Ex. 34:6–7
• Ps. 8:1; Ps. 9:10; Ps. 20:1; Prov. 18:10
• Matt. 6:9; Matt. 28:19; John 8:58
• Phil. 2:9–11; 2 Cor. 1:20

Related Names

• The whole series: the El-compounds , Yahweh and the Yahweh-compounds , the titles of Christ , the I AM sayings , and the titles of the Spirit .

Further Study

• Westminster Shorter Catechism Q. 54–56; Westminster Confession of Faith ch. 2.
• Herman Bavinck, The Doctrine of God, on the names of God.
• J. I. Packer, Knowing God.
• The article on the names of God in a standard theological dictionary (e.g., NIDOTTE).