Are We Proclaiming His Excellencies?

 “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.”
2 Peter 2:9 (ESV)

We revel in what God has made us – “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession” (2 Pe 2:9). It’s great to appreciate and value this blessing, but do we forget why God has made us “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession”? Peter goes on to say, “that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.” That’s why God did it. That’s why we are who we are in Christ. Are we proclaiming His excellencies?

We might be more comfortable with the NKJV and NIV which read, “…proclaim the praises of him…” But praising means to recognize, highlight, and enumerate excellencies (things that excel, things that are above and beyond). In other words, God has made us who and what we are in Christ so that we will be suitable to praise Him, so we will experience His excellencies and have cause to acknowledge them in our praises to God.

I was going to primarily write about whether our social media posts proclaim God’s excellencies – whether they show spiritually mindedness or whether they are materialist and rants against the world. But then I realized that social media is just the tip of the iceberg. We need to be praising God in all we do – at work, in our families, out with friends, on the sports fields – everywhere and all the time! It’s about who we are. It’s about the God and Savior we know. How can we not proclaim His excellencies? How can we remain quiet? How can we complain about less important things? It’s time for us to proclaim His excellencies to the world through our lives and words!     dd

A Word About Words

Maybe you’ve been hearing people say the word, “Yahweh” (usually pronounced YA-WAY) when they refer to God. So, what’s going on? In Old Testament Hebrew and Aramaic, the name for God is four consonant letters: YHWH

The exact pronunciation was lost in the original language out of fear of breaking the command not to take the Lord’s name in vain. Other terms for God were therefore used. Early English translators inserted the word “LORD” (all caps to differentiate it from other words for “Lord.”). Eventually, the name “Jehovah” appeared for the name of God in some translations. However, in recent years the term “Yahweh” is said to probably be closer to the original pronunciation. In my opinion, because no one really knows the exact pronunciation, it’s not an important distinction and one may choose how to say it. God knows our hearts, what we mean, and what we intend to say and that’s what is most important. dd