Which God Do You Serve?

"Therefore, fear the Lord and worship Him in sincerity and truth. Get rid of the gods your fathers worshiped beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt, and worship יהוה. But if it doesn’t please you to worship יהוה, choose for yourselves today the one you will worship: the gods your fathers worshiped beyond the Euphrates River or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living. As for me and my family, we will worship יהוה."Joshua 24:14-15 CSB

definition

worship[1]

verb

1. : to honor or show reverence for as a divine being or supernatural power
2. : to regard with great or extravagant respect, honor, or devotion

What does it mean to worship?
The CSB uses "worhsip to describe Joshua's allegiance to God, while the KJV uses the word "serve." The original Hebrew is עָבַד, which mostly translates to "serve." This firmly cements worship and allegiance to God to actions

Biblical examples of worship/serving

• The same word is used in Genesis 14:4 and Genesis 15:13-14; here it is in reference to enslavement and bondage
• Exodus 3:12
• Exodus 20:5;9 - used to condemn idolatry and also a reference to work when it comes to the Sabbath
• Exodus 23:24-25
• Psalm 100:2 - "Serve the Lord with gladness: come before His presence with singing"

So, who are these other gods? How do we choose? What is the importance of Joshua 24:14-15?
To identify the idols God has commanded us to stay away from, we must first define the words "god," "deity," and "idol," so that we can recognize them both in Biblical times and in modern times. Does it have to be personified? Can one person make something a god (re: do numbers matter)?

definition idol[3] noun : an object of extreme devotion : a representation or symbol of an object of worship broadly: a false god a: a likeness of something b: obsolete: PRETENDER, IMPOSTER : a false conception : FALLACY : a form of appearance visible but without substance

definition god[4] noun a: the being perfect in power wisdom, and goodness, who is worshipped as creator and ruler of the universe b: Christian Science: the incorporeal divine principle ruling over all as eternal spirit : infinite Mind : a being or object believed to have more than natural attributes and powers and to require human worship specifically: one controlling a particular aspect or part of reality : a person or thing of supreme value : a powerful ruler

definition deity[5] noun a: the rank or essential nature of a god : DIVINITY b: capitalized: GOD sense 1, SUPREME BEING : a god (see GOD entry 1 sense 2) or goddess : one exalted or revered as supremely good or powerful

Idols and false gods in the Bible

Tammuz	Sumerian god	fertility god	Ezekiel 8:14
Ba'al	Canaanite god	sun god	Numbers 25; Judges 2:13
Chemosh	Moabite god	"the subduer"; required human sacrifices	Numbers 21:29; Judges11:24
Ashtoreth	Canaanite god	consort of Ba'al	1 Kings 11:5; Judges 2:13
Dagon	Philistine god	1/2 fish; 1/2 man; water god	1 Samuel 5; Judges 16:23
Marduk	Babylonian god	fertility god; had 50 names	Jeremiah 50:2
Molech	Ammonite god	other names: Molech, Milcom, Molek	Leviticus 18:21; 2 Kings 23:10
Zeus	Greek god	ruling god in Greek mythology	Acts 14:12
Hermes	Greek god	god of trade and trickery; son of Zeus	Acts 14:12
Artemis	Greek goddess	goddess of the hunt and moon; Zeus' daughter	Acts 19:24-28

Are there modern gods/goddesses that we should beware of?

• We have a tendency to make our own gods (think, The Gold Calf from Exodus 32)
• We turn objects into gods (eg., phones, jobs, etc.)
• We idolize people, specifically celebrities

Who was the first false god? Why did people start worshipping it?

Why are idols a thing?

