Matthew 6:9, “So do not be like them; for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him. Pray, then, in this way: ‘Our Father who is in heaven, hallowed be Your name.'”
If you ask the most successful people in the world in business, work, or sports what the reason for their success is, one great, successful man said, “This is the formula—if you really follow it, it’s 100% success—you need to have a vision (something not apparent to the natural eye now, but a future view of what I want to achieve), then a plan to achieve that, and a commitment to fulfill the plan.” It’s very simple: Vision + Plan + Commitment = Success. It all starts with one vision of what you want to do in life. In a way, this is very true in spiritual life. Proverbs 29:18 says, “Where there is no prophetic vision, the people perish.”
Our spiritual vision is to perceive God’s will for us through his word. When a person lives with a God-given vision, only the Lord knows what the end result will be. If things are not progressing in our life, it’s important to examine what the ultimate purpose of our life is. We need to have an ever-burning, passionate, and consuming vision. When a believer stops and asks, “Lord, why did you create me? What is the purpose of my existence? What do you want to accomplish in and through my life?” only then does a believer grow into maturity and start living meaningfully. Those who don’t live with a vision live in self-delusion, and Proverbs says they will perish.
God created us in a very high level of likeness to himself for a very special purpose. So, according to God’s word, what should our vision for life be? Our catechism says, “To glorify God and enjoy him forever.” We live a meaningful, purposeful, and fulfilled life only when we live for that purpose. But sadly, after sin came, man became depraved and selfish, and as sinners, our constant attempt is to deflect the glory due to God to ourselves. We don’t realize how deeply affected we are by this. We live for selfish satisfaction and self-glory. This is the curse of our lives; our greatest enemy is our own self, and all spiritual activities are tainted because of this. A person can be fulfilled, happy, satisfied, and great only if they live for the purpose of God’s glory. Have you stopped and asked, “Why am I living like this? What is the purpose of my life?” It is so important to have this vision and life goal and to be guided by it in all things. It is because believers don’t have this view that their life priorities are wrong. They keep doing a hundred and one useless things, are tossed to and fro by the waves of the world, allow themselves to be molded by the world and circumstances, and waste their precious life and time on selfish things. James 4:3 says that the prayers of such people will not be heard because their life motive is wrong and selfish. Not only that, very dangerous results come out of not having a proper vision; Proverbs says they will perish.
Our Lord, if he teaches a prayer, will teach only a prayer that will get us answers. So the first requests that he teaches show what our life vision should be. Have you asked seriously, “Why do I live?” If you ask many, they will say, “I was born, so I live.” Some live for their stomachs, their name, worldly pleasures, money, things, fashion, family, or children. The Bible rebukes this kind of life and says, “Is this life? Did God create his own likeness, and did Christ die for you to live like this? Shame on you.” The only noble, higher, and perfect purpose we were created for is “to hallow God’s name, live for his kingdom, and do his will.” That is the right purpose to live for. People who don’t live for this, no matter what you may say, the Bible says they are only living for the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the boastful pride of life. Your desires for growth will be unfulfilled. At the end of your life, you will be just mud and nothing. You will not be able to walk, get up, or see properly. You will sit in a corner and wonder what kind of life you lived.
1 John 2:16, 17. But Christ suffered for us so we would not spend our remaining lives for the lusts of men, but for the will of God, as stated in 1 Peter 4:2. As we begin the first petition, our Lord shows what the top, ultimate purpose for living is. Live for a noble and supreme purpose. If you live, live a life that is worth living for this purpose. Everything else will perish. Let us look at the first purpose and first petition of God’s answering prayer: “Hallowed be Thy name.”
What is God’s name?
