You have magnified Your word according to all Your name.

Psalm 138 (NASB) from the daily reading in the One Year Bible

I will give You thanks with all my heart;
I will sing praises to You before the gods.
² I will bow down toward Your holy temple
And give thanks to Your name for Your lovingkindness and Your truth;
For You have magnified Your word according to all Your name.
³ On the day I called, You answered me;
You made me bold with strength in my soul.

⁴ All the kings of the earth will give thanks to You, O Lord,
When they have heard the words of Your mouth.
⁵ And they will sing of the ways of the Lord,
For great is the glory of the Lord.
⁶ For though the Lord is exalted,
Yet He regards the lowly,
But the haughty He knows from afar.

⁷ Though I walk in the midst of trouble, You will revive me;
You will stretch forth Your hand against the wrath of my enemies,
And Your right hand will save me.
⁸ The Lord will accomplish what concerns me;
Your lovingkindness, O Lord, is everlasting;
Do not forsake the works of Your hands.

“For You have magnified Your word according to all Your name.”  That will be the Lord’s promise for us, His response to our obedience to fulfill His commission to us. After His resurrection, before He ascended to the Father, Jesus commissioned believers saying:

“Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. ¹⁶ He who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved; but he who has disbelieved shall be condemned. ¹⁷ These signs will accompany those who have believed: in My name they will cast out demons, they will speak with new tongues; ¹⁸ they will pick up serpents, and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.”  

So many today seek the signs and the miracles without truly believing in the name. The signs are not merely for the purpose of drawing attention or for personal gain. The signs are a confirmation of the word, a magnification of the word. The word that is to be magnified is Jesus Christ, “the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14) It is the magnification of the gospel, the good news that Jesus, the Word, became flesh and died for our sins that we might be redeemed from sin, reconciled to God and then restored to what God intended.

In 1 Corinthians 2:1-5, Paul says:  And when I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. ² For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. ³ I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling, ⁴ and my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, ⁵ so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God.      Too many in the church today, because they know that the cross of Christ is offensive, have begun to preach another gospel. There are many today, who are gifted and eloquent speakers, who speak with a “superiority of speech.” They speak of wisdom and proclaim a testimony of God. It is though a testimony and a human wisdom based on what you can get from God. It appeals to the self centered nature of man rather than on the love and power of God.

Jesus says:  “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me. ⁷ If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; from now on you know Him, and have seen Him.”     This too is offensive in our culture. To believe and proclaim, as Jesus did, that He, Jesus is the only truth and way to the Father is considered intolerant, even arrogant, not politically correct.  It may indeed not be politically correct, but it is an absolute spiritual truth and principle. Paul, in his last words to Timothy said:     

 I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom: ² preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction. ³ For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, ⁴ and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths. (2 Timothy 4:1-4)     Surely we see this has come to be today. In the previous portion of the same letter Paul wrote:   But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. ² For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, ³ unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, ⁴ treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, ⁵ holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these. ⁶ For among them are those who enter into households and captivate weak women weighed down with sins, led on by various impulses, ⁷ always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. (2 Timothy 3:1-7)

There are many ways for many false teachers today to enter into households of needy people. These hold to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; Paul cautions us to: “Avoid such men as these.” In Galatians 1:6-10, Paul speaks to the conditions we see in much of the church today.         ⁶ I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel; ⁷ which is really not another; only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. ⁸ But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed! ⁹ As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed! ¹⁰ For am I now seeking the favor of men, or of God? Or am I striving to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a bond-servant of Christ.

The good news is not what God will do for you if you follow the wisdom and teaching of any man or woman. The good news is what Christ has already done for you, it is the power of the cross. In Acts 4:7-12, we read of an account that follows the miraculous healing of a man.

⁷ When they had placed them in the center, they began to inquire, “By what power, or in what name, have you done this?” ⁸ Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers and elders of the people, ⁹ if we are on trial today for a benefit done to a sick man, as to how this man has been made well, ¹⁰ let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead—by this name this man stands here before you in good health. ¹¹ He is the stone which was rejected by you, the builders, but which became the chief corner stone. ¹² And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.”

If the church today wants to walk in the power and authority of the early church, if we want to see the signs and the miracles they saw and performed, if we want to see God magnify His word according to His name, then we must, like Paul and like Peter know and preach nothing but Jesus Christ and Him crucified.  The signs which Jesus says will follow those who believe,  “ These signs will accompany those who have believed: in My name they will cast out demons, they will speak with new tongues; ¹⁸ they will pick up serpents, and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.”  These signs are evidence of the redeeming and restoring power of the cross. These signs are the evidence of the fulfillment of the prayer Jesus teaches us to pray.

“Your kingdom come. Your will be done, On earth as it is in heaven.” I will give You thanks with all my heart; I will sing praises to You; And give thanks to Your name for Your lovingkindness and Your truth; For You have magnified Your word according to all Your name.  On the day I called, You answered me; You made me bold with strength in my soul.   Amen.