What’s in a Name?

My full legal name is Durward Kent Peterson, though I go by “Durk” as a nickname. Oftentimes I am asked where I got my name. My parents named me after my maternal grandfather Louis Durward Crabb. What a name, eh?  Durward comes from Old English meaning “keeper of the door.” 

Where did you get your name? What does your name mean or whose memory is kept alive with your name? 

The name of God carries tremendous power and meaning.  Throughout the Old Testament Book of Psalms we hear the call to “praise the name of the Lord!”  Psalm 135 proclaims that the name of the Lord endures forever and throughout all the ages.

The name of Jesus literally means “God Saves!”    When we call out to Jesus or God we honor and respect God’s name and can experience the power and grace in God’s name.

Of course, God’s name gets thrown around in profanity and other disrespectful ways.  The second commandment warns us to not “take the name of the Lord in vain.” Martin Luther in the Small Catechism says that we are to call on God in “prayer, praise, and thanksgiving.”

Today we can turn to the Lord whose name can and will fill us with the joy of his love and grace for us.