God is an infinite being, beyond our understanding. The Maker of heaven and earth has been pleased to make himself known to us by manifesting his glorious perfections: his matchless attributes of omniscience, omnipotence, and omnipresence; holiness, righteousness, goodness, and mercy. But he has revealed drops of his glorious being. Even those drops are beyond our understanding. He has revealed them through his name. Names don’t have much meaning in our days, but when we say God’s name, it stands for the whole character of God. Whenever God declared his name in the Bible, he revealed his nature. The name of God is the composite of all of his attributes. And hallowing his name is not just having some kind of feeling or desire about some name of God. It is hallowing all that God is in terms of his nature and his attributes. By “Thy name” is meant God himself. To hallow God’s name means to hallow God fully, his character, nature, attributes, and his very being. The Old Testament and the Psalms are filled with this. “I will praise your name,” and “nations will fear your name.”
The name of God is a word of dreadful and significant import. It is nothing less than God himself. There are more than 900 names for God. Each of his names expresses some part of his character. For example, God is called Elohim in the third word of the Bible, “In the beginning God.” Elohim is the Creator God, and he is to be hallowed as a Creator. He revealed himself as El Shaddai, the Almighty, to Abraham. Genesis 14. El Elyon, the possessor of heaven and earth. Jehovah-Jireh, the Lord will provide; Jehovah-Nissi, the Lord our Banner; Jehovah-Rapha, the Lord that heals; Jehovah-Shalom, the Lord our peace; Jehovah-Shammah, the Lord is near, is present. A very important name is Yahweh, “the Lord who keeps his covenant.” Adonai is the Lord, the Master who rules our lives. All these names speak of his attributes. The Bible calls him by so many terms, showing the fullness of who he is. But the greatest name that God ever took, the greatest name by which God has ever been designated in history, is the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, which means the Lord, the anointed Savior.
Yahweh was very sacred to them. The Jews so much revered the name of God that they would not say Yahweh. They took the consonants of Yahweh and the vowels of Adonai and put them together to form the name Jehovah, which is a non-word. When they came to Yahweh, they would use Adonai so as not to dishonor the real name by saying it. The English Bible uses capital letters for “LORD.” When Jewish scholars copied the scriptures, every time they wrote God’s name, they would stop and not write the Lord’s name with the pen that wrote other words. They would use a new pen that had never been used, and after writing his name, they broke it so it could never be used again. And so a Jew wouldn’t even say Yahweh. In fact, if you go into an orthodox circle today in Hebrew and were to say that word, you’d probably get stoned. So we saw that God’s name stood for God himself.
How important is God’s name?
Why is this petition at the top? Why is God’s name important? Because all things were created and exist for this very purpose. There is nothing more important than this in the whole universe. Before God’s name, nothing is important; heaven is not, the whole earth, the whole population, and all the people put together in all ages can perish eternally in hell rather than suffer the loss of God’s name being tarnished. There is nothing more important in the Bible than God’s name. We may not fully understand this with our selfish, sinful minds, but in terms of eternal value, God’s name is more valuable than all angels, all people, and the whole universe. God’s glory is worth more than the salvation of all men’s souls.
Your prayer is not important, your needs, your bread, your sins, not falling into temptation, your life span, your going to heaven, your family, your whole generation—none of it is important before hallowing God’s name. That is why this is the first prayer request. This is the top priority; the glory of God’s great name is the ultimate end of all things. Every other request must not only be subordinated to this one but be in harmony with and in pursuance of it. All other requests will end in eternity and become useless. We may not pray for the kingdom to come or for his will to be done, as it will have already come and his will will be done. We may not pray, “Give us our daily bread,” because there shall be no hunger; nor, “Forgive us our trespasses,” because there shall be no sin; nor, “Lead us not into temptation,” because the old serpent is not there to tempt. Yet the hallowing of God’s name will be of great use and will be a request in heaven; we shall be forever singing hallelujahs, which is nothing but the hallowing of God’s name.
Heaven realizes there is nothing more important, which is why the angels are eternally and unceasingly crying, “Holy, holy, holy.” They hallow his name. Jesus Christ, eternally in heaven, knowing what is the great top priority for God, teaches us the first request.