• The first instance of man turning away from God (יהוה) is in Genesis 3 when Adam and Eve listened to the serpent
• The serpent is the devil (Revelation 12:9; 20:2)
• His goal is to be like the Most high God (Isaiah 14:12-14)

definition

αντι[6]

preposition

over against, opposite, instead of, in place of

• The antichrist, mentioned in 1 John 2:19,22; 4:3 and 2 John 1:7, is taking it one step further in trying to replace God (יהוה) by taking the place of Christ.
• God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are Truth
• Satan, antichrist, and the beast are the devil's deception

Examples of things/ideas/people replacing God (יהוה) in our society today

• Thinking a man is infallible and has the power to forgive sins (eg. the Pope and priests)
• Traditions in the church
• One World Religion / Coexist ideology

Biblical warnings

• 1 Timothy 4; 6 - The Great Apostasy; deceiving spirits, doctrine of demons, lies/hypocrisy
• 2 Peter 2 - Destructive Doctrines; false teachers, false prophets
• Matthew 7:15 - False prophets compared to wolves in sheep's clothing
• Matthew 24:11,24 - False prophets/christs deceive the world
• Acts 13:6-12 - Outing a false prophet
• 2 Corinthians 11:1-21 - Warning about another Jesus being preached
• Colossians 2:18 - Worship of angels
• 1 John 4:1 - Test the spirits to know if they are true or false
• Revelation 13:14 - deception of the antichrist
• Revelation 19:20 - deception of the antichrist

My actual notes for the show

Angels and spirits are not all working for God (יהוה). Either way, we may mistake them for gods and those not on God's (יהוה) side will allow you to worship them.

References

1. "worship". Merriam-Webster Dictionary; visited December 2019
2. "Strong's H5647". Blue Letter Bible; visited December 2019
3. "idol". Merriam-Webster Dictionary; visited December 2019
4. "god". Merriam-Webster Dictionary; visited December 2019
5. "deity". Merriam-Webster Dictionary; visited December 2019
6. "Strong's G473". Blue Letter Bible; visited December 2019

The LORD will Provide

Season 1 Episode R

¹²Then he said, “Do not lay a hand on the boy or do anything to him. For now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your only son from me.” ¹³Abraham looked up and saw a ram caught in the thicket by its horns. So Abraham went and took the ram and offered it as a burnt offering in place of his son. ¹⁴And Abraham named that place The Lord Will Provide, so today it is said: “It will be provided on the Lord’s mountain.” Genesis 22:12-14 CSB

Just when I think there's no way out, God always provides a way. He's been doing that for His people since the very beginning, which is why one of His names is YHWH Jireh, the Lord will Provide. In this bonus episode, let's talk about why the name YHWH Jireh is so important.

References and Footnotes

"The Lord Will Provide:" Why Is God Called Jehovah Jireh in the Bible?". Bible Study Tools; visited September 2019

Note, the name YHWH is often pronounced Jehovah or Yahweh in English but the pronunciation of the name has been lost since the Israelites believed it was too sacred to speak.

The LORD is Peace

One of the names of God is "The LORD is Peace." It's such an obvious name, but it only occurs once in the Bible. Let's look at that instance and see how it applies to us today.

Season 1 Episode K

²³But the Lord said to him, “Peace to you. Don’t be afraid, for you will not die.” ²⁴So Gideon built an altar to the Lord there and called it The Lord Is Peace. It is still in Ophrah of the Abiezrites today.Judges 6:23-24 CSB

