Elohim is the first name of God that we encounter in the Bible.
In the beginning Elohim created heaven and earth.
“This ancient name for God contains the idea of God’s creative power as well as his authority and sovereignty.” — Ann Spangler, Praying the Names of God
It is a plural form related to El, one of the world’s oldest designations for divinity. And the plurality shows itself just a little further down in the same chapter:
Then Elohim said, “Let us make humans in our image, in our likeness.”
This plural form is used over twenty-five hundred times in the Old Testament, and it emphasizes the majesty of the one true God. It’s also a not-so-subtle head nod to the fact that the Trinity — God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit — was involved in your creation.
Elohim created the heavens and the earth, the blazing stars, the orbiting planets, and all the life swarming across the face of the earth. And He created you. Specifically. Individually. Thoughtfully. Carefully.
David recognized this:
You alone created my inner being. You knitted me together inside my mother. I will give thanks to you because I have been so amazingly and miraculously made. Your works are miraculous, and my soul is fully aware of this.
Your conception, no matter what the circumstances, was no accident. You are exactly as Elohim designed you to be. That design has a purpose, and that purpose is to bring God glory. You were created for His glory and His pleasure. You were created imago Dei — in His image — and that gives every person inherent dignity and worth.
Who better to care for you and protect you than the One who created you? Your God, your Elohim. David reached for this name in the wilderness:
O Elohim, you are my Elohim. At dawn I search for you. My soul thirsts for you. My body longs for you in a dry, parched land where there is no water.
And again in Psalm 91, the psalmist declares that Elohim is the One in whom he puts his trust:
Whoever lives under the shelter of Elyon will remain in the shadow of Shadday. I will say to Yahweh, “You are my Machseh and my Metsuda, my Elohim in whom I trust.”
Elohim created everything we see, in heaven and on earth, from nothing.
Elohim continues to sustain it through His creative power and authority.
Rest your weary body in His loving arms. Recline, and be enveloped in the love and security of the One who created you for His pleasure. Abide in Him — Almighty God, your Creator, Elohim.