There is nothing more important to God than his name. We will be surprised to find with what solemnity of manner and emphasis of language God has revealed and guarded the sanctity of his name. It is a most instructive view of the subject of this chapter to mark the profound sanctity in which God regards his own name. He is said to be jealous of it. “Thus says the Lord God, I will be jealous for my holy name.” He is jealous of its divinity, its sanctity, and its honor. Ezekiel 39:24.
His entire work of creation has been to make his name—which is himself—known and renowned on the earth. All of nature shows the power and glory of his name. His providence hallows his name. His redemptive work is to hallow his name. God has hallowed his name in his revealed Word. God hallowed his name in a very great way in the Lord Jesus Christ. Our Lord’s whole life was a continuous sanctifying of his Father’s Name. Everywhere, and in every word and act, he acknowledged its divinity, upheld its authority, and glorified God’s name. After he did all his work, you know what he called his work. John 17:4, 6 says, “I have manifested Your name unto the men whom You gave Me out of the world. I have declared unto them Your name.”
You know why he didn’t destroy man after sin, why he didn’t destroy Israel, and why he didn’t destroy the world yet. It is for his name’s sake. See, also, the motive-power with God which his great name supplies. Ezekiel 36:22, 1 Samuel 12:22: “Thus says the Lord God, I do not do this for your sake, O house of Israel, but for my holy name’s sake.” For the credit and for the glory of his holy name, he does it.
God is very sensitive about the honor of his name; nothing touches him more. So it is wise and beautiful to begin the prayer like this. Do you want your prayers to be heard? Live for hallowing God’s name and base all your requests on doing that. What will he not do for his name’s sake? From what difficulty will he not deliver you, from what temptation will he not save you, from what need will he not fulfill, and what good thing will he not withhold if we but plead in believing prayer the honor and the glory of his great and holy name?
You remember Achan sinned, and God said, “These people have sinned, and I am angry.” You know what Joshua pleaded. Joshua 7:9: “And what will You do with Your great name?” See how Joshua pleaded it.
Such, also, is the power belonging to the Name of Jesus! We are most imperfectly acquainted with its preciousness on earth and its prevalence in heaven. What suppliant will the Father not accept, and what supplication will he not grant, if it is presented in the name of Christ? Jesus says, “Whatever you shall ask of the Father in my name, He will give it to you.”
What does it mean to hallow God’s name?
Jesus used such a rich, full, and exhaustive phrase that it is impossible to explain it with human words. It is a sense that only the Holy Spirit can give. Every time you pray this, you climb to a new respect for God, and you are ascending to recognize how great God is. Make the presence of God real in our hearts. Give a very high place to God’s name in your heart. He is a Father, but he is also a powerful creator, ruler of the universe, and the great, holy sovereign of heaven. We enter knowing he is a loving Father who knows our hurts and needs; he is not an angry judge waiting to punish us, nor is he indifferent or ignorant of you, or too busy to hear you. But he is also a loving Father, yet we should approach him with reverence and fear as the great God of heaven. When we say “hallowed,” it is like the angels who cry, “Holy, holy, holy.” We are setting God’s name apart and high in our thinking and feeling. We treat him with all the respect due to his character and glory, giving him the honor he deserves.
To hallow is to set a thing apart from common use for some sacred purpose. We set it apart from all abuses, blasphemies, and wrong thoughts and words. Hallowing God’s name is to give him high honor and veneration. We can add nothing to his essential glory, but we are said to honor and sanctify his name when we lift him up in the world and make him appear greater in the eyes of others. To sanctify can mean to make holy or to treat as holy. When God sanctifies us, it means that he makes us holy. But when we sanctify God, it means that we treat him as holy. In this petition, we pray that God’s name may shine forth gloriously and that it may be honored and sanctified by us in the whole course and tenor of our lives. We ask that he will so act that his creatures may be moved to render the adoration that is due to him. If we offer this petition from the heart, we desire that God’s name may be sanctified by us, and at the same time, we own our indisposition and utter inability to do this on our own. It is a longing to be empowered to glorify God in everything, in all situations and circumstances. Whatever my lot, however low I may sink, through whatever deep waters I may be called to pass, “get to yourself glory in me and by me.”
