Exegeting the Hymns 5 - What a Beautiful Name

What a Beautiful Name
w/m Brooke Ligertwood / Ben Fielding

You were the Word at the beginning
One With God the Lord Most High
Your hidden glory in creation
Now revealed in You our Christ

What a beautiful Name it is
What a beautiful Name it is
The Name of Jesus Christ my King
What a beautiful Name it is
Nothing compares to this
What a beautiful Name it is
The Name of Jesus

You didn't want heaven without us
So Jesus, You brought heaven down
My sin was great, Your love was greater
What could separate us now

What a wonderful Name it is
What a wonderful Name it is
The Name of Jesus Christ my King
What a wonderful Name it is
Nothing compares to this
What a wonderful Name it is
The Name of Jesus
What a wonderful Name it is
The Name of Jesus

Death could not hold You, the veil tore before You
You silenced the boast, of sin and grave
The heavens are roaring, the praise of Your glory
For You are raised to life again

You have no rival, You have no equal
Now and forever, God, You reign
Yours is the Kingdom, Yours is the glory
Yours is the Name, above all names

What a powerful Name it is
What a powerful Name it is
The Name of Jesus Christ my King
What a powerful Name it is
Nothing can stand against
What a powerful Name it is
The Name of Jesus

This is the current Billboard number one song and has been for a while.  It is a beautiful melody and focuses on the name of Jesus.  As a church, the name of Jesus is dear to us, not because there is something magical about the arrangement of the letters J, E, U, and 2 S’s, but because of the person and work of Jesus Christ, the second person of the Trinity who became flesh for us, lived the life we could never live, and died for our sins and rose again own the third day to save His people from their sins.

There are many people named “Jesus” even today, in fact, Jesus’ name is probable closer to the name we translate “Joshua”…another pretty common Hebrew name.   Mary was told to name her son Jesus because He would save His people from their sins.  This does not mean that every person named Yeshua (Jesus, Joshua) is a savior of the world, but it is a dear name to us because of the person behind the name.  

We do see in the scriptures, people believing in the “Name of Jesus”, but again, that meant more than believing in a name, but the Savior behind that name and confessing His as Lord.  Note that Philippians 2 says “God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name.”  What is that name that is above every other name?  “That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”  It is the name “Lord” that is above every name and the name to which every knee will bow.

But, as Bill Gaither once wrote…”Jesus…There’s something about that name”.  It does bring us comfort when we even speak that name because we have a personal relationship with the one behind that name…and with that, we break down the lyrics…

You were the Word at the beginning One With God the Lord Most High.  A clear reference to John 1 where it makes clear the doctrine of the Trinity, where we see that Jesus is not only WITH GOD, but WAS GOD!  Your hidden glory in creation Now revealed in You our Christ. To be honest, I’m not sure what the writers mean by Christ’s hidden glory in creation except maybe to mean that Jesus was not manifested in the flesh until a point in time.  Romans 1 says, “For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.”  Here we see that the glory of God was actually revealed, not hidden in creation, but we will take it to refer to Christ being revealed as the Savior 2000 years ago.

The Chorus is a cry from the heart saved by Christ:  What a beautiful Name it is, What a beautiful Name it is, The Name of Jesus Christ my King, What a beautiful Name it is, Nothing compares to this
What a beautiful Name it is, The Name of Jesus.  Yes, nothing compares to Christ.  Nothing can be put on a pedestal above Him.  Here we see that the “name” of Jesus represents Jesus Himself as explained above.

Initially, I had some problems with the first two lines of the second verse:  You didn't want heaven without us So Jesus, You brought heaven down.  The word, “So” said to me that the reason that Jesus was sent to earth to die for our sins (brought heaven down) was because God didn’t want heaven without us.  We do not believe that God was lonely in heaven, there was perfect fellowship among the Trinity for eternity past.  Nor do we believe that God looked down on earth and saw something so lovable that He just “had to have it” and so, sent His Son to go get it and pay any price.  There are false teachers that teach this, but we know that all that God does is for His own glory first and foremost.  I struggled with what seemed to be a “You’re worth it”, self-esteem gospel in these two lines.

It was then, I looked at the word “Us”, and that changed my perspective on the song.  I asked myself the question, who is the “Us”?  Several verses came to mind.  John 10:  “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for THE SHEEP.”  Also John 6:  “All that the Father GIVES ME will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.  For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me.  And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that HE HAS GIVEN me, but raise it up on the last day.” And Matthew 1:  “You shall call his name Jesus, for he will save HIS PEOPLE from their sins.”  

I looked at the imagery used by Christ of the story of the good shepherd who leaves the ninety-nine and “goes after the one that is lost, until he finds it”.  All believers, of every generation, are a gift from the Father to the Son, and the son loses none of them (John 6:44).  The Us, is those whom He has foreknown, and yes, He not only didn’t want, but wouldn’t have heaven without us.  The names were written down in the Lambs book of Life from before the foundation of the world.  All those justified, He glorified (as good as done).

My sin was great, Your love was greater, What could separate us now?  Yes, God’s grace is greater than all our sin!  Nothing can separate us from the love of our Father; this teaches that great truth of eternal security.

The second chorus changes the word beautiful to wonderful, and yes, Jesus is also wonderful!  We have hope because we serve a risen Savior and that is brought out in the first bridge:  Death could not hold You, the veil tore before You, You silenced the boast, of sin and grave, The heavens are roaring, the praise of Your glory, For You are raised to life again.

The second bridge continues the heartfelt song of praise:  You have no rival, You have no equal
Now and forever, God, You reign, Yours is the Kingdom, Yours is the glory, Yours is the Name, above all names.

The final chorus speaks of the power in the name of Jesus.  Again, there is no magical power in the arrangement of these letters into a name, but there is the ultimate power in Jesus, the God-man.  There is one more danger in this song and that is the danger in the word-faith teaching that we can speak truths into existence if we just use the magic word…Jesus.  That is not how we view this song, but when we speak of the power in the name of Jesus, we speak of His omnipotence and His sovereignty over every happening in the universe…and that’s POWER!

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