Daily Discovery

El Elyon means “God Most High.” The name first appears as Abram returns from rescuing his nephew Lot. Melchizedek, king of Salem and “priest of God Most High,” meets him with bread and wine, blesses him, and then blesses God Most High, “who has delivered your enemies into your hand.” The victory is credited not to Abram’s strength, but to the God who is above all.

Today, may we bring what we face before God Most High, and, like Abram, give Him thanks for every deliverance.

Abraham was living as a foreigner in the land when he planted a tamarisk tree at Beersheba, and there “called on the name of the LORD, the Everlasting God.” This is the only place in Scripture where the title El Olam appears. Olam speaks of long duration, reaching far into the past and far into the future. The God Abraham worshipped was there before him and would remain after him.

Today, may we, like Abraham, call on the name of the LORD, and trust the Everlasting God with what lies beyond our own short sight.

In a prayer from “the day of my trouble,” David calls on God as Adonai: “For you, Lord, are good, and ready to forgive, abundant in loving kindness to all those who call on you.” Adonai means “Lord,” and its Hebrew form marks it as used of God. Most English Bibles print it “Lord,” to tell it apart from the divine name, printed “LORD.”

Today, may we call on the Lord, who is good and ready to forgive, and bring Him the troubles of this day.

After Israel made the golden calf, the LORD passed before Moses on Sinai and proclaimed His own character: “a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness and truth.” He forgives “iniquity and disobedience and sin,” yet the same proclamation says He “will by no means clear the guilty.” His mercy is real, and it is never indifference to wrong.

Today, may we come to the LORD honestly, trusting His mercy and grace, and taking His holiness as seriously as He does.

At the burning bush, God tells Moses what to say to the people of Israel. Most English Bibles, including the World English Bible, print the name as “the LORD.” It stands for four Hebrew letters, YHWH, the personal name of the God of Israel. Where the name comes from is still debated, and the verse does not settle it. What it does say is clear: He is “the God of your fathers,” and “This is my name forever.”

Today, may we remember that the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob made Himself known by name, to be remembered “to all generations.”

Near the end of his life, Jacob blessed Joseph and spoke of “the God who has fed me all my life long to this day.” The Hebrew word behind “fed” is a shepherd’s word, for tending a flock: the God who has shepherded me. Shepherd here is a description rather than a title. Jacob, who had kept flocks himself, looked back over a long and troubled life and saw God’s care in all of it.

Today, may we trust the God who shepherds His people, and, like Jacob, learn to see His care along the whole road behind us.

In the song Moses taught Israel near the end of his life, he calls God “The Rock,” and at once says what he means: “his work is perfect, for all his ways are just.” Rock is a picture rather than a title. Moses uses it for the One whose faithfulness and justice do not shift or fail.

Today, may we stand on what does not move: the faithfulness of God, whose ways are just and right.

Asaph admits that he envied “the prosperity of the wicked,” until he “entered God’s sanctuary” and saw things differently. He comes to this: “My flesh and my heart fails, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.” A portion is a share, what belongs to someone. Asaph is not using a title but a picture: whatever else fails, God Himself is what he has.

Today, when our strength runs low, may we say with Asaph that God is the strength of our hearts and our portion forever.

The psalmist remembers going with the crowd “to God’s house” with joy, and now longs to return: “My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?” To call Him “the living God” is to speak of the One who truly lives. The psalmist’s thirst is not for an idea about God, or even for a place, but for God Himself.

Today, may our own thirst lead us to the living God, even in seasons when He seems far away.

The Bible’s first sentence introduces God as the Creator: “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” The Hebrew word for God here is Elohim. It is plural in form, and elsewhere it can mean gods, but when it refers to the God of Israel it means God. Before anything else is said about the world, Scripture begins with Him.

Today, may we begin where Scripture begins, with God, the Maker of the heavens and the earth.

After Abram’s battle to rescue Lot, the LORD’s word came to him in a vision: “Don’t be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward.” Shield is not a title here. It is God describing Himself to Abram. A shield stands between a person and harm, and to a man just back from war, God speaks first to his fear.

Today, may we hear the LORD’s first words to Abram, “Don’t be afraid,” and bring our own fears to the One who called Himself a shield.

Isaiah 64 is a prayer for the whole people. It asks God to “come down,” and confesses that “all our righteousness is like a polluted garment.” Then the prayer turns: “But now, LORD, you are our Father. We are the clay and you our potter. We all are the work of your hand.” The people appeal not to their own goodness, but to who God is to them, and to what He has made.

Today, may we come to God not on the strength of our own record, but as clay in the hands of the potter who made us.

David’s psalm opens in praise: “I will be glad and rejoice in you. I will sing praise to your name, O Most High.” Here Elyon, “Most High,” stands on its own as a name of God, without El before it. Later in the same psalm David calls the LORD “a high tower for the oppressed.” The One who is Most High is not distant from the people who need Him.

Today, may we give thanks to the Most High, and take refuge in the One who is a high tower in times of trouble.

Through Isaiah, the LORD speaks to Israel: “Don’t be afraid, for I have redeemed you. I have called you by your name. You are mine.” He names Himself “the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.” Isaiah uses this title more than any other book of the Bible. The God who is holy has bound Himself to His people, and promises to be with them through waters and fire.

Today, may we worship the Holy One of Israel, whose first word to His people in this passage is “Don’t be afraid.”