God’s name is hallowed by his divine self-revelation. It is hallowed by human recognition. It is hallowed by human adoration and appropriate sentiments. It is hallowed by human action. Our great prayer is that we and others may esteem and think very, very highly of God. Why? Because if you think about it, the greatest question is how a person thinks of God. Everything in his life depends on that. His thoughts, emotions, words, and practical actions depend on how highly or lowly he thinks of God.
Now for the application: Let me practically show you how we hallow God’s name using Bible verses where it is mentioned how to hallow his name.
We hallow and sanctify God’s name when we have a high appreciation and esteem of him and set him highest in our thoughts. The Hebrew word to honor signifies to esteem precious. We conceive of God in our minds as the most super-excellent and infinite good; we see in him a constellation of all beauties and delights; we adore him in his glorious attributes and in his works, which are bound up in three great volumes: creation, redemption, and providence. We hallow and sanctify his name when we lift him highest in our souls; we esteem him a supereminent and incomprehensible God. The deeper sense of his holiness we have, the more horrible sin will be for us. We hallow our Father’s Name by a growing sight of its infinite purity and by a deepening hatred and abhorrence of our sin.
We hallow and sanctify his name when we trust in it. ‘We have trusted in his holy name.’ Psalm 33:21. Numbers 20:12: During the wilderness wandering of the people of Israel, there was a time when they had no water. And the people grumbled against Moses. But God tells Moses to speak to the rock and bring forth water for the people. But Moses’ spirit is bitter, and he speaks rashly and strikes the rock twice with his rod. Notice the words: “You did not believe in me to sanctify (or: hallow) me.” This helps us understand what it means to hallow God: it is to trust him. The best way to treat God as holy is to trust what he says. Instead of a peaceful confidence in the power of God to respond to a mere word, Moses was bitter and impulsive. God is not hallowed when we do not have a spirit of settled confidence and peace in his word.
In no way can we bring more honor to God or make his crown shine brighter than by confiding in him. Abraham ‘was strong in faith, giving glory to God.’ Romans 4:20. This was hallowing God’s name. Unbelief stains God’s honor and eclipses his name. ‘He that believeth not God has made him a liar’ (1 John 5:10). So faith glorifies and hallows his name. When you make somebody a liar, you profane that person’s name. This is the opposite of treating the person as holy. Not trusting God is the exact opposite of hallowing his name. In Psalm 9:10, the Bible says, “Those who know Thy name put their trust in Thee.” Those who know your name, those who perceive the fullness of who you are, trust in you. Listen, beloved, when the blinders come off and you see God for who he is, you will trust him. Those who really understand his character will trust him. By a meek, submissive spirit under the discipline of our Father’s correcting hand, we hallow his Name. As long as there is any collision of our will with his, as long as we cherish the secret feeling of rebellion and hostility to his dealings, we cease to sanctify it.
We hallow and sanctify God’s name when we give him a holy and spiritual worship. First, when we give him the same kind of worship that he has appointed. ‘I will be sanctified in them that come nigh me:’ that is, I will be sanctified with that very worship I have appointed. Leviticus 10:3. It is the purity of worship that God loves better than the pomp. It dishonors his name to bring anything into his worship that he has not instituted, as if he were not wise enough to appoint the manner in which he will be served. Verses 1 and 2 describe the death of Aaron’s two sons, Nadab and Abihu, who brought strange fire that God didn’t order. Men prescribe to him and super-add their inventions, which he looks upon as offering strange fire and as a high provocation. Second, when we give to God the same heart devotion in worship that he has appointed. These people honor me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. ‘Fervent in spirit; serving the Lord.’ Romans 12:11. The word for fervent is a metaphor that alludes to water that seethes and boils over to signify that our affections should boil over in holy duties. To give God outside worship and not the devotion of the heart, instead of hallowing and sanctifying him in an ordinance, is to abuse him, as if one asks for wine and you give him an empty glass.
