As we began our Week of Prayer and Fasting this morning we started our reflections on the Lord’s prayer by thinking about exactly who it is we are addressing in our prayers. Jesus teaches us to pray to “Our Father in Heaven.” There are two truths which we need to hold together as we pray. We are coming to the God in heaven who is beyond our comprehension: the almighty Creator, all-knowing, ever-present, eternal, holy, loving and transcendent. Yet Jesus invites his disciples to call this God “our Father”. By God’s grace in Jesus Christ we have become God’s beloved children. So we have the privilege of addressing God as “Abba, Father”. The Christian name for God is Father,
The secret of prayer will be to really get to know the wonderful God we are praying to. We sometimes spend a long time thinking about what we ought to ask for in our prayers. We need to spend just as long thinking about the Person we are praying to … “Our Father in Heaven.”
In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus then leads on to six requests which we will look at over the days of this week. Three requests are centred on God and then another three are centred on human beings and our needs. Just the first of these prayers will give us plenty to think about for our prayers tonight. I skimmed over that request in the booklet on Praying the Lord’s Prayer, and in our series of sermons on the Lord’s prayer back in 2014. So it is well worth a closer look tonight. And that prayer is this. Our Father in Heaven,
HALLOWED BE YOUR NAME
This is not a request that God’s name will become holy. God’s name is already holy!
Psalm 30 4 Sing the praises of the LORD, you his faithful people; praise his holy name.
Psalm 97 12 Rejoice in the LORD, you who are righteous, and praise his holy name.
Psalm 103 1 Praise the LORD, my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name.
Psalm 111 9 He provided redemption for his people; he ordained his covenant for ever – holy and awesome is his name.
God’s name is already holy. And God’s good name and God’s reputation in the world is very important. The Third Commandment commands God’s people,
Exodus 20 7 You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.
God’s name is already holy. The problem was that all through the centuries of the later Kings of Israel and Judah, God’s people had profaned and tarnished the good name of the LORD among the nations. Very early on God had warned them of the dangers ahead.
Leviticus 22 31 ‘Keep my commands and follow them. I am the LORD. 32 Do not profane my holy name, for I must be acknowledged as holy by the Israelites. I am the LORD, who made you holy 33 and who brought you out of Egypt to be your God. I am the LORD.’
In the end God’s people rebelled against him so much that God acted in judgment and the Jews were taken off to Exile in Babylon. God’s judgment fell to preserve his Good Name among the nations, to stop his name being profaned by his chosen people.
Ezekiel 20 8 ‘ “But they rebelled against me and would not listen to me; they did not get rid of the vile images they had set their eyes on, nor did they forsake the idols of Egypt. So I said I would pour out my wrath on them and spend my anger against them in Egypt. 9 But for the sake of my name, I brought them out of Egypt. I did it to keep my name from being profaned in the eyes of the nations among whom they lived and in whose sight I had revealed myself to the Israelites.
Judgment came on Israel in the form of the Exile, but equally for the sake of his good name God’s cosmic masterplan would ultimately bring salvation to the remnant of his chosen people.
Ezekiel 36 20 And wherever they went among the nations they profaned my holy name, for it was said of them, “These are the LORD’s people, and yet they had to leave his land.” 21 I had concern for my holy name, which the people of Israel profaned among the nations where they had gone.
22 ‘Therefore say to the Israelites, “This is what the Sovereign LORD says: it is not for your sake, people of Israel, that I am going to do these things, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations where you have gone. 23 I will show the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, the name you have profaned among them. Then the nations will know that I am the LORD, declares the Sovereign LORD, when I am proved holy through you before their eyes.
The LORD’s Name will be demonstrated to be holy to the whole world by the amazing salvation he will bring to his people. This is explained in the passage which follows which is probably more familiar to us. Ezekiel continues,
24 ‘ “For I will take you out of the nations; I will gather you from all the countries and bring you back into your own land. 25 I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. 26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. 28 Then you will live in the land I gave your ancestors; you will be my people, and I will be your God.
This was the wonderful salvation God will bring to his chosen people, not for their sakes but for the sake of his holy name. Indeed, the purpose of every element of God’s masterplan of salvation is so that his holy name will be honoured. There are actually so many promises which make a clear link between the salvation God will bring and his name and his honour and his glory.
Isaiah 5 16 But the LORD Almighty will be exalted by his justice, and the holy God will be proved holy by his righteous acts.
