Names of God

…and the name of the city from that day shall be, The LORD is there – Ezekiel 48:35Here the prophet Ezekiel speaks of a momentous day in which God will live with his people in a special and intimate way. Though human history has been the repeated story of people running away from God, there will come a time when God’s people live with God in complete harmony and joy. This is literally heaven on earth: it is life after God brings about the new heavens and the new earth.Yet, amazingly, God not only describes himself as with his people in the future, when we are glorified, but even here and now. “The LORD is there” is, in a sense, the name of God also in his church, among his people, even now. Jesus promised to build his church, and after commissioning his church to go to the nations with his gospel Jesus assures them, “I am with you always” (Matthew 28:19-20). What a comfort that the God of the universe—who is everywhere present and nowhere absent—expresses his special concern and intimate presence with those who live in this world for the glory of his Son Jesus! He will never leave them; he will never forsake them. And one day soon God will live with his glorified children in total happiness and undisturbed peace.