We hallow and sanctify God’s name when we hallow his day. “Hallow ye the sabbath day” (Jeremiah 17:22). Our Christian Sabbath, which takes the place of the Jews’ Sabbath, is called the Lord’s day (Revelation 1:10). It is an honor done to God to hallow his Sabbath. (1) We must rest on this day from all secular work. “Bring in no burden on the sabbath day” (Jeremiah 17:24). Mary Magdalene refused to anoint Christ’s dead body on the Sabbath day (Luke 23:56). She had before prepared her ointment and spices, but came not to the sepulcher until the Sabbath was past; she rested on that day from civil work, even the commendable and glorious work of anointing Christ’s dead body. (2) We must in a solemn manner devote ourselves to God on this day; we must spend the whole day with God. Some will hear the word, but leave all their religion at church; they do nothing at home, they do not pray or repeat the word in their houses, and so rob God of a part of his day. It is lamentable to see how God’s day is profaned. Let no one think God’s name is hallowed while his Sabbath is broken.
We hallow and sanctify God’s name when we ascribe the honor of all we do to him. “Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name” (Psalm 96:8). Herod, instead of hallowing God’s name, dishonored it by assuming that praise to himself which was due to God only (Acts 12:23). We ought to take the honor from ourselves and give it to God. “I labored more abundantly than they all”; one would think this had savored of pride, but the apostle pulls the crown from his own head and sets it upon the head of free grace: “Yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me” (1 Corinthians 15:10). If a Christian has any assistance in duty, or victory over temptation, he rears up a pillar and writes upon it, Hucusque adjuvavit Deus. “Hitherto the Lord has helped me.” John the Baptist transferred all the honor from himself to Christ; he was content to be eclipsed that Christ might shine the more. “He that comes after me is preferred before me” (John 1:15). “I am but the herald, the voice of one crying; he is the prince. I am but a lesser star; he is the sun. I baptize with water only; he with the Holy Ghost.” This is hallowing God’s name, when we transfer all honor from ourselves to God. “Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory” (Psalm 115:1).
We hallow and sanctify God’s name by obeying him. How does a son more honor his father than by obedience? (Leviticus 22:31-32). “So you shall keep my commandments and do them: I am the Lord. And you shall not profane my holy name, but I will be hallowed among the people of Israel; I am the Lord who sanctify you.” “To obey is better than sacrifice.” To pretend honor to God’s name, and yet not obey, is but a devout hypocritical compliment. Abraham honored God by obedience; he was ready to sacrifice his son, though the son of his old age, and a son of the promise.
We hallow and sanctify God’s name when we lift up his name in our praises. Praising God is hallowing his name; it spreads his renown; it displays the trophies of his excellence; it exalts him in the eyes of others. “Whosoever offers praise glorifies me” (Psalm 123, likely a typo for Psalm 50:23). God is said to sanctify, and man is said to sanctify. God sanctifies us by giving us grace; and we sanctify him by giving him praise. What were our tongues given for but to be organs of God’s praise? “Let my mouth be filled with thy praise and with thy honor all the day” (Psalm 71:8). “Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power, be unto him that sits upon the throne, and unto the Lamb forever” (Revelation 5:13). Thus God’s name is hallowed and sanctified in heaven; the angels and glorified saints are singing hallelujahs. Let us begin the work of heaven here. This is one of the highest and purest acts of religion. In prayer we act like men; in praise we act like angels. This hallowing God’s name by praise is very becoming a Christian. It is unbecoming to murmur, which is dishonoring God’s name. It is called the “garment of praise” (Isaiah 61:3). Especially is it a high degree of hallowing God’s name when we can speak well of him and bless him in an afflicted state. “The Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord” (Job 1:21). Many will bless God when he gives, but to bless him when he takes away, is in a high degree to honor him and hallow his name. Let us thus magnify God’s name. Has he not given us abundant matter for praising him?