00:01:10	Welcome back to the PSALMS to God podcast. So today I wanted to get back to talking about the names of God. I love learning about the names of God because I feel like it helps me to connect more to God's character and to understand who He is, which is really important in our relationship with God and our walk with Him. So, today’s name is Jehovah Shalom or Yahweh Shalom if you prefer to pronounce God's name as Yahweh. Either way I guess would be acceptable, since we don't actually know how to pronounce this word. I've talked about that in a previous podcasts, so I won't really dwell on that point.
00:01:52	This name translates to “The Lord is Peace,” and if you've been following along then you know we've been talking about peace. I did an episode on a Fruit of the Spirit that's peace not too long ago, and so this name just kind of ties in with that, and with the concept that you cannot have peace without knowing God and without getting it from God, because He's the source of peace. So, I think it's interesting because it's one of the names that, you know, I kind of knew. I kind of expected. I mean you're always saying, you know, that Jesus is the Prince of Peace. So it makes sense that the Lord is peace and that that would be a name for God…
00:02:38	But the actual phrasing “The Lord is Peace” or the actual phrasing Jehovah Shalom—shalom, I don't know why I'm pronouncing this weird—it’s only found in the Bible once, and that is in Judges 6:24. So, I'm going to go there really quick, and I wanted to look at this. I think it’s really interesting, because right before we get the verse where we actually see God being called The Lord is Peace, we get kind of the context of what’s leading up to this. And this is, Israel is about to go to battle. Gideon, who is one of the judges, is leading the army. They're all kind of freaked out, as always. You know the Israelites, they was a little short on faith. They didn't always think that they was going to get through things, even though God was telling them they were going to get through things.
00:03:42	So, if you begin reading from a little bit before where this name is actually declared, you'll see that Gideon was preparing for this battle, and all of a sudden an angel from God, the Angel of the Lord, specifically—I should do an episode on the Angel of the Lord... Sorry, sidenote, we'll come back to that. Anyway, the Angel of Lord, just know that is very specific Angel and a very special angel, comes and delivers a message to Gideon. And when the message is finished, Gideon realizes who it is that he has encountered, and he is like freaking out. OK, ‘cause we all know that when you come into contact with Spiritual Beings, particularly the Angel of the Lord or God, you know, no one just sees… You can’t just see God's face and live, right? This, this... You should be very overwhelmed if you get the pleasure of interacting with God or one of God's angels up close, and that's how Gideon was, but he was also afraid for his life. Just like Isaiah, when he first came in the presence of God. You know he felt unworthy and he bowed down. And it is kind of the same thing, where you just know that you're not you're not in the same sphere. You're not supposed to be there. You’re not worthy of being there.
00:05:06	So Gideon is freaking out and the angel of the Lord says to Gideon, “peace to you.” So basically he's saying like “I come in peace. Don't worry. Don't be afraid,” and then it is after that that Gideon decides to name the place that he at. He builds an altar to God, and then he names this altar The Lord is Peace. And so the combination thing, that you know obviously he was not injured or harmed by God when he had this interaction, but also that God was promising prosperity in the sense of peace amongst the Israelites. And he took them to that battle to make them successful, and that's very important.
00:05:52	Photocredit: Unsplash.com/Cole Keister I think it's interesting that's like I said that's the only place where this name is mentioned, because you know God went to battle for the Israelites all the time. But I think it important to remember it stands out. Everyday, we go through our own battles—spiritual battles, physical battles... The world is not an easy place to live in. And peace is definitely not prevalent. It does not grow on a tree. If it did, we are in a drought and that tree is extinct. It is very hard to maintain peace in the society that we live in, and I think remembering and reflecting on the fact that Gideon had this encounter with this Presence and then chose to name this place after the peace that God has bestowed upon Him is something to remember in our personal lives. That's the kind of experiences we want.
00:06:51	In the midst of this battle. In the midst of the war that's raging in your life, what we want is for the spirit of God to come in and to be like, “Don't worry. I got this,” “Peace,” “Be calm,” and “I'm here.” And that is exactly what God does, if you let him. When we get into these situations, we have to know to call on that name: Jehovah Shalom. So, as you say your prayers this week, as you go through your trials and tribulations, remember this name: Jehovah Shalom, The Lord is Peace. Take Him with you everywhere you go, and tap into that peace.
00:07:41	Thank you guys for listening in. I hope that you will continue. Don't forget to subscribe. You can find a transcript for this particular episode at www.psalmstogod.com/TheLordIsPeace. See you next time.

Footnotes and References

1. "Name of God". Blue Letter Bible; visited April 2019
2. "Jehovah Shalom". Bible Study Tools; visited April 2019

The Everlasting God

El Olam means The Everlasting God. I made the mistake of thinking everlasting referred to His presence, but everlasting is God's essence.

Season 1 Episode G

³³Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beer-sheba, and there he called on the name of the Lord, the Everlasting God. ³⁴And Abraham lived as an alien in the land of the Philistines for many days.Genesis 21:33-34 CSB

