Four Big Letters

Players at online poker tables can have all sorts of wild names. Recently at a National League of Poker tournament, we came across this:

Me:  PTL, Tetra!
Dealer:  Tetragramton wins Main Pot ($1260) with Straight, eight to queen
Me:  three pair on the flop isn't good enough here.
Tetragramton:  ptl play nto lose

Even if you're not a regular reader, you might know "PTL" is shorthand for "praise the Lord."  It's always a good idea....

O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you.... I will praise you as long as I live, and in your name I will lift up my hands. - Psalm 63:1, 4

But who or what is that "Tetragramton" - some monster from a Japanese movie, maybe?  No.  That name is a shortened form of "Tetragrammaton."  In Hebrew that word means "four letters."  And for believers, it means a lot more....

Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. -- Deuteronomy 6:4

In this verse, "Lord" is the Hebrew name YHWH -- which is what Biblical scholars call the Tetragrammaton.  Some people consider it such a holy name that they don't dare say it aloud.  Yet they overlook the fact that famous people in the Bible said it....

Now Sarai, Abram's wife.... said to Abram, "The Lord has kept me from having children...." -- Genesis 16:1-2

Leading Bible concordances show Sarai said YHWH (the first recorded human to do so).  God didn't punish her in this chapter for uttering that name; she got in trouble for other actions.  Yet we're reminded later:

You shall not take the name of the Lord [YHWH] your God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that takes his name in vain. - Exodus 20:7, KJV

Other translations have this commandment as a warning against "misuse" of God's name, or using it "profanely."  Yet sadly, plenty of poker players do that on a regular basis -- perhaps out of habit, or from the frustration of losing a big hand. At those moments, we should be careful with our tongues.

With the tongue we praise our God and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God's likeness. - James 3:9

It's far better to remain silent than to speak words you'll someday regret.  So give God praise in whatever name you wish - but keep in mind, God's last name is NOT a four-letter word beginning with D.