And, most surely, we hallow it by a full, implicit, believing trust in the Name, and person, and work of Jesus. There can be no proper hallowing of God’s Name, while there is any slighting of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Father will have us honor the Son, the most beloved of His heart, even as we honor Him. “He that honors not the Son, honors not the Father, who has sent Him.” We cannot entertain too exalted views of the Lord Jesus. Our great danger is the reverse of this. In honoring the Son, we hallow the Name of the Father. “In Him dwelt all the fullness of the godhead bodily.” How endeared to our heart should the Savior be, since the Father’s Name is revealed and glorified through Him, and by us in Him! It is a solemn thought that the Name of Christ is in every child of God. We are temples of God, through Christ and by the Spirit. How closely entwined, then, should the Lord Jesus be with our every thought, and feeling, and act! How should we hallow His illustrious and precious Name, by conformity to His precepts, obedience to His commandments, and consecration to His service. Christ should be associated with all we are, with all we have, and with all we do. For us to live should be Christ. The oneness of Christ and the believer admits of no divided interests. Christ has taken us into union with His person, identifying us with all the blessings of His grace, and with all the glories of His kingdom. It is a truth as inevitably certain as it is overwhelmingly solemn, that God’s great Name will be hallowed by all beings, either in mercy or in vengeance. It must be so! It will be glorified in its mercy or in its justice, by every saint in paradise, and by every sinner in hell. What, my reader, will yours be?
We hallow and sanctify God’s name by making as many converts as we can to him; when, by all holy expedients, counsel, prayer, and example, we endeavor the salvation of others. This is when not only we ourselves honor God, but are instruments to make others honor him. Certainly when the heart is seasoned with grace, there will be an endeavor to season others. God’s glory is as dear to a saint as his own salvation; and that this glory may be promoted he endeavors the conversion of souls. Every convert is a new member added to Christ. Let us then hallow God’s name by laboring to advance piety in others; especially let us endeavor that those who are nearly related to us, or are under our roof, may honor God. “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord” (Joshua 24:15). Let us make our houses Bethels, places where God’s name is called upon. “Salute Nymphas, and the church that is in his house” (Colossians 4:15). Let the parent endeavor that his children may honor God, and the master that his servants may honor him. Read the Word, drop holy instruction, perfume your houses with prayer. The Jews had sacrifices in their families as well as in the tabernacle (Exodus 12:3). This is hallowing God’s name when we make converts to him, and endeavor that all under our charge should honor and sanctify his name.
Lastly, dear friends, this should be a burning passion and burden in our hearts because God’s name is everywhere dishonored. We hallow and sanctify God’s name when we sympathize with him; when we grieve when his name suffers. We lay to heart his dishonor as our dishonor. How was Moses affected with God’s dishonor! He broke the tables. We grieve to see God’s Sabbaths profaned, his worship adulterated, and truth mingled with error. We grieve when God’s church is brought low, because his name suffers. Consider how God’s name, instead of being hallowed and sanctified, is dishonored. His name, which is worth more than the salvation of all men’s souls, suffers deeply. We are apt to speak of our sufferings; alas, what are all our sufferings! God’s name suffers most. His name is the dearest thing he has. How do men stand upon their name and honor! God’s name is this day dishonored. A king died in shame because a man threw dirt upon his statue; but what is far worse, disgrace is thrown upon the glorious name of Jehovah. His name is dishonored by everyone. Our Father’s great and holy Name is everywhere dishonored. The sin of profanity and blasphemy is one of the great social evils of society. The irreverent and undevout use of God’s awesome Name confronts us everywhere, and on all occasions. You know the big curse in our country is because of unhallowing his name. Our land will prosper only when we honor his name. What place is entirely exempt from guilt of this sin?
(1) By Hindus; though he revealed himself in nature, and though they know God, they did not honor him, but became foolish and sinned against the light of nature (Romans 1:19). They worship monkeys, cows, snakes, trees, stones, and idols.
(2) God’s name is dishonored by the Muslims, who adore Muhammad their great prophet, as one divinely inspired. He plucked the crown from Christ’s head by denying his Deity.