Ezekiel 38 23 And so I will show my greatness and my holiness, and I will make myself known in the sight of many nations. Then they will know that I am the LORD.”
God’s end-time salvation will vindicate his holy name.
Ezekiel 39 7 ‘ “I will make known my holy name among my people Israel. I will no longer let my holy name be profaned, and the nations will know that I the LORD am the Holy One in Israel.
Ezekiel 39 27 When I have brought them back from the nations and have gathered them from the countries of their enemies, I will be proved holy through them in the sight of many nations.
So God promises that he will restore his good name and demonstrate that he is holy. Even in present times God’s people can hallow his name by righteous living Equally God’s people can continue to profane his name and bring it into disrepute among the nations by living unrighteously. But ultimately only God himself is able to restore his good name before the nations. Praying “hallowed be your name” is not some pious aspiration that people everywhere will give honour to God. It is a prayer that God himself will intervene to restore his good name. There are plenty more wonderful promises looking forward to the day when God’s name will be glorified and sanctified by God himself when he saves his chosen people.
Malachi 1 11 My name will be great among the nations, from the rising to the setting of the sun. In every place incense and pure offerings will be brought to my name, because my name will be great among the nations,” says the LORD Almighty.
Zechariah 14 9 The LORD will be king over the whole earth. On that day there will be one LORD, and his name the only name.
All this is summed up in the verse I just read from
Ezekiel 36 23 I will show the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, the name you have profaned among them. Then the nations will know that I am the LORD, declares the Sovereign LORD, when I am proved holy through you before their eyes.
In Jesus’s time the Jews were already expecting God to bring his end-time salvation and by doing so fulfil all his promises and restore his reputation and his good name among the nations. This is the background of the simple request we find in the Lord’s Prayer, “hallowed be your name.”
That is the prayer we offer. That God will break into his world, show his power and reveal his glory, so that people everywhere will recognise and acknowledge that God’s name is holy and show to God the appropriate respect and reverence which he is due.
Isaiah 29:23 looks forward to the time when people, “will acknowledge the holiness of the Holy One of Jacob, and will stand in awe of the God of Israel.”
This is what we are praying for when we say, “hallowed be your name”.
Good News Translation – May your holy name be held in honour
We want God’s name to be proclaimed and lifted high. God’s name will be hallowed when people everywhere acknowledge God’s holiness and stand in awe of him.
When we pray “Hallowed be your name!” we are praying that each of us we will give God all the glory and all the honour and all the praise of which He is worthy. Of course this should start in our lives and in our church. We want God to be adored for Who He is, God of heaven. We want God to be praised for all the wonderful things He has done in creation and redemption. So when we pray “Hallowed be your name” in the Lord’s Prayer we are asking God to help US to glorify His Name as He deserves. We join our praise with all the angels and the saints in heaven around the throne of God,
Revelation 7:12 “Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and strength belong to our God forever and ever! Amen.”
Believers are already giving God all the glory and all the praise which is his due. But the primary concern of the request in the Lord’s prayer is that God’s glory is recognised and proclaimed throughout the whole world. We long for the time when God breaks into his Creation and is acknowledged as Almighty and Eternal and Holy by every human being and every creature.
SHOW YOUR POWER, O LORD, Demonstrate the justice of Your kingdom.
Prove Your mighty word. Vindicate Your name Before a watching world.
Awesome are Your deeds, O Lord; Renew them for this hour.
Show Your power, O Lord, Among the people now.
Hallowed be your name! As we sometimes sing, “Glorify your Name in all the earth.” Hallowed be your name throughout the whole cosmos! As Psalm 150 says, “Let everything that has breath praise the Lord!” We want every living being to stand in awe of the LORD and to show God the respect and the allegiance and the obedience of which He is so completely worthy.
Hallowed be your name. We ask this in prayer because only God himself can accomplish this. May God bring his end time salvation so that his name is rightly sanctified and exalted and glorified throughout all of creation.
Now we can see that this petition actually leads directly into those that follow it. “Hallowed be your name. May your kingdom come. May your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” All of these are prayers that God’s end-time salvation will arrive on earth. It is only by God’s direct intervention that these things will be fulfilled. And we have the glorious promise that the day is coming – and coming soon!
Philippians 2 9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11 and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
That wonderful day when Christ returns is coming soon. On that day, every person will honour and revere and stand in awe of God’s holy name. That is what we are praying for every time we pray, “hallowed be your name”.