What Does Declaring His Name Mean?
Enumerate His Name, Count Your Blessings!
In my last post, I mentioned declaring God’s name. I quoted Psalm 22:23, in which it is written, “I will declare thy name unto my brethren” (verse 22 in KJV).
Occassionally verse numbers can differ between Hebrew Bible and the Christian Bibles. Usually both number systems agree. Where they don’t, you can find them within a distance one or two verses. In my posts, I will follow the numberings used in the Hebrew Bible.
Now, here’s the Hebrew text underlying this verse.
“I will declare thy name” in Hebrew is אֲסַפְּרָה שִׁמְךָ (asapperah shimkha). The Hebrew root underlying the word “declare” is סָפַר (safar). It’s primary meaning is “to count”. But the grammatical form used here (“Piel” conjugation) can mean “to enumerate, to recount, to tell, to declare”, etc. However, the idea of counting is not lost.
In verse 18 of the same Psalm, we find the phrase אֲסַפֵּר כָּל־עַצְמוֹתָי (asapper kol azmothai), which means, “I can tell (or count) all my bones”. Here the same grammatical conjugation called “Piel” is used. So it essentially means to count or enumerate, as in when we list things one by one.
There are two more places in the Hebrew Bible where this verbal root סָפַר (safar) is used in declaring God’s name.
In Exodus 9:16, God said that He raised up Pharaoh as a king in order to show His power to Pharaoh, so that God’s name might be declared or enumerated throughout all the earth. Ten plagues were sent upon Egypt, through which God’s name was declared, in fact enumerated, in all places. Rahab the harlot heard of them in Jericho.
The third time the word סָפַר (safar) is found alongside God’s name is in Psalm 102:22.
Besides the verbal form, the root סָפַר (safar) also has two noun forms. The word סֵפֶר (sefer) means a book, a letter, or a document, and the word סוֹפֵר (sofer) means a scribe or a writer. So a scribe (sofer) enumerates (safar) in a book (sefer).
To enumerate also means to distinguish one thing from another. This ability to come up with an enumerated list of mutually exclusive things that differ one from another is called בּינה (binah) or תְבוּנָה (tevunah) in Hebrew, which in English is usually translated as “understanding.”
Therefore, we could say that “declaring His name” implies enumerating or listing various aspects of His name (and His character) that are distinct from one another.
May God give us all “understanding” to declare His name, to enumerate His works, and to count, סָפַר (safar), our blessings, one by one.