"YHWH" (A Poem and Reflections)

Infinite Peace, Unassailable Bliss
Self-Existent -- Father, Spirit, and Word
Maker, Sustainer, Creation’s Intent

Both Call and Response; Command, Fulfillment
Faithful, True, Holy; All Mercy/Justice
Unending Love without limit outpoured

Salvation, Light, Life; the Sovereign LORD
Gift and Forgiveness, Ever-Acceptant
Union, Communion; All Good that there is.

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(Some thoughts and explanations below)


Introduction

   This poem came into being originally as my response to a friend's request for words I think of when I think about God. The original was shorter, but I liked it and my thoughts kept returning to it enough that I ended up expanding and reorganizing it into the current version. It is, most obviously, a song of praise: words about the Word offered up to Him -- the praise of divine names. But it is also intentionally filled with theology in its wording and structure, and I think some of it is worth drawing particular attention to.  

Organization

   Having read a considerable amount of George Herbert's poetry (whose skill, however, I cannot yet match) at the time, I was inspired to attempt to make some points even with the way the poem was organized. Since it is essentially a list of names for our Triune God, it is arranged in three stanzas, each of three lines. Further, the rhyme scheme proceeds in a rotation, in which the last is always the first in the next stanza, like so:

A
B
C

C
A
B

B
C
A

In order to show that among the three Persons of the Godhead, all are co-equal in every way, co-eternal, none before or after or above or below another, as we confess in the creeds of the faith. It is also an allusion to Jesus' words, "the last will be first, and the first will be last" (Matthew 20:16). Finally, that same rhyme scheme results in the poem coming "full circle:" The last line of the poem rhymes with the first, as happens in between all the stanzas, so that the rhyme scheme would carry even if one started somewhere else in the poem and read it "in a circle;" and this is to signify the eternity and infinity of God, as well as His unity.

Simplicity & the Divine Names

  The basis for the poem is what theologians call "divine simplicity," which basically means that God is not a compound being. He is not divided into parts, either temporally, where one part is in the past and another in the future, or characteristically, where one part is merciful and another part just (we will come back to this later, but it is vital to recognize that this means that all of God's characteristics are convertible with each other; i.e., His faithfulness IS His love, His love IS His justice, His justice IS His mercy, and so on, without division or remainder). As humans, we are divided into potential (I have merciful feelings toward someone, and the ability to perform a merciful action) and action (when I actually do that merciful action), but for God, the Great I AM, who is not divided, all of His "potential" is always already put into action from all eternity; He is "pure Act." There is a lot more to write on this topic, but the essential point about it as it relates to this poem, is that it means God is what He does, and does what He is -- which means that He gives life because He is Life, makes peace with us because He is Peace; in other words, His actions reveal His qualities, and His qualities are also His names -- which means we can praise Him not only for doing good things, but that He is Goodness Himself. And also, this means that for us, all of these qualities (love, justice, peace, truth, mercy, etc.) are not impersonal forces or ideas, and not subject to various interpretations; they are entirely personal -- are, in fact, a Person (or rather, a Trinity), and we acquire them by coming to know Him in relationship.

Infinite Peace, Unassailable Bliss

  I opened the poem this way on purpose, because it is the joyous ground of our final hope, and it is also the basis and foundation and reason for the universe. In the resurrection of Jesus Christ, we see that the peace of God is more powerful than our violence, that the even the final word of violence (which all worldly power is based on) -- death -- is impotent before it, and that our rebellion is powerless to oppose it. It is much more than the worldly peace of mere armistice; it is the peace of One whose life is so great that death cannot kill Him, whose joy is so gigantic that no suffering can end it. And in that same resurrection, the vindication and victory of Christ who "for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame" (Hebrews 12:2), we see that "the sufferings of this present age are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed" (Romans 8:18) -- the glory of perfect fellowship with God in a bliss so perfect that it turns even the suffering of the cross (of every cross) into the joy of obedience in love. Even our deepest sin -- the crucifixion of the Son of God -- was powerless to interrupt the perfect fellowship of the Triune God in love; and where there is unbreakable fellowship in love, there is also unfathomable, unassailable bliss.

Creation's Intent

  By this I mean, the intended End of Creation -- the Goal toward which it tends. "For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to Whom be glory forever. Amen" (Romans 11:36).

Both Call and Response; Command, Fulfillment

  I have written some more on this in another poem and post, under the title "Divine Simplicity." In fact, it's a theme I really love, and it's in my post regarding Good Friday/Easter, as well. But in general, when we really look at God, and especially at His revelation in Jesus Christ, we find that He is everything, on both His side and ours: He calls us to repentance and righteousness, and as the man Jesus He himself responds in repentance and a life of righteous obedience on our behalf. And He puts His Holy Spirit inside of us to unite us to Himself and give us power to repent and obey. He issues the commands of the Law, and He Himself comes to fulfill the Law (Matthew 5:17), and then also gives us His Spirit to cause us to walk in that fulfillment (Romans 8:1-11). He is Priest, Sacrifice, and the Temple in which it is offered; glory to our great God, who has indeed "done for us all our works" (Isaiah 26:12)!