00:01:13	Hey guys! Welcome back to the PSALMS to God podcast. So today we're talking about El Olam: the Everlasting God. When I first picked this name to learn, I had misgivings about doing an episode on it. I felt like it was going to be way too short, and there wasn't going to be anything to say, because it's pretty self-explanatory, “The Everlasting God.” I didn't have a quote-unquote angle, like what am I going to talk about? God is Everlasting, duh. But, as I actually started digging in and researching the name, I quickly realized that my first instinct about the name was not what it should have been, and that kind of blew my mind.
00:01:59	When I thought of the name “Everlasting,”—you know, I looked up the word olam (עוֹלָם) in Hebrew[1] and I saw that it means, you know, from antiquity, forever, everlasting, etc., etc.—eternity. Like I said, that just seems self-explanatory. God exists outside of time; of course He's everlasting. But I scrolled down to see, you know, how many times it's used in the Bible, and of course, where it’s first used, how it's introduced to us as God's people, when the Israelites started using it—all of that good stuff—and I found that it's used 438 times! That's a lot of times. I was like OK, maybe God is trying to tell me something... If He used it 438 times in the Bible, I should probably pay attention and see what the deal is.
00:02:59	And when I opened the Bible to the first occurrence of this name, I quickly understood that I was looking at it from the wrong angle. I was thinking of the Everlasting God as defining His existence. God is Everlasting: He is always been here, He will always be there. But the names of God define God's character, not His existence, which is slightly hard to wrap your head around because His existence and His character kind of go hand-in-hand, but when I read the passage, I realized it’s talking about more than His presence. It’s talking about Who He is. Who He is is Everlasting.
00:03:48	God exists outside of space and time Photocredit: Unsplash.com/NASA Let me talk a little bit about that particular passage so we can talk about what I mean when I say “Who He is is Everlasting.” So in the passage, the first time it occurs, is in Genesis 21:33, and when you first read that one verse, it doesn't seem that important. Abraham has this well or this tree that he's planted, and he's naming it, and he calls on the name of God and causing the Everlasting God. And you're like okay, so what? But surrounding this, we have to remember that this is when Abraham has first come to Canaan, and he is basically staking out an area for himself and creating a home in this foreign land. Meanwhile God has promised him and made a covenant with Abraham that He would make Abraham the father of many nations—one of these nations being a great nation, the nation that would bring forth the salvation of all mankind, and that was the nation of Israel. That's where Jesus would come through, and how we would get salvation and all these things.
00:05:01	When God would bring the nation of Israel, He would put them in the land of Canaan. That was His promise. It's the Promised Land, but that when did not belong to Abraham, so it could not belong to his descendants, yet—minus the fact that God gave it to them. But It wasn’t the next day that these things happened. It wasn't the next week, the next year, the next decade. It was centuries later. Abraham was dead by the time these promises were fulfilled.
00:05:32	That is what I'm getting at. That is Who God is. His promises are everlasting. His love is everlasting. His forgiveness is everlasting. His healing is everlasting. All of the other names of God that we talk about, all of the other attributes of God that we talk about, are everlasting. God does not change. His promises do not change. They don't fade. This is the beauty of that name, and it took me reading that passage to realize that there was so much more depth in calling him the Everlasting God than just talking about his existence. He is—everything about Him is Everlasting. Everything He does is everlasting, which is so comforting, right? ‘Cause I'm not trying to be healed for a second. I’m trying to have eternity for eternity and that's exactly what He's giving us now.
00:06:38	Now, as I was reading the passage and as I was processing all of this, it actually brought me back to an experience in my own life—and that's the whole point of reading the Bible, is so that we can connect with the past, that we can connect with what's being told in the stories given to us so we can see how they work in our own lives.
00:06:59	The promise that God had made to me or rather the experience that I had that God was bringing me through was similar on a much less painful scale, to that that he'd give Abraham and Israelites—that He would prosper them and He would give them this land. And they had to go through something. There wasn't a direct route from point A to point B, and it didn't happen overnight. That's what happened to me with grad school.
