God's name and His word

“I will bow down toward Your holy temple and will praise Your name for Your love and faithfulness, for You have exalted above all things Your name and Your word.” Psalm 138:2
If we were to look to the Scriptures to find what God values more than anything else, we would arrive at this verse. God has exalted above all things His name and His word. In the Bible, a name was more than just what you called somebody. Names were chosen not for how they sounded, but for the significance of the meaning. Thus someone’s name reflects their character. We read in the Bible of several names of God; when Moses asked the question, “When I go to the Israelites, and they ask me, ‘What is Your name?’ – what should I tell them?” God replied, “I AM.” (See Ex. 3:13-14.) This is His character: He is everything we need. The name ‘Jesus’, which Joseph was instructed to name Him, means ‘Jehovah is salvation’ (see Matt. 1:20-21). He was also prophetically called ‘Immanuel’, meaning ‘God with us’ (Matt. 1:22-23).
Right up there with God’s name, is His word. God cannot lie, and He has given us His word, the Bible, which we can trust implicitly. The Word tells us about God’s plan and promise for mankind: from the predicament of sin, through the choosing of the nation Israel, to the coming of the Messiah, to the end of the age when God will set the record straight and reign in His rightful place as King.
Have you noticed how no-one ever uses the word ‘Buddha’ as a curse word? And nobody seeks to discredit the Koran. But they don’t think for one minute before they use the name ‘Jesus Christ’ to express their disgust at something, or get all fired up about something that is written in the Bible. The enemy knows that God’s Name and His Word are the most precious things. It’s no wonder, then, that he seeks to attack and defame them both.