Bible Commentaries
Psalms 138

Verse 2

Ps 138:2

"For you have magnified your word above all your name." Ps 138:2

This is one of those expressions in Scripture that seem so comprehensive, and yet so amazing. To my mind it is one of the most remarkable expressions in the whole book of God. "You have magnified your word above all your name." The name of God includes all the perfections of God; everything that God is, and that God is revealed as possessing. His justice, majesty, holiness, greatness, and glory, and whatever he is in himself; that is God’s name. And yet he has magnified something above all his name; his word, his truth. This may refer to the Incarnate Word, the Son of God, who is called the Word. "There are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit, and these three are one" (1Jo 5:7). "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God" (Joh 1:1). You may take the words either as meaning that God has magnified his Word—his eternal Son—above all his great name, that is, he has set Jesus on high above all the other perfections of his majesty, or take it as meaning his written word, which is contained in the sacred Scriptures. He has magnified it above all his name in the fulfillment of it; God’s faithfulness being so dear to him, that he has exalted it above all his other perfections. He would sooner allow them all to come to nothing, than for his faithfulness to fail. He has so magnified his faithfulness, that his love, his mercy, his grace would all sooner fail, than his faithfulness; the word of his mouth, and what he has revealed in the Scriptures.

What a firm salvation, then, is ours, which rests upon his word, when God has magnified that word above all his name! What a comprehensive declaration is this! What volumes of blessedness and truth are contained therein! So that, if God has revealed his truth to your soul, and given you faith to anchor in the word of promise, sooner than that should fail, he would suffer the loss of all—for he has magnified his word above all his name.