00:07:28	When I got it in my head that I wanted to go to grad school, and I had my conversations with God, and I decided that I was going to go down that path, I thought I was going to go for four years and I was going to get out—maybe 5—and that was going to be it. I picked the school. I prayed. I got the fellowship, and I thought that was like God saying, “Yes! Boom! This is My stamp of approval. This is where I want you to go. This is what's going to happen. Everything's going to go to plan.” And to be honest, up until that point that school had worked for me. I just showed up, and I did the work, and everything worked fine, so I didn't see why grad school would be any different. But that is not how grad school went.
00:08:15	Those first two years were so rough. I'm still mystified I even graduated with my Master's—that's a whole topic and a whole podcast episode of itself, but needless to say I was miserable the first two years of my graduate program, and I wasn't even sure I was supposed to be there, anymore. I didn't enjoy it. I didn't, I mean, I just had serious misgivings, but I was stubborn and I didn't want to quit. Oone thing led to another thing and eventually I did graduate with Master's, but that wasn't my plan my plan was to get a PhD from that school. It was supposed to be a one shot, one and done, go ahead and then go on into your future endeavors. But that's not how it worked out, and God took me back to my undergraduate institution after that rocky period.
00:09:19	And when I went back to my undergraduate institution, you know, things started to pep up. I liked it better; I was happier. Everything was starting to look up, and I was like okay maybe God just took me there for a minute to teach me, just like a little lesson. You know this was my Exodus out of Egypt, I was going—I was at the Promised Land! But that didn't go the way I thought it was either. I did not pass my first portfolio attempt[2] and then my advisor quit his job. And I was just like “Whoa! Wait! What's going on? This is not how this is supposed to be going. What am I supposed to do?” And I was freaking out. This was I guess my moment where the Israelites decided that they couldn't fight, that they was not prepared to go and take Israel even though God said that they could take the land.
00:10:12	So I ended up moving schools again because I went with my advisor, and it was when I went with my advisor that God really moved His hand and showed me like “Yeah, you know, you remember I told you that you could have this? I told you you could have this because you're going to have it, but not in your time in My time.” And I got the PhD. And the project that I did, the skills that I learned, none of what happened would have happened if it had not been for that series of events. Every single move that I made, every school that I went to, I learned something that I needed to get to the point that I am now. I made connections that I needed to get to the point that I am now. I built friendships... Even the things that have nothing to do with the field that I'm in—my relationship with Christ, studying the Word, all of these things are directly tied to the experiences I had going through that struggle.
00:11:17	When I look at what happened to Abraham, him declaring God the Everlasting God when God made the promise and before any of this stuff played out, it reminds me of how far I was from God at the beginning of that journey. Because during that process, I mean, before the process I wasn't shouting out El Olam, Everlasting God, and so during the process I had serious misgivings about what was happening. But now, I realize that God is the Everlasting God. Everything about his character is everlasting. He will love everlasting. He will heal everlasting. His promises are everlasting. Everything about Him—His forgiveness. And so now I am fully prepared that when I go through these situations, when you go through your trials, you know, “in bondage” and you’re being brought out and brought into “the promised land”, I know it may not be today; it may not be tomorrow, but when God makes a promise, it is everlasting, because He is El Olam, and that's something I don't ever want to forget and you shouldn't either.
00:12:38	Thank you guys for tuning. I hope that you will subscribe if you haven't. Don't forget that this episode’s transcripts can be found on the web site at www.psalmstogod.com/everlasting. You can find a bunch of other content on the website, as well, so you can subscribe and visit there too. I can't wait to talk to you guys again in the next episode, so I will see you guys again on Monday. Bye.

