Lord’s Day 47
Dear children of God, brothers and sisters in Christ, and guests, we are to ask of God “all that we need
for body and soul.” Everything we need in life, everything we need to live, we are to ask it of God. So what
would be first on your list? When you’ve got a list of requests, that which comes first on the list tends to
be the one that is most pressing, most urgent, most important. So what’s the first thing you want to ask
of God?
Our Lord Jesus Christ taught us to pray first “Hallowed be Your Name.” That’s intriguing. For it doesn’t
really seem to be a request that relates to “all we need for body and soul.” “Hallowed be Your Name.”
That seems to be more about God’s needs, not mine.
Still, this, brothers and sisters, this is to be the first thing that is to come to our minds when we ask
God for all the things we need for body and soul. In explaining this request the Catechism notes “grant us
first of all.” “First of all”, this is our number one request. God teaches us that this is our number one need
for body and soul.
Moreover, we saw two weeks ago how the requests we make of God are not distinct, unrelated
requests, but form a logical sequence. This first request sets the tone and creates a context for the
requests that follow.
Our first request to God, so Christ instructed us, is to be “Hallowed be Your Name”. That’s our most
basic, most primary need for body and soul. Let’s reflect on this petition to learn why this is so, and so
learn how to pray more properly.
We listen to God’s instruction on how to pray, summed up in this command: Pray for God’s glory.
We will consider, (1) the words of the request as Christ taught us to pray it, and (2) the intent of our
request. I could say, our first point is the exegesis of the petition and our second point the application
of the petition.
1) The words of our first request to God: “Hallowed be Your Name.”
What does the first petition actually mean? That’s a valid question, because it’s meaning is not very
obvious. To begin with, it uses a word which, in the English language, is rather uncommon. Just think,
when is the last time you used the word “hallow” in an everyday sentence? My guess is, never. Well, we
do kind of use the term when referring to October 31: that’s Halloween. And Halloween is short for “the
Hallowed Evening”. Other than that we probably only use the word “hallow” when we’re praying the
Lord’s prayer. In modern Bible translations, we only find it there. In the ESV, the word “hallow” is found
only in Matthew 6:9 and Luke 11:2.
We use an obscure word to ask our number one question of God. What are we asking?
I mentioned, one only finds the word “to hallow” twice in the ESV. That’s not true for the King James
Version though. A quick check indicates the word is found there 37 times, 35 of those are in the Old
Testament and 2 in the New Testament, the 2 places where one finds the first petition. It would seem that
the word “hallow” was a more common term in the English language some 400 years ago. Now, the New
Testament wasn’t written originally in English, but in Greek. So we need to go back to the original word.
And then we find that the word at back of “to hallow” is actually used many, many times: 28 times in the
New Testament and a 161 times in the Greek translation of the Old Testament. That’s just the verb. The
related adjective occurs hundreds of times. The first petition of the Lord’s Prayer might be obscure in the
English language, in the original Greek and also in Hebrew it was not obscure at all.
So what does it mean? What does “to hallow” mean? Maybe some of you are wondering what the fuss
is all about. That would be those who have Dutch as our mother tongue. In Dutch, this petition is not
mysterious at all. If I do a somewhat literal translation of this request from Dutch into English it would be
“Your Name be made holy.” That’s actually what it means “To hallow” is an old English verb for “to
sanctify” or “to make holy” or “to be holy”. The adjective that goes with “to hallow” is “holy”.
My guess is that in the Lord’s Prayer the word “hallow” has been retained by translators simply to
preserve a traditional rendering so as to be appealing to as many Bible readers as possible. That’s
regrettable: it runs counter to the Protestant conviction that Scripture should be understood. Yes, it does
happen that God had human authors of Scripture use obscure words or even invent words to express
certain realities. But the verb in the first petition is not one of those. We would do well to say in modern
language what the petition is.
As to what that might be, we need to define the term “to hallow”.
In a narrower sense “to hallow” means “to be holy, to treat as holy, to make holy, to consider holy.”
“To hallow” is “to holi-fy”, “to sanctify”. Now, in the minds of many the word “holy” is associated with
good and evil. “To be holy” is the opposite of “to be sinful”. But that’s too narrow of a definition. The first
time we read the word “holy” in Scripture, actually, the verb “to make holy”, the same verb found in the
first petition, is Genesis 2:3. “So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy.” This is before the Fall
into Sin, so making the seventh day “holy” can’t have any connection to sin. “Holiness” is something that
can imply “sinlessness” but is actually broader than that.
Turn with me for a moment to John 17:19. John 17:19. In this verse the Greek verb “to hallow” is found
twice. The ESV there translates “And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified
in truth.” Both the words “consecrate” and “sanctify” have a footnote attached to them indicating that
one might also translate “consecrate” with “sanctify” and [this is why I had us look this up] that both
“consecrate” and “sanctify” in first instance mean “be set apart for.”
