Heaven Hears the Heart
Do you ever get confused about why some souls, even in the Baptist church, sometimes call God Jehovah, at least in songs?
One song, Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah (Bread of Heaven), is a permanent part of my memory. From the time I was a baby, it was sung as a hymn of preparation at my mother's home church.
Clearly, it was important to sing this song, because it was powerfully sung (and I don't mean theatrically, but from the soul). The congregation also rose and sat and rose again during its singing.
It required devotion to the heavenly Father to whom the congregation was singing. At least one version of the song calls on our "strong deliverer." But, at my mother's home church, it wasn't as if for a funeral. It was as if every soul in the congregation was crying out from the deepest part of the soul to our Lord, as if there were a lifeline between Heaven and every soul, every unique voice, even the voice of my grandmother.
The song was never sung the same way in any one church.
People of mostly European descent sang the same words written with other music.
In the African-American tradition, there was deep harmony and heart in the singing. ... How I wish I could hear the song sung the way it was at my mother's home church.
Some choirs today find strength in new ways. And yet newer song writers have brought yet newer joy.
Some churches that continue to sing in the old way maybe aren't really singing from the heart anymore, with whole faith; and that seems clear from the flatness of a lot of the signing.
Theatrical signing isn't any answer to the loss of inspiration among some of us now. Only real faith that cries out to the Lord, full in heart, can bless us with heavenly answers.
When the congregation called out to Heaven at my mother's home church, that lifeline of song included an unheard answer from Heaven. The song became a conduit of communication, from the heart to Heaven and back to heart.
Amen?
But, now, back to the original question:
Do you wonder why some souls, even in the Baptist church, have called on Heaven through the name Jehovah?
According to a publication by the Jehovah's Witnesses, calling Heaven by the name "Jehovah" came about when the Bible was being translated into Swahili; but there's serious reason to doubt that.
It's kind of complicated, but here's the truth:
Yahweh was the name that Hebrew priests spoke, in prayer, during Old Testament times.
Use of the name Yahweh was eventually silenced in Old Testament times: silenced by the Hebrew priests who spoke the name. (Maybe they were unknowingly making way for the name of Jesus?!)
Yahweh means "He Is" or "He Lives," and, when Jewish Masorites worked on early transcriptions of Hebrew texts, they replaced the affectionate term Adonai with the letters YHWH, which stood for Yahweh.
A lot of Bible transcription and translation has taken place since Jesus first walked among us.
But even before Jesus's walk, when the Hebrew people first began writing down the complete Old Testament record, parts of it were possibly written during a time when Israel was in captivity.
That was a sensitive time in Israel's history, when that faithful people were drawn back to Egypt; and, for some cause, at that time, the Hebrew priests stopped calling the Lord "Yahweh" in prayer, and began softening their speech to Him, calling Him Adonai ("My Lord," which was maybe a way of saying, My God, YOU are my Master). The priests also began calling on the Lord as Elohim ("The God," meaning God above other gods). So, in a way, their praise became more political than personal as praise had been.
Then, later, Masorite (Hebrew) scribes, beginning anywhere from 500 to 900 or so years after Jesus went back to Heaven, went through the texts and brought the texts back to Yahweh, using the letters YHWH. But those letters became a little bit of a puzzle for translators in the 1500s and beyond.
Just look at the letters YHWH.
Some translators maybe read YHWH as something like Yah-haw-wah (inserting vowel sounds in their own tongue).
A Hebrew-minded commentary looks at the letters YHWH from the viewpoint of those early translators. The commentary, published in a Jewish encyclopedia in 1906, says some translators may have looked at YHWH and said something like "Yahaweh." Simple.
It stands to reason that others, depending on their language of origin, began to say, "Jah" and "Jeho" instead of "Yah." So it is possible that translators, who were involved in giving the Swahili people God's word, did use the name Jehovah. But it's not because that was a name that meant anything in Swahili. It's because someone eventually pronounced YHWH, "Jeh-ho-vah."
Eventually, a great many people were saying Jehovah, a transliteration of the name that means "He Is" or "He Lives."
To put it all in the right context, it helps to remember "the reason that our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ came: to reconcile man to God," as a pastor says in one church's advertisement.
So, you know what? All that matters is that our one and only Creator, who shepherded His people Israel and gave us Himself as Savior, in order to eventually help all of us, knows what every translator meant, and knows who every soul is calling upon when speaking His name.
Today, as strong Christians, we skip ahead to the name of Jesus, which also is a transliterated name of the Lord. Because, Jesus is really Yeshua, basically meaning "God's Salvation."
We say the name Jesus is a transliterated name, because someone, in some language, pronounced Yeshua "Yea-shu," and someone else maybe then said "Hey-sue" (spelled Jesus, in Spanish), and someone else began to pronounce (based on the Spanish spelling) "Jee-sus."
But don't you know God hears the meaning, no matter the speech?
One song, Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah (Bread of Heaven), is a permanent part of my memory. From the time I was a baby, it was sung as a hymn of preparation at my mother's home church.
Clearly, it was important to sing this song, because it was powerfully sung (and I don't mean theatrically, but from the soul). The congregation also rose and sat and rose again during its singing.
It required devotion to the heavenly Father to whom the congregation was singing. At least one version of the song calls on our "strong deliverer." But, at my mother's home church, it wasn't as if for a funeral. It was as if every soul in the congregation was crying out from the deepest part of the soul to our Lord, as if there were a lifeline between Heaven and every soul, every unique voice, even the voice of my grandmother.
The song was never sung the same way in any one church.
People of mostly European descent sang the same words written with other music.
In the African-American tradition, there was deep harmony and heart in the singing. ... How I wish I could hear the song sung the way it was at my mother's home church.
Some choirs today find strength in new ways. And yet newer song writers have brought yet newer joy.