Footnotes and References

1. "5769. Olam". Bible Hub; visited February 2019
2. The portfolio was basically like a qualifying exam, it was the catalyst to move from PhD student to PhD Candidate (which basically gives you the clear to pursue your research, form a committee, and advance in the PhD process).

The Lord Who Heals

YHWH (or Jehovah) Rapha means the LORD who heals. I've seen Him heal, so I have good reason to call Him this. Has He healed you and do you know Him as YHWH Rapha?

Season 1 Episode D

He said, “If you will carefully obey the Lord your God, do what is right in his sight, pay attention to his commands, and keep all his statutes, I will not inflict any illnesses on you that I inflicted on the Egyptians. For I am the Lord who heals you."Exodus 15:26 CSB

00:01:10	Hey guys! Welcome back to the PSALMS to God podcast. If you're wondering why I sound different today, it's because last weekend I talked way too much and I lost my voice. I haven't really fully recovered it yet—bless you Bubbles, sorry Bubbles is sneezy. She's still recovering too. And this is all very very fitting because when I was sitting around last week trying to plan what episode I wanted to do as like a short episode—what verse I wanted to read—I wanted to go back to the names of God. And the name of God that I had chosen to talk about is Jehovah Rapha, which is really YHWH Rapha, and the meaning of that name is "the Lord who heals you." When I made that decision, or when I thought I was making that decision, pretty sure God was smiling like, "yeah 'cause you going to need some healing when you record that episode." I don't know, I don't know. It's a funny way things work out, but I'm okay, and I'm happy, because I love, love, love the idea of God as a Healer. And I understand that name better than any of the other names.
00:02:37	So before I actually go into why and how I feel about this, I want to go back to the verse. So in the verse Exodus 15:26, this is the only place in the Bible where God identifies himself as Jehovah Rapha, and He is promising the Israelites that if they keep the covenant, if they follow His commands, and they follow him as God, that he will not inflict the same diseases on them that were inflicted upon the Egyptians as He was bringing the Israelites out of Egypt. It makes sense because the entirety of illnesses whether they be mental illnesses or physical illnesses or emotional illnesses, however you want to define the illness, they all go back to the spiritual illness that is sin. Not to say that you are sick or that you have this issue because you sinned but the fact that sin is in the world has caused sickness to be in the world as well, and you know that was never God's intention. So it makes sense that as we surrender to God and as we do that which He asks, he's bringing us back to that state—back into the Garden of Eden before sin, where we would not be sick.
00:04:06	That is, of course, the biblical standpoint of that name ,and it doesn't really come up more often and I personally believe that the reason it only comes up there and in that promise is because the Bible was written by men. Yep I said, I went there. The reason that I believe this is because as a woman I am comforted and have to realize that God is a healer once a month. Now they're going to be some women out here who will not relate to this, but they're going to be a lot that do. And once a month there is a lot of pain and a lot of healing that I need from God. I personally have what is called dysmenorrhea; it is a fancy medical term that means pain so severe I can't function.[1] So growing up I used to have to miss school pretty much on a monthly basis like clockwork. I would pass out; I've lost my peripheral vision; I would throw up—the whole nine yards. I was basically—I'm basically—incapacitated. It's gotten better as I've gotten older, but I have definitely, definitely feared for my life at times. Of course, instinctually you just want to go to the doctor; you think that the doctor can make it better. So my mom would take me to the doctor; I would go. I've been to, I don't know how many, doctors who have tried to treat me, or tried to give me something to make it more manageable. And y'all, don't none of that stuff work. I've tried every type of over the counter medication; I've tried prescription medication; I've tried birth control; and once a month, I was still on the floor begging God not to kill me. You know I'm just like "oh, I'm dying, please I'm not ready to die yet."
00:06:21	What I found is that some of the prescriptions that I've been given, or even the over counter over-the-counter drugs that I have been given—in other cases even for the same types of pains, maybe I have a headache that's not related to that time of the month, or you know I hurt my arm, or I slept wrong and my neck is hurting, whatever the case may be, I can take those same medication and they work just fine. But during that time of the month, I will take those same medications for that same headache or whatever and they don't work. Just like right now—I have a headache; I've had a headache for two days and you take medication, you still got a headache, because the only way during that time. I found, that the pain goes away when I pray.[2] So, for the ladies out there who have experienced this pain and have not tried praying, I highly recommended—it works and you will be glad you did it.
00:07:23	So I feel like if women were writing the Bible, they will be shouting out God as the Lord who heals because I have a feeling many of our sisters in the Bible have experienced the same thing; and of course, when you're reminded of this on a monthly basis you cannot forget that it is God who heals us. That being said, I think that "the Lord who heals," that the name, the title, Jehovah Rapha, is so much deeper than that physical healing. I think, you know, for me personally, I'm kind of a wuss when it comes to physical pain particularly that physical pain, and so it stands out in my mind the largest. I'm always ready to get rid of that pain, but I think more importantly, there is emotional and mental pains that we carry, and God is also a healer in those types of pains and situations, as well.
00:08:27	What I found is that those types of pain carry into our physical pain. If you're unfamiliar with what I'm trying to say, what I mean is that when you're stressed out or when you're depressed or whatever the case maybe, it takes a toll on your body, physically—because that's when you can't, your body can't, fight the way it should. It can't fight sicknesses that are attacking it, and it's vulnerable. You know, one of the symptoms of depression is, you know, being lethargic, not wanting to do anything, so you may not be exercising correctly, you may not be eating properly, and all of these things, in turn, are hurting you physically, right? So, in order for us to be the best we can be and live our best lives, and you know represent God the best way, we need all of these things to be in in harmony and to be healthy. So I know that we have trouble admitting when we have mental needs or emotional needs; some of us don't like to say that we have that problem, but I just want to remind you that you know God is a Healer not just physically but emotionally, spiritually, mentally; all of those things can be taken to God, as well. And so do not hesitate to call on him for whatever reason, because we need some healing—not just in my house, but in this United States, in this world... There's a lot of healing that needs to happen, so let's call on Jehovah Rapha, the Lord who heals you.
00:10:24	Thank you guys for tuning in. You can find the transcripts for this episode at www.psalmsgod.com/jehovahrapha. Don't forget to subscribe so you can get the latest content, and I will see you on Monday.