In Scripture “holy” in first instance means “to be different”, “to be set apart”. The seventh day is
different from the other six days of the week. There are 6 days of work and 1 day of rest. The seventh day
is holy because, unlike the other days, it is the day of rest. “To hallow” thus means something like “to
regard as special”. That’s also the point of Psalm 99 when it sings “The LORD is holy.” It’s not just that God
is without sin. This is far broader. God is the greatest, the highest, the most powerful. God is in a class by
Himself. Being in a class by himself, that’s what makes God holy.
Thus, when we pray “Hallowed be Your Name” what we’re asking is that God’s Name be regarded as
“special”, be treated as special, be respected as being different from all other names.
Thus a modern rendering of the first petition would be “Your Name be treated as special.” To elevate
the language, one might say “Your Name be consecrated” or “Your Name be sacred.”
This doesn’t clarify everything for us yet. For, what does it mean to treat someone’s name as special.
Why the reference to God’s Name? Why not just a reference to God?
To us, a name is a reference indicator. What’s in a name? Call a rose a violet and it still smells as sweet.
But to biblical cultures, a name is also a character indicator. Some Jews even had the custom of referring
to God simply as “the Name”. When Adam had to name the animals, Adam wasn’t just giving the animals
something to be called by. Adam considered the character of animals and gave each animal a name that
fit with the animal. As he did so, he realized that none of the creatures that presented themselves to him
had the character of being his help. None was like him. Then God made another human being and brought
her to the first human being. Then Adam gave her a name too: “woman” because “she was taken out of
man”. “Woman”, it’s not just something call someone by, a reference indicator. It’s a description of
someone, it’s a character indicator.
In a broken world people may not necessarily live up to their name. There’s a good example of that in
the letter Paul wrote to Philemon; we’re studying that Bible book right now during the Arabic Language
classes. Philemon had a slave called Onesimus. Now “Onesimus” means “useful”. Initially, however,
Onesimus was anything but “useful”, writes Paul. Only upon his conversion had he become truly “useful”.
Onesimus had a name to live up to. Initially he didn’t, later he did.
In the Bible one’s name is an expression of character and identity. That’s very true for God. God’s Name
is His person. When Moses asked to see God in person, God responded by noting that He would proclaim
His Name to Moses (Exodus 34:5-7). God’s Name is God’s identity. When we ask God that His Name be
hallowed we’re asking that’s God’s person might be treated as special.
So what is God’s Name? Who is God? In brief, He is Yahweh El Shaddai. In English: the LORD God
Almighty.
From the perspective of creation, He is Almighty God. He is the highest of all who exist. He’s at the
very, very top of all persons. That’s the point of Psalm 99 when it says that God is enthroned above the
cherubim. That’s as high as you can go in the ranks of personal existence. No one is greater than God.
That makes Him special. God is highest, because He is creator but is Himself not created. All things
have a beginning except for God. That makes God different. God is almighty, present everywhere, allknowing, in every way good. God is totally different. The LORD is holy, sings Psalm 99 because of His
rule.
There’s also another way in which the LORD is holy. Psalm 99 sings of that too. Besides being “God
Almighty”, “El Shaddai” He is “the LORD”, He is “Yahweh”. That Name points to God’s love and loyalty.
In Exodus 3 we hear God identify Himself by this Name to Moses at the burning bush. Later, once
Moses is in Egypt, God said to him: “I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as God Almighty
[that’s El Shaddai] but by name the LORD I did not make myself known to them.” (Exo 6:3). That may
seem odd because Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob do refer to God by the name “Yahweh”. What God meant
though, when He spoke with Moses, is that He had not proven Himself to be Yahweh. He had given a
promise, but He had not yet kept the promise. He had not proven Himself to be loving and loyal. The
delivery of Israel from Egypt would be God living up to His Name.
God’s Name is His character, is His person. The creation of this world and God’s care over it make clear:
He is God Almighty – Psalm 99:1-5. The liberation of Israel from Egypt makes clear: He is the LORD, He is
Yahweh – Psalm 99:6-9. Both Names make clear that God is in a category all by Himself, that the LORD
indeed is “holy”.
We who live today have seen God’s holiness in the sending of the Son of God, in the work of Jesus the
Christ. We see God Almighty battling with evil that threatened to destroy this world. We see Yahweh being
faithful in His love for this world, to save it from destruction. The absolute and ultimate proof for God’s
holiness, God being special in everyway, is the Christ.
We’re almost there. There’ s still one point that needs to be made. God is special, God is holy. As such,
the request “Hallowed be Your Name” is not “be holy” or “become holy”. God does not ‘develop’, there
is no change God. He is the same, yesterday, today, and forever. We don’t have to ask God to live up to
His Name: He does. The meaning is more nuanced.