Isaiah introduces the speaker with a chain of titles: “the LORD, the King of Israel, and his Redeemer, the LORD of Armies.” In Israel’s law, a redeemer was a near relative who stepped in to buy back what a poor family member had been forced to sell. God names Himself Israel’s Redeemer, and then declares: “I am the first, and I am the last; and besides me there is no God.”

Today, may we trust the One who is the first and the last, who calls Himself the Redeemer of His people.

Jesus speaks these words to “all you who labor and are heavily burdened.” His promise comes with an invitation: to come to Him, take His yoke, and learn from Him, for He is “gentle and humble in heart.” The rest He gives is found in Him, and His yoke, though still a yoke, is easy and His burden light.

Today, may we bring our weariness to Jesus, and learn from the One who promises rest for our souls.

Teaching in the temple, Jesus calls Himself the light of the world. His promise is for those who follow Him. He does not promise that the road will never be difficult, but that those who follow Him will have the light of life.

Today, may we follow Jesus one step at a time, trusting His word that the one who follows Him will have the light of life.

Paul writes in the middle of a chapter about “the sufferings of this present time”: “We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, for those who are called according to his purpose.” The promise is for those who love God and are called. It does not say that everything that happens is good, but it ties their good to God’s own purpose.

Today, if we are in a hard place, may we hold on to what Paul says “we know,” even when we cannot yet see how.

Speaking with Nicodemus, Jesus recalls the bronze serpent Moses lifted up in the wilderness, when the people were dying from snakebites and were told to look to it and live. Jesus says that “even so must the Son of Man be lifted up,” so that “whoever believes in him” may “have eternal life.” The promise is not earned. It is for whoever believes in Him.

Today, may we look to the Son of Man in trust, and receive the life He promises to all who believe in Him.

On the night before His death, Judas (not Iscariot) asked Jesus how He would show Himself to the disciples and not to the world. Jesus answered: “If a man loves me, he will keep my word. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.” The promise belongs to the one who loves Jesus, and that love shows itself in keeping His word.

Today, may our love for Jesus be seen in keeping His word, and may we know the nearness of the Father and the Son.

Paul has just named what God’s people may suffer: “oppression, or anguish, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword.” Then he writes that nothing, “nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from God’s love which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” The “us” is “God’s chosen ones.” Their security rests on His love, not on their circumstances.

Today, whatever we face, may we rest in the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord, from which nothing created can separate His people.

James writes to believers facing trials: “if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.” The promise is for wisdom, not for whatever we might want, and James adds, “let him ask in faith, without any doubting.” God gives generously, and He does not scold the one who asks.

Today, may we ask God for the wisdom we need, trusting Him as we pray and seeking to follow Him with a faithful heart.

Isaiah 40 opens with comfort for Jerusalem. A voice compares people to grass and flowers: “The grass withers, the flower fades; but the word of our God stands forever.” Centuries later, the apostle Peter quotes these words and applies them to the good news that was preached to his readers. Everything else may fade. What God has spoken remains.

Today, amid all that changes and fades, may we build our lives on the word of our God, which stands forever.

Martha’s brother Lazarus has died, and she knows “he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.” Jesus answers: “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will still live, even if he dies.” He points Martha not only to a future day but to Himself. The promise is for those who believe in Him, and He asks her, “Do you believe this?”

Today, even in grief, may we hear the question Jesus asked Martha, and answer it with trust in Him.

James writes plainly to readers divided by quarrels and selfish desires. He reminds them that God “gives grace to the humble,” and calls them back: “Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners. Purify your hearts, you double-minded.” God’s drawing near is promised to those who come to Him, turning from what divides the heart.

Today, may we come near to God with humble and honest hearts, trusting His word that He will draw near to us.

Paul closes his letter to the church in Thessalonica with a prayer that God would “sanctify you completely” and keep them “blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Then he adds: “He who calls you is faithful, who will also do it.” The promise is to those God calls, and what He will do is what Paul has just prayed for. It rests on God’s faithfulness, not theirs.

Today, may we trust the faithful God who calls His people, and who will finish the work of making them holy.

The writer of Hebrews has shown at length how Christ has opened “a new and living way” to God. Now he urges his readers: “let’s hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering; for he who promised is faithful.” The call to hold on is real, but the reason for holding on is God Himself. The hope stands because the One who made the promise keeps it.

Today, may we hold fast to our hope without wavering, leaning not on the strength of our grip but on the faithfulness of God.

Jesus tells His hearers to ask, seek and knock, “For everyone who asks receives.” He then compares God with a human father, who would never hand his hungry son a stone. If human parents give good gifts, “how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!” The promise rests on the Father’s goodness, and what is good, the Father decides.

Today, may we bring our requests to God as children to a good Father, trusting Him to give what is truly good.

The risen Christ speaks to the church in Laodicea, which He has just called lukewarm and urged to repent. Then He says: “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, then I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with me.” The words were first spoken to a church, and the promise is for anyone who hears and opens.

Today, may we hear Christ’s voice and respond to His invitation, opening the door to Him.

In John’s vision of a new heaven and a new earth, a loud voice declares that God will dwell with His people: “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more.” This promise looks ahead to the new creation, and the same vision names its heirs: “He who overcomes, I will give him these things.” It does not say sorrow is absent now. It says grief will not have the last word.

Today, if we are grieving, may we take heart that God has promised His people a day when He Himself will wipe away every tear.