Footnotes and References

1. "What Are Menstrual Cramps?". WebMD; visited January 2019
2. For the astute, yes I am admitting that over the course of those 2 days I did not pray for healing. I prayed for other things and forgot to pray about my headache. I ended up praying for the headache to go away as I prayed to begin the podcast. It was gone by the end of the podcast, so there's that.

The Most High God

How many of the names of God do you know? Do you ever stop to think about them or what they mean? In this bonus episode, we're talking about the name El Elyon.

Season 1 Episode A

¹⁸And Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and wine: and he was the priest of the most high God. ¹⁹And he blessed him, and said, Blessed be Abram of the most high God, possessor of heaven and earth: ²⁰And blessed be the most high God, which hath delivered thine enemies into thy hand. And he gave him tithes of all.Genesis 14:18-20 KJV

00:01:18	Hey guys! Welcome back to the PSALMS to God podcast. This is one of the bonus content episodes. These will come, in addition to the regularly scheduled Monday episodes, whenever I have a chance to just sit down and chat for a little while with you guys. Hopefully, that'll be often but I'm making no promises—that's why they're bonus content.
00:01:42	Anyway, I wanted to tell you guys this story about this experience I had in college and how that experience is changing my 2019 goals. So I'm really bad with names. I'm just going to put that out there, OK. I can remember a face; I can't remember to save my life, and I know some of y'all can relate to this. But when I was a freshman in college, I met this girl who lived in the same dorm as me and she lived on the floor above me, directly above me—so the room directly above me—and she was really cool. We ended up going to this Bible study together, and it was in the same dorm. It was like in the lounge in the dorm and a couple of us just kind of came together. I can't remember if we came together every week or every other week, but we did this the whole year and it was a great experience. I became pretty good friends with her, or at least I thought I became pretty good friends with her. We would go to lunch, we would talk about some of the things we'd talked about in the Bible study, and it was an overall just great experience—
00:02:56	*sound of commotion* I'm sorry guys, that's my cat.
00:03:01	Anyway, in addition to living in that same dorm that year, the next year we also lived in the same dorm, and this time she lived down the hall from me. We didn't continue the Bible study because at that point most of the people who had done the Bible study were either in different places or they had left that university or whatever the case may be. We kind of ended up going our own ways, but because we were still on the same dorm, we stayed in contact and continued to have lunch on occasion. So one day, I was with one of my other friends, and I passed her in the hall and I spoke to her, you know, the normal thing that you do. And after I passed, my other friend asked me who that was... Y'all I didn't know her name! I had known this girl for a year and a half, and I didn't know her name... And it turned out she didn't know my name either!
00:04:07	Y'all, as ridiculous as it sounds this is 100% factual. I'm bringing you this story because when I thought about it, and as I was talking to my friend in the last episode about defining God—we were talking about metaphors and how we describe God, and how we use these different things to interpret how we experience God in our conceptualization of God. I realized that a lot of the names that we use for God—like for instance, we call God Father, we call him Most High God or God Almighty—these names are actually some of those metaphors and some of the descriptions that we're using to try to help our understanding of who God is.
00:04:58	But I don't know most of the names of God and I'm embarrassed to admit that. You know, you hear these songs, particularly gospel songs, and they're up here, "Jehovah Jireh, Jehovah Nissi."[1] And you know, maybe I know those because I memorized the song, but a lot of times I'm not familiar with these, I can't just pop these out, out of thin air. But they're actually Hebrew terms that are found in the Bible. Most of the time in our Bible we get the English translations of these names, but they're names that the Israelites give God or that God gave the Israelites for Him—they're the names they refer to Him by—to express who He is. I just feel really embarrassed that I don't know all of these names, because he knows my name. He knows my nicknames, he knows my social security number, and a whole lot of other information about me that I'd probably rather Him not know. 😂
