Call on the Name of the Lord

And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved. For in Mount
Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be those who escape, as the LORD has said, and among the survivors
shall be those whom the LORD calls. Joel 2:32 ESV
And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.’
Acts 2:21 ESV
Forms of the key phrase “call upon the name of the Lord” appear seventeen times in the Bible,
beginning with Genesis 4:26 and continuing to 1 Corinthians 1:2. 1 It occurs five times between
Genesis chapters 4 and 26, and three times in Psalm 116. It also occurs three times in 1 Kings 18
in the contest between Yahweh and Baal on Mt. Carmel.
But what does the phrase mean? Is it to be sure that we get God’s name into our prayers? Is it to
be sure that we always end our prayers with “in Jesus’ name”? As I have said here before
“name” in the Old Testament has much more to do with nature and character than it does with
label. “Yahweh” may be his label, but much more to the point, that label defines a most unique
divine nature. This god is unlike any of the other so-called gods. He is always good, he never
breaks a promise, and he has unlimited power to fulfill his good promises. This is what dawned
on Abram as he entered the land of promise (Gen 12:8). To “call on the name” of this God is to
begin to entrust both the identification and the fulfillment of your needs into his hands.
That is the meaning of the Joel passage that both Peter and Paul quoted. If you call on the name
of Yahweh, you will be saved; saved from the penalty of your sins, saved from the tempting
snares of the world, saved from yourself and the need to care for yourself, saved from your
enemies and your Enemy, saved from everything that would destroy your life as an eternal soul.
To call on the name of the Lord is to throw yourself at his feet confident that he both cares for
you and can care for you.