Has anyone ever given you a nickname?
I got my first nickname in elementary school. Someone just added an "ie" to my name. Pretty mild stuff. As I got older, my name got connected to some potty humor. In high school, my baseball teammates even added profanity into their preferred nickname for me. I wasn't a fan of most of these names, but I lacked the confidence to push back.
My first and middle names came from my parents. Those names carry deep meaning, pointing back to ancestors. When I think about it, every name I’ve ever been called was given to me by someone else.
However, God didn't leave that choice to us.
I got to thinking about this when I listened to "Yahweh," a song from the collaboration of Aodhán King , Benjamin William Hastings and Tiffany Hudson. I find it fascinating that throughout the book of Genesis, people who encounter God give Him names based on what they experience of Him. But near the beginning of Exodus, when Moses meets God at the burning bush in the wilderness of Midian, God does something different. He tells Moses His name Himself.
After a lifetime of others deciding who you are, what does it mean that God simply tells you who He is?
"Yahweh" comes from Aodhán King and Benjamin William Hastings' album, Happy To Be Here, born out of a wild experiment. The two friends decided to write and record an entire album in just ten days, starting from scratch, and called in some of Christian music's best songwriters to help on only a few days' notice. Someone asked King what he hoped to accomplish. His answer? “I don’t know. I’m just waiting to see what God will do.”
That posture defined the record's most memorable moment. After finishing "Yahweh," King and Hastings learned Tiffany Hudson of Elevation Worship happened to be in Nashville on a day off. They texted her around 4 p.m., and by that evening she was in the vocal booth, contributing to a song she'd never even heard before that day. King and Hastings simply set out to make something, stayed open-handed about how it would come together, and let the pieces land where they landed.
The song opens by asking who could possibly hold the universe in His hands, one who has always existed and always will. It's the same question Moses asks the burning bush.
When God calls Moses in Exodus 3, Moses asks what he should say if the people ask God's name. God's answer isn't a name in the way we usually think of one. He says, “I am who I am. Say this to the people of Israel: I am has sent me to you.” Here, we see that God wasn't waiting to be named. He was introducing Himself!
The song "Yahweh" doesn't stop at the burning bush, though. It moves straight to the cross, to the one who stood between us and what we deserved and took the burden that was ours to carry. Paul writes about this same movement in Philippians 2:5-11. Jesus, in the form of God, didn't cling to that position, but emptied Himself and embraced the cross. Paul says what happened next: "Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honor and gave him the name above all other names, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue declare that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."
That's what makes the last movement of the song especially remarkable. It asks who else has ripped the sting out of death. Paul answers that question in 1 Corinthians 15:55-57: "O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting? For sin is the sting that results in death, and the law gives sin its power. But thank God! He gives us victory over sin and death through our Lord Jesus Christ." The name revealed at the burning bush is the same name that walked out of a grave.
I spent years answering to names I never chose, never much liked, and never had the confidence to push back on.
But Yahweh didn't wait for anyone else to name Him. He walked up to a scared man in front of a burning bush and told him exactly who He was. Then He announced His name again at the cross and when He walked out of the grave.
We live in a world that moves fast and pulls us in a dozen directions, each one handing us a new name to answer to. So the question isn't whether you'll be named. But, you do get to choose which name you'll live by: the ones other people have given you or the one God revealed?
Scott Savage is a pastor, author, and speaker who loves tacos, matcha, and sneakers. With more than twenty years of ministry experience, he teaches with a blend of Biblical truth, emotional awareness, and the compassion shaped by his own struggles.
Scott’s writing has impacted over six million readers through trusted platforms such as the YouVersion Bible App, Air1 Radio, and Our Daily Bread. He’s the author of Faith Behind the Song, a 40-day devotional book published in partnership with K-Love Books. Whether speaking on a stage or writing on a page, he offers a steady, empathetic voice that reassures people they are seen, loved, and not beyond God's healing reach. Forty thousand subscribers from over fifty countries are excited to read his free newsletter every Tuesday morning. You can join that list today at ScottSavageLive.com!