00:06:05	He knows all of these things about me, and I felt like I should be knowing these things about Him, because it says something about our relationship. Just like I was "friends" with this girl in college. Even though I had respect for her, and I assume she had respect for me, we were just going through the motions of being friends; we weren't actually friends. I cannot imagine how we had that many conversations and never bothered to learn each other's names. We couldn't have even exchanged phone numbers because if we did then her name would have been in my phone for when I contacted her via the phone. So something like that makes it really clear to me that she was only an acquaintance, and we were calling each other friends, but we weren't treating each other as friends.
00:07:02	So when I overlaid that experience once my experience with God, I started to realize that it's a disservice to my relationship with God for me to not learn these names. So, that is how this became one of my 2019 goals. Now, I'm not just talking about the English translations, 'cause if I try hard enough I could probably start naming some English names for God, but I want to learn the Hebrew names that were being used, and I want to map those to the English translation—mainly because just knowing the Hebrew will probably not do me any good. I just really want to get into that, and I want to read those verses and think on why the Israelites chose that name for God at that moment, and how those apply to my life on an everyday basis.
00:08:01	So, since I'm doing these bonus content episodes that are much shorter than the other episodes and are just kind of like little snippets about passages in the Bible I thought I would include some of these names of God here, as well. Don't worry, they won't all be about the names of God because I think there's so many verses in the Bible that are exciting to talk about, but this one is going to be about a name of God, and the first name that I'm starting off with is El Elyon (עֶלְיוֹן), and that means Most High God.[2]
00:08:45	So, this first appears in Genesis 14:18, which is part of what I read at the beginning of the episode. The reason I started here is because I feel like this is a great picture of who God really is. God Most High there is absolutely nothing above him! He is the ultimate source and that's amazing. When I think about how hard it is to get into contact with people who are in power, think about for students getting a meeting with your professor or your teacher depending on what level you're in. For people who are working ,trying to get that time with your boss to discuss some sort of situation I know these situations have been hard for me. They're not impossible, but they're pretty difficult, and take some forethought. Now, if you escalate that to trying to talk to the mayor or trying to talk to a senator or representative, and then escalate that further trying to talk to the governor or even higher, trying to talk the president of the United States, trying to talk to Kings and the UN or something some like major, the major powers that are playing today. You can't just walk up and get an audience with them whenever you want to. You can't just talk to them. If you write a letter to—not even just people who are important politically—if you write a letter to your favorite celebrity, there is no guarantee that you'll get a letter back. But God is the most high, there is nothing above Him, no one is above Him—the Ultimate Authority, Ultimate Power on Earth[3] and we always have a chance to talk to Him. And He's always listening to us. That's powerful and that's amazing, and that is why I wanted to commit this particular name to memory first. So the first name for 2019 that I'm remembering and thinking on is El Elyon, God Most High.
00:11:04	Thank you guys for tuning in; I hope that you'll continue to tune in. Don't forget to subscribe, that way you'll also always know when the bonus content is coming out, and look for episodes on Mondays. You can find the transcript for this specific episode at www.pslamstogod.com/mosthigh I'll see you guys again

Footnotes and References

1. The song I'm referring to specifically is "Because of Who You Are" by Judy Jacobs
2. "H5945. Elyon". Strong's Concordance, via Blue Letter Bible; visited January 2019
3. Obviously God is the ultimate power in the universe, but I think I said Earth because my brain was relating His power to that of Earthly rulers.