Two for Twelve for 2012: A New Name

Isaiah 62 with its 12 verses comprises the theme for the New Year: “Twelve for Twelve in 2012.”

At the beginning of the New Year, I posted a blog in Dr. J’s Apothecary Shoppe based on my theme and scriptural focal point for 2012. In this case, I had selected Isaiah 62, a passage that most providentially contains twelve verses. In studying the chapter, I decided to write a series of poems, as I personalized each of the twelve verses, calling the collection “Twelve for Twelve for 2012.” Here is the link to the first installment, published in two parts, inspired by Isaiah 62:1: “One for Twelve”:

 

https://drlej.wordpress.com/2012/01/03/one-for-twelve-another-glimpse-at-isaiah-62/

I continue the series with the second installment “Two for Twelve,” a personalized poetic rendering of Isaiah 62:2.  Here is the verse from the New Living Testament:

  The nations will see your righteousness.
      World leaders will be blinded by your glory.
   And you will be given a new name
      by the Lord’s own mouth.

                                         

Two for Twelve

       Isaiah 62:2

 

The nations across the globe will see your righteousness                                                                                                  

As I have blessed you with favor, so shall you bless                                                                                                       

And partake and share the sweetness of the goodness.                                                                                          

Of Him who crowns with mercies and lovingkindness.

Kings of the earth will be blinded by your glory,                                                                                                

For your presence astounds those who have eyes to see.                                                                                                

A lavish banquet table is set before me:                                                                                                                     

I thrive to disarm and defeat my enemy.

From this point you will now be called by a new name                                                                                                                        

For I have touched your life, and you are not the same.                                                                                            

I have crowned you with beauty and removed the shame,                                                                                                

For you are my beloved, and this I proclaim:

This I make known to all by the mouth of the Lord,                                                                     

Who upholds all things by the power of His Word,                                                                                      

The Lord provides and protects as shield and sword,

For we touch and agree and stand in one accord.

 

Often after a spiritual encounter of the most intimate nature, an individual is given a new name.

As I reflected upon the passage from Isaiah 62 and the poem based on the second verse, I thought of the phrase “a new name,” a concept that discussed in the blog entitled “My New Identity Kit.” One of the poems included in that discussion was “New Name”: 

New Name

He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit

says unto the churches. To him that overcomes

I will give to eat of the hidden manna,

and will give him a white stone, and in the stone

a new name written, which no man knows

except him that receives it.

           Revelation 2:17

 

More than a moniker,

a sobriquet attached

to the bridal bouquet,

a new name to change

or not, hyphenate,

ignore, keep, or discard

like outdated his and her towels;

how to handle this essence of being,

my new identity.

 

Like the trickster,

who tried to run his game

and get over on Jehovah

when he wrestled out a blessing

from the evening till the break of day,

I woke up one morning

with a new name and a gimp leg

to remind me of that all-night-face-to-face encounter

when I sang

“I told Jesus, be all right if He changed my name.”

 

The closing line is also the title of a spiritual “I told Jesus be all right, if he changed my name,” accompanied by this moving rendition of the song by Jennifer Bynum:   

I close this blog entry with a most comforting selection by Israel and New Breed, “He Knows My Name.”