This meditation is by Rev S.S. Cnossen
The name of the LORD is a strong tower;
The righteous run to it and are safe. Proverbs 18:10
Anyone travelling around the countryside in Europe will soon come across old villages or hamlets. In many of them, the tower sticks out above the other buildings. It is tall and often very old. Sometimes more than eight hundred years old. Most of the very old towers are built from monastery bricks. Others are made of stone. The massiveness of such a tower stands in strong contrast to the small size of the village. And you wonder how so few people could have afforded such a structure. They must have had to sacrifice a lot.
To save their lives, strong towers were built, with thick walls made of non-combustible material and with virtually no openings until high up. The entrance door was kept small so that the space could be easily barricaded. It was not uncommon for the tower to be separate from the church in order to make it even more difficult to climb in. And from the fact that so many of these characteristic structures have stood the test of time, we can deduce that they often provided adequate protection. These towers therefore offered safety.
Was it pure piety that drove them? Or was there something else involved, such as: our tower has to be better than the towers of other villages: it must be able to compete with them! But anyone who knows anything about history also knows that hard necessity played the biggest role. Life in the countryside was not as idyllic as we sometimes think. The rural population was exposed to many hardships. The common man had to pay heavy prices when the great lords fought their wars and skirmishes. Their possessions were not spared by the “armies” of those men. Their lives were also in danger whenever war broke out again.
The towers mentioned in the Old Testament would have looked different. But they served the same purpose: to be a place where people could take refuge in times of danger.
Now the writer of Proverbs says something similar about the Name of the LORD. The righteous man can flee to that Name when times get tough. When he does so he is super safe. For he takes refuge in that Name and is secure. For that name is like a strong tower!
This is because the Name of God is much, much more than a few sounds that distinguish Him from others. The name LORD stands for Yahweh. And Yahweh means: I am with you. I am the God of all salvation for you. As such, I have made Myself a great Name. I have acquired a tremendous Reputation.
This had to be and must be understood in very concrete terms. When people spoke correctly about the Name of the LORD, the entire history of salvation was included. For Israel, this was the story of the great deeds of its deliverance by God’s mighty hand. When they thought of the Name of God, they thought of their exodus from Egypt with everything that happened around it: the plagues of Egypt, the path through the sea, the giving of the Law on Mount Horeb, the conquest of the Promised Land. How powerful was the presence of the LORD in all this. How great and holy is the Name that He established for Himself through it.
The righteous loved that Name. When they thought of the LORD, they thought of Him as the God who had performed all those miracles of grace for His people. For the righteous were and are people who want to live by grace and divine help for salvation. And that is what His Name speaks of. God has that Name. That Name is God, for He is as His Name is. The God with whom all God’s children are safe. Super safe! After all, that mighty and strong hand of God has not weakened, and that powerful arm, through which He wrought all that salvation, has not been shortened.
And the righteous of today know this even better than those of old. For God has further exalted and glorified His Name in the sending of His Son. In His suffering and death for the deliverance of sinners. In His resurrection from the dead and His exaltation at God’s right hand. For by this Name our God has wrought eternal salvation. How great is His Name on earth because of this!
Would that Name disappoint us if we need Him today? Or tomorrow? No, of course not. And that is why the righteous take refuge in the Name. There is no greater or better Name. His Name is holy and awesome.
The Name of the LORD is a strong tower. As we take refuge in Him, we are super safe.
The late Rev. S. S. Cnossen was a minister of the Reformed Churches of the Netherlands (Liberated). This meditation is a translation of “Super veilig” which appeared in Reformanda N. 7 24 February 1993.