Trusting YHWH. Lorne E. Weaver

Yhwh, and (אלהי) Elohay, the poet of Psalm 91 appropriates this combination of divine names which seems intended to evoke supreme confidence in and a deep inner consciousness of the Holy.22 This aggregate of appellatives connotes the power of the Creator-God as well as the enduring love of the Deliverer God in whom Israel lives and moves by virtue of the eternal covenant. Both transcendence and immanence are attributed to the Hebrew God יהוה, and this God יהוה is the personal and incomparable deity. The use of the sacred name יהוה in Psalm 91 then, in this line of thought, is intended to gather up into completion all the meanings of the other three names. It was then fused with the older deity, El or Elohim, and is associated with the land of Canaan.23

      This is Moses’ greatest contribution to Israelite religion and the psalmists make conscious decisions to employ the Name numerously. יהוה is by far the most prevalent designation of the deity in the Psalms. The covenantal Name יהוה—which occurs nearly 700 times throughout the Psalter–along with the abbreviated יה (yah)–is, by far, the most conspicuous. The Psalter is predominately a Yahwist Book! The only exception to its prominence throughout the book is found in the common usage of אלהים (elohim) in what is now usually referred to as the Elohistic Psalter (Pss 42–83). We will consider this phenomenon in another chapter.

The richness of ancient Israel’s religious experience and practice is reflected in the interface between יהוה and the people of God. It is יהוה who revealed to Israel (Moses) the holy and ineffable Name (Ex 3). For Israel to be given the name יהוה was an extraordinary thing.24 It is a basis for confidence therefore that the giving of the divine Name is rooted in the character of God. In most current English Bible versions (NRSV, REB, Grail, and JPS), יהוה is rendered LORD, in four capital letters; it is thus distinguished from “Lord”, or Adonai, meaning sovereign. יהוה was mistakenly transliterated Jehovah in the 19th century. YHWH, the tetragrammaton or the four Hebrew consonants יהוה, is identified with the I am who I am, or, I will be who I will be in the pentateuchal narrative. Most scholarship today understands יהוה to be a pun which plays on the Hebrew verb, to be.25

      This is the name of the personal, intimate God and it is this name that was communicated directly to Moses—according to the Exodus 3 narrative tradition. It is frequently insufficiently recognized that, at the beginning of Iron Age I, the role of the god El—king of the pantheon of the Canaanite gods—had become largely nominal. By the end of Iron Age I, the cult of El had survived only in some border zones of the Near East. In most regions, including Palestine, El’s career as a living god (i.e. as a cultic reality and an object of actual devotion) had ended.

      The name survived in such expressions as ‘the council of El’ and ‘sons of El’, but this was survival in name only. This fact explains why there are no traces of polemic against El in the Hebrew Bible. The name was increasingly used either as a generic noun meaning ‘god’ or, more specifically, as a designation of the personal god. In both cases, יהוה could be called El. Along with the name, יהוה inherited various traits of El. One of them is divine eternity. Ugaritic texts refer to El as the “father of years” while יהוה is called “Ancient of Days” (Dan 7). Power and compassion are commonly attributed traits of both El and יהוה.

      Other references where עליון (elyon) occurs on its own are: And I say, ‘It is my grief that the right hand of the Most High (elyon) has changed’ (77:10); and, I say, ‘You are all gods, children of the Most High, עליון (elyon) all of you; nevertheless, you shall all die like any mortal-fall like any prince (82:6, LW); And of Zion it shall be said, ‘This one and that one were born in it’; for the Most High עליון (elyon) himself will establish it (87:5, LW) and 92:1. Of these examples, עליון (elyon), as a term for the God of Israel, must have been interpreted early on as an allusion to Zion. The latter redactors and editors of the Psalter gave expression to this allusion in its final shaping. The God of the psalmists is an active God who intervenes for the benefit of, and on behalf of, [his] worshipers.

      The joy of the worshiping psalmist at the intervention of יהוה is not a quiet feeling of happiness which he keeps to himself; rather the words of worship that are employed are usually associated with the praise of God in hymns or with the festive joy of the celebrations in the temple. The divine epithets speak of praise and majesty, honor and power. All these are compressed into the first two verses of Psalm 91. The names of יהוה that occur in the Psalms are derived in all likelihood from the cultic tradition of the old Jebusite city–Jerusalem. Evidence also exists which seems to suggest how very early on, יהוה was venerated as אל עליון (El Elyon) at Shiloh in the pre-monarchical period. This is a sacred name of great antiquity and Israel believed that only Yahweh is El Elyon (“God Most High” cf. Gen 14:22).

“The psalmists, too, use the epithet ‘Elyon’ to refer to Yahweh, and their use has no mythological overtones. Whatever they may say about Elyon is completely adapted to the bounds of revelation from Sinai: ‘For you, O Lord, are the Most High [Elyon] over all the earth; you are exalted far above all gods’ (97:9). [He] is Yahweh Elyon, and there is no other Elyon than Yahweh! Therefore, the psalmist prays, ‘Let them know that you, whose name is the LORD–that you alone are the Most High [Elyon]over all the earth’ (83:18).”26

      Though יהוה was known and worshiped among the Israelites before 1000 BCE, [he] did not become the patron, national god until the monarchic era. Due to the religious politics of Saul, יהוה only became the patron deity of the Israelite state following its origination in the south–primarily the tribe of Judah. As David and Solomon inherited and enlarged Saul’s Kingdom, they acknowledged the rightful position of יהוה as Israel’s national God. David brought the Ark of יהוה from Benjamin to Jerusalem (2 Sam 6). Solomon sought the blessing of יהוה at the sanctuary of Gibeon, the national temple of the Saulide state (1 Kgs 3:4). Evidence of the predominant role of יהוה in the official cult during the Monarchic Era are the theophoric personal names, the biblical names, and the epigraphical ones.

. . . there is not a single derivation of the word ‘Yahweh’ from a native Hebrew root; they are all from foreign roots, most of them Arabic, indicating quite clearly that Yahweh was a foreign god, most probably originating in Arabia. [He] was anything but a native Hebrew god, and on that particular point practically all scholars are agreed. They agree, too, that [he] originated in the south. They differ only as to whether [he] was of Arabic or Kenite origin. 27

The divine name, יהוה is by far the most common theophoric element. The practical henotheism of יהוה should not be taken for a strict monotheism. Far from it! Not only did the Israelite’s continue to recognize the existence of other deities besides יהוה, for a very long time, they also knew more than one הוה ! Though at the mythological level there is only one, the cultic reality reflected a plurality of יהוה gods. Non-biblical evidence mentions a “יהוה from Samaria” and a “יהוה of Teman”; it is possible that the two names designate one god, the official god of the northern Kingdom (“Samaria”, after its capital). Yet the recognition of a northern יהוה is mirrored by the worship of a “יהוה of Hebron” and a “יהוה of Zion” (2 Sam 15:7) all of which should be understood as references to local forms of יהוה worship centered in regional shrines dating back to the earliest days before the monarchy and reminiscent of the days of the tribal confederation. In the Hebrew Bible, the name יהוה is written in two different ways when standing by itself, יה (yah) and יהוה and, in three different ways, when used in personal names, יה, יהו, and יהו, but never as יהוה. Outside the Hebrew Bible, it is found in only two other places as יהוה—on the Moabite Stone and the ostraca from Lachish.28