July 14th, 2024
The first petition of the Lord’s Prayer is “Hallowed be thy name.” The holiness of God’s name motivates and sets the priority of prayer.
Isaiah the prophet and John the apostle were both permitted to see the throne room of heaven, where the heavenly creatures cry out, day and night, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty” (Is 6:3; Rev 4:8). God’s name is hallowed in heaven. Our prayer is that God’s name would be hallowed on earth, as it is in heaven.
Jesus hallowed his Father’s name on earth as it is in heaven: “I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do” (John 17:4). The work he gave him to do was finished on the cross, where the holiness and glory of God is most clearly manifest. This is why the same heavenly choir chanting “holy, holy, holy” is also chanting, “worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honour and glory and blessing!” (Rev 5:12).
Our Lord suffered and died to ransom a people for God. The Holy Spirit regenerates and sanctifies these saints who hallow God’s name on earth as it is in heaven. When we pray “hallowed be thy name,” we are praying for God’s Spirit to sanctify us so that we may hallow God’s name.
Martin Luther asks in his Larger Catechism: How do we hallow God’s name among us?
“The plainest answer is: When both our teaching and our life are godly and Christian. Since in this prayer we call God our Father, it is our duty in every way to behave as good children so that he may receive from us not shame but honour and praise.”
Likewise, according to Question 190 in the Westminster Larger Catechism:
“What do we pray for in the first petition? In the first petition (which is, Hallowed be thy name,) acknowledging the utter inability and indisposition that is in ourselves and all men to honor God aright, we pray, that God would by his grace enable and include us and others to know, to acknowledge, and highly to esteem him, his titles, attributes, ordinances, word, works, and whatsoever he is pleased to make himself known by; and to glorify him in thought, word, and deed: that he would prevent and remove atheism, ignorance, idolatry, profaneness, and whatsoever is dishonorable to him; and by his overruling providence, direct and dispose of all things to his own glory.”
When we pray, “hallowed be thy name,” we’re not only praying that we would hallow God’s name in our lives. We are also praying that God’s name would be hallowed among all the nations, to the ends of the earth. Thus, we cannot separate our plea to God in prayer and our plea to the nations in preaching. We cannot separate worship and witness. With King David we cry out:
Sing to the Lord, all the earth!
Tell of his salvation from day to day.
Declare his glory among the nations,
his marvelous works among all the peoples!
For great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised,
and he is to be feared above all gods.
For all the gods of the peoples are worthless idols,
but the Lord made the heavens.
Splendor and majesty are before him;
strength and joy are in his place.
Ascribe to the Lord, O families of the peoples,
ascribe to the Lord glory and strength!
Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name;
bring an offering and come before him!
Worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness.
(1 Chronicles 16:23-29)