YHWH, YHWH

I've Just been singing a new worship song with the line "Yahweh, Yahweh; we love to shout your name". It got me wondering about the distance the church has come from it's Jewish roots. Would the Apostles have sung such a song? Expressing the unspeakable name in this way would be deeply offensive to Jews!

I'm not sure what the correct answers is. Inviting God to dwell within our hearts would also be offensive, compared to the High Priest approaching the Holy of Holies in the Temple once a year on behalf of all the people.

My opinion is that we do have liberty to sing such a line but maybe we also have a bit too much levity if we do so. Whilst we're free to sing 'Yahweh, we love to shout your name' we might do better not to. By choosing to use our freedom not to say the name of God like this we could make a point of reminding ourselves of the majesty, mystery and transcendence of God - a point that is easily forgotten in 'low' forms of worship.