Some churches that continue to sing in the old way maybe aren't really singing from the heart anymore, with whole faith; and that seems clear from the flatness of a lot of the signing.
Theatrical signing isn't any answer to the loss of inspiration among some of us now. Only real faith that cries out to the Lord, full in heart, can bless us with heavenly answers.
When the congregation called out to Heaven at my mother's home church, that lifeline of song included an unheard answer from Heaven. The song became a conduit of communication, from the heart to Heaven and back to heart.
Amen?
But, now, back to the original question:
Do you wonder why some souls, even in the Baptist church, have called on Heaven through the name Jehovah?
According to a publication by the Jehovah's Witnesses, calling Heaven by the name "Jehovah" came about when the Bible was being translated into Swahili; but there's serious reason to doubt that.
It's kind of complicated, but here's the truth:
Yahweh was the name that Hebrew priests spoke, in prayer, during Old Testament times.
Use of the name Yahweh was eventually silenced in Old Testament times: silenced by the Hebrew priests who spoke the name. (Maybe they were unknowingly making way for the name of Jesus?!)
Yahweh means "He Is" or "He Lives," and, when Jewish Masorites worked on early transcriptions of Hebrew texts, they replaced the affectionate term Adonai with the letters YHWH, which stood for Yahweh.
A lot of Bible transcription and translation has taken place since Jesus first walked among us.
But even before Jesus's walk, when the Hebrew people first began writing down the complete Old Testament record, parts of it were possibly written during a time when Israel was in captivity.
That was a sensitive time in Israel's history, when that faithful people were drawn back to Egypt; and, for some cause, at that time, the Hebrew priests stopped calling the Lord "Yahweh" in prayer, and began softening their speech to Him, calling Him Adonai ("My Lord," which was maybe a way of saying, My God, YOU are my Master). The priests also began calling on the Lord as Elohim ("The God," meaning God above other gods). So, in a way, their praise became more political than personal as praise had been.
Then, later, Masorite (Hebrew) scribes, beginning anywhere from 500 to 900 or so years after Jesus went back to Heaven, went through the texts and brought the texts back to Yahweh, using the letters YHWH. But those letters became a little bit of a puzzle for translators in the 1500s and beyond.
Just look at the letters YHWH.
Some translators maybe read YHWH as something like Yah-haw-wah (inserting vowel sounds in their own tongue).
A Hebrew-minded commentary looks at the letters YHWH from the viewpoint of those early translators. The commentary, published in a Jewish encyclopedia in 1906, says some translators may have looked at YHWH and said something like "Yahaweh." Simple.
It stands to reason that others, depending on their language of origin, began to say, "Jah" and "Jeho" instead of "Yah." So it is possible that translators, who were involved in giving the Swahili people God's word, did use the name Jehovah. But it's not because that was a name that meant anything in Swahili. It's because someone eventually pronounced YHWH, "Jeh-ho-vah."
Eventually, a great many people were saying Jehovah, a transliteration of the name that means "He Is" or "He Lives."
To put it all in the right context, it helps to remember "the reason that our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ came: to reconcile man to God," as a pastor says in one church's advertisement.
So, you know what? All that matters is that our one and only Creator, who shepherded His people Israel and gave us Himself as Savior, in order to eventually help all of us, knows what every translator meant, and knows who every soul is calling upon when speaking His name.
Today, as strong Christians, we skip ahead to the name of Jesus, which also is a transliterated name of the Lord. Because, Jesus is really Yeshua, basically meaning "God's Salvation."
We say the name Jesus is a transliterated name, because someone, in some language, pronounced Yeshua "Yea-shu," and someone else maybe then said "Hey-sue" (spelled Jesus, in Spanish), and someone else began to pronounce (based on the Spanish spelling) "Jee-sus."
But don't you know God hears the meaning, no matter the speech?
Historic Bell at Bethlehem Missionary Baptist Church
Shreveport, Louisiana
A footnote:
"The old is gone, the new has come" does not mean we destroy or kill anyone's praise because we think our praise is more new and exciting.
Just think about it.
In Jesus, time is only a blink of the eye, and what may be old and un-free to you is new and just as free in Heaven's sight.
So, when we say all things are made anew, we just mean we have spiritual newness or renewal — revival — which is a return to Christ: a forsaking of life according to Old Testament governance and infidelity — and a living free, instead, in faith and understanding in Jesus: living true (no matter our age) to Heaven, true to fidelity, to oneness, to faithfulness. Because, that's what life in Jesus is.
It's almost a shame that some people get so caught up in a push to gain young people for Christ, that we forget that it's good for them to understand (and not have ungodly feelings toward) the faith that became foundational in nations like ours.
In Jesus, there's room for all Christian praise, and no room for one to hate another because of age.
In Heaven's sight, all heartfelt praise is new.
"Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called children of God."
Matthew 5:9, NIV
"Do not rebuke an older man harshly, but exhort him as if he were your father."
1 Timothy 5:1, NIV
"Jesus said to them, 'Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God before you. For John came to you in a righteous way and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and prostitutes did. And even after you saw this, you did not repent and believe him.'"
Matthew 21:31-32, BSB
In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea and saying, “Repent ... ."
Matthew 3:1-2
"As it is written, 'There is none righteous, no, not one.' There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one."
Romans 3:10-12
Sin, and misjudgment, kills all our praise, if it happens long enough. (Matthew 24:212)
Christian: When you're having trouble finding the light of life in a Christian who is different from you, don't assume the light isn't there; but look to the light in you: look to the love of Jesus in you, to better see the light of faith in that other Christian.
Not even Helen Miller's recording of "Bread of Heaven" is like the song sung at my mother's church. ... How I wish I could hear that simple sound of deeply-felt agreement again.
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