All Mercy/Justice

  I have particularly wanted to make this point, because in the circles I have moved in I have often found it misunderstood. "Mercy/Justice" is written as it is to make a point, and that point is that the two are not opposed -- indeed, in God, they are not even different, but exactly the same thing. I have often heard or read that on the cross we see mercy and justice finally reconciled, but I am convinced that is not accurate. God Himself is both Just and Merciful (in fact, He is both Justice and Mercy) and, as I said earlier, He is not divided into parts, and His perfect Wisdom is not at a loss for how to reconcile them. So God does not have one merciful part and another just part, but all of Him, in all His entirety is both Just and Merciful. But because all of Him is entirely merciful and just, His justice and mercy are not separate or even different things; they are the same as His goodness, His love, His peace: They are all One, in God, and the different names are only our different perspectives on His one character, based on our different interactions with it in different circumstances.

   So the point here is that in the crucifixion of the perfect Son of God for our sake, we do not see mercy and justice finally reconciled: We see that Mercy and Justice were never opposed to begin with. We see that the highest truth of justice is infinite mercy, and that the inner logic of mercy is justice. And therefore, for us, we see that any conception we make of "justice" which is not also abounding in the mercy of Christ's cross is a lie; and likewise any conception of mercy which fails to offer itself according to the justice of Christ's cross is also a lie. For God, there has never been any trouble or opposition; the problem is with our sight.

   By naming God with "All Mercy/Justice," then, I have purposely tried to say:
1) "All the mercy and justice that exist are in and based on God."
2) "All of God is all-merciful and all-just."
3) "The justice and mercy of God are one, because God is one."
4) "God is not only just and merciful in His doings, but is Himself Justice and Mercy, in His own Person."

Union, Communion; All Good that there is

  Because God is Three Persons in One Being, He is Himself both Unity and Fellowship. Therefore in the Christian God (alone among all other conceptions of God) we find both the basis of similarity/unity and diversity/difference. And in His perfect communion, we find that union does not destroy distinction, and diversity does not destroy communion. I think I originally used the words, "Unity, Fellowship," and in a way I prefer them, but "Union, Communion" has a more poetical ring, and shows more effectively the connection between the two.

   If God were only a solitary Person, He could not know love, except perhaps as a vague idea. He would need us, in order to become loving. Furthermore, to be completely and fully united to Him would mean only absorption, like a drop of water joining the sea, which would really be the same for us as annihilation, since we would no longer be in any way "ourselves" at all -- since if He were a solitary Person, there would be no basis in Him for true communion, which implies diversity, but only for unity. In such a case, we would have no hope. If He were a multitude of Persons that were not joined as one Being, then we could never hope for any true overcoming of our differences or real communion in love, because the gods themselves would know nothing about it, and there would be no ultimate ground for it.

   But because God is Three distinct Persons in One Being, He is Himself already both Unity and Fellowship, and He knows love not merely as an idea but as the eternal act of His own existence in perfect communion. He is complete in Himself, does not need us, and so is perfectly free to want us out of the abundance of the love that He already possesses and lives from all eternity -- a love which called the universe (and us) into being out of nothing, and made it (and us) beautiful to Him so that it (and we) might be desirable and desired, and might be united to Him in a perfect communion which retains (and even exalts and perfects) each of our distinct persons.

   And finally, there is no good outside of or apart from God. This is why it is impossible to reject God and still find true and eternal peace, happiness, life, etc. He Himself is all of those things, is Goodness Himself, and so to reject Him is necessarily to ultimately have rejected all good. All lesser good things ultimately find their meaning and goodness in coming from God and drawing us towards Him, and their fulfillment is found in our union with Him. God is all goodness, and all goodness is found in God, and therefore we have the sure and eternal hope that if we pursue Him, whatever we must forsake or suffer along the way, we will find much greater joy and peace and life in our fellowship with Him -- and in the end we shall inherit all things. For, having forsaken everything else for the sake of having God, we shall find that we have Him in and for Whom all things exist, and we will lack nothing.

In Closing

   There are, of course, other things said and implied in the poem, but these were the main things I had felt it important to bring out and put some focus on, since they seem to be the more frequently misunderstood. If you have made it this far, I hope and pray that some of this has been helpful or encouraging to you, and I hope you'll go back and re-read the poem with it in mind. God bless and keep you, and fill you with Himself.