Our request is about God, but it relates to ourselves, to all people on earth. After all, we are to ask God
for all that we need for body and soul. With this first request we’re asking God that we will give God the
most special place in our lives, in all our concerns, in all we desire, love, think, say, and do.
That’s our most basic need, for body and soul. That God and God alone be number one in our lives.
God is to be number one in our lives. So that’s the number one thing to pray for.
2) We come to our second consideration: the intent of our request.
Asking God that His Name might be hallowed, that He might be considered special in every way is first
of all asking that our own individual lives would have God as central. It’s the very reason for our existence.
In Genesis we read how God created all things after its own kind except for man. We, human beings, are
an exception. We were not created after our own kind. We were created in the image of God. We were
created in the likeness of God. Of all creatures our identity is the only one that is not unique. Our identity
is entirely based on God’s identity. The first petition, the first request we place before God in the prayer
our Lord Jesus Christ taught us, reaches directly back to the very purpose of our existence. Because we
were created in the image and likeness of God, our first and foremost request is that God be honoured
through us.
Such honour comes about by knowing a person. Unknown is unloved, says a proverb. We have to know
who God is, and we have to know Him in the way Scripture uses the term “knowledge”, in a most intimate,
experiential way. Because we rebelled against God, because we turned our backs on God, we lost that
perfect image of God. We’re still called to be God’s image bearers but we’ve lost all but some traces of
that image. We were created to look like God. Thus our most basic need is to know God, to know what
He is like, so that more and more we love Him and exist for Him. Our most basic purpose in life is to be
like God and thus our most basic need in life is to know God, to know what He is like, to identify with Him
and to relate to Him. As one of the apostles once wrote “It is not I who live but Christ who lives within
me.”
That’s also the focus of God’s will for our lives. The first petition of the Lord’s Prayer is the request that
we might be obedient to especially the first three commandments. The first three: (1) no others gods but
Yahweh El Shaddai, but the LORD God Almighty; (2) worship Him as He commands and not as we might
want; and (3) no misuse of His Name but only proper use. Our Highest Prophet, Jesus the Christ, knew
what He was doing when He taught us, first of all, to pray for God’s Name to be hallowed. He was teaching
us to sync our prayers with the law, the commands of God. God’s glory, God’s honour, comes first.
That implies, as the Catechism explains, two things. (1) We are to know God. We have to know Him
well. That means, listening to Him when He speaks. Studying what He has told us and shown us about
Himself. And (2) We are to praise God. We are to relate to God in a relationship of honouring and
glorifying. Our existence is shaped by God’s glory and God’s commands. The fact that God is the focus of
our lives comes through in how we speak and listen in God’s presence. In how we speak: that’s our
prayers, our songs, our confessions of faith. In how we listen: that’s God’s commands, God’s gospel, God’s
blessing.
The first thing Christ taught us to ask relates directly to the first thing we read about our identity as
humans in Scripture “Let us make man in our image.” The first petition relates to the most basic need we
have in life, as we learn also from God’s law: the need to worship: (first commandment) the one true God
alone, (second commandment) as He wants it done, and (third commandment) not to push our own
agendas with God’s authority.
And worship broadens into service. The first petition doesn’t just relate to what we do on Sundays
during public worship, and during all those times of family worship and private devotion. When we ask
God that His Name might be treated as special, we’re also asking that we in our conduct we might be a
true image of God. We bear God’s Name. Everything we do reflects back to God. Thus our words and
actions should never reflect badly on God. Our identity is determined by the person of God. We are to
reflect His love and loyalty in all of life. We are to carry God’s Name with honour.
Thus our first request to God is, basically: “Have us, first and foremost, worship and serve You.”
That’s our request. Of God. “Have us, first and foremost, worship and serve You.” It shows that even
in this most fundamental need of our lives we depend on God. If it wasn’t for God we would not worship
God, we would not serve God. If God does not actively involve Himself in our lives, guiding us through
Fatherly providence, saving us through Christly intercession, and cleansing us through the Spirit’s renewal,
if God does not actively involve Himself in our lives, our lives would be meaningless and our future would
be lost. We need God, first and foremost, because God’s glory is the purpose of our lives.
Hence, the first thing we should pray for, the one thing we should always pray for, the request that will
shape all our other requests is the first petition of the Lord’s Prayer. “Your Name be hallowed.” “Glorify
Your Name.”
Beloved, first and foremost, pray for God’s glory.
And we probably do well to do that as Christ taught us, first and foremost in our praying. Begin with
praising God and seeking God’s glory. It puts into perspective all those other things you’ll be asking of
God. It might even make you think about whether you should be asking certain things of God. After all,
the point of prayer is not to advance my glory but God’s glory, not to push my agenda but God’s agenda,
not for my will to be done but God’s.
Lord have me know You, have me love You, have me live for You alone.
To God alone be glory.
Amen.