How much among Christians. The Roman Catholic Church is not a Christian church. There are heartless prayers, vain repetitions, ritualistic forms, idolatry, the Mass, and Mary worship. To pray to her is blasphemy, placing a creature more than the Creator. God only can forgive sins, but priests forgiving sin, and the Pope being above scripture, and the Word of God being wrong, all dishonor Christ’s righteousness by saying you go to heaven by your good works. All history shows that church has dishonored God’s name.
In the pulpit, occupied by the prophet who prophesies lies in God’s Name, His Name is profaned. In the sanctuary, in the name of worshiping God, where is spiritual and holy worship? God’s Name is profaned. “That you may fear this glorious and fearful name: THE LORD THY GOD” (Deuteronomy 28:58). The names of kings are not mentioned without giving them their titles of honor, high and mighty; but men speak irreverently of God, as if he were like one of them. In the press and media, is there any respect for God’s name? In the song, God’s Name is profaned. In the name of the Gospel, what lies are preached and God’s name is dishonored. The true ministry of His word is lightly and not valued. How should the children of God sigh and cry for this great sin!
We bear the name of God by calling ourselves Christians—do we blaspheme God’s name by being nominal Christians? How shall you escape the damnation of hell? See, the true Christian is a sanctifier of God’s name. Are we God’s true children, with what filial affection and wakeful vigor a loving, dutiful child will shield the honor of his father, and vindicate the purity of his mother’s name. Tell something wrong about our parents, and a true child’s blood will boil with a burning indignation. Shall the name of an inferior and erring parent be more sacredly reverenced and vigilantly guarded than the worthy Name by which we are called, the Name of our Father in heaven, the dread Sovereign of heaven, whose name makes angels shudder, Holy, Holy? If we are children, shouldn’t our blood boil when our Father’s name is blasphemed everywhere? What are we doing for this?
Are we not often betrayed into the use of it thoughtlessly, irreverently, and needlessly? With that majestic Name which breathes in trembling awe from the lips of Seraphim and Cherubim? With what profound reverence, then, should it be ever quoted, and with what devout feeling should it be ever sung! Leviticus 22:2 teaches us that so holy is the Name of God, so holy is God Himself, that even in the very act, and at the very moment, of hallowing, we may unwittingly profane it! This the children of Israel might do by eating, while ceremonially unclean, the offerings which the priests had sanctified. And the priests themselves, who bore the vessels of the sanctuary and presented the offerings of the people, might be ceremonially unclean, and so defile, by their unhallowed touch, the vessel and the sacrifice. So truly and solemnly has Jehovah declared, “I will be sanctified in those who come near me, and before all the people I will be glorified.” You have despised my name by offering defiled sacrifices on my altar.
Is there no danger of our falling into a like sin? May we not wave before God a censer flaming with “strange fire,” or present a sacrifice which our unwashed hands have tainted and marred? May we not offer to Him “the blind, and the lame, and the diseased”?—the dregs and dregs of our talents, our property, and our time—offerings we would shrink from presenting to man—unholy sacrifices presented to the holy, and dead sacrifices to the living Lord God? “You have despised my name by offering defiled sacrifices on my altar. You defile them by saying the altar of the Lord deserves no respect. When you give blind animals as sacrifices, isn’t that wrong? And isn’t it wrong to offer animals that are crippled and diseased? Try giving gifts like that to your governor, and see how pleased he is!” says the Lord Almighty (Malachi 1:7-8).
Who can listen to these words of deep, solemn import—remembering the imperfections that have traced, the iniquities that have tainted, and the failures that have attended much that we have done for the Lord—the errors of judgment, the duplicity of heart, the self-seeking and man-pleasing; the lack of love, the lukewarmness of zeal, unbelief; the unholy motive and idolatrous end which have attached to all our professedly holy doings; how little we have been influenced by love to Christ and actuated by glory to God—who, I ask, can review all this, and not place his mouth in the dust in the solemn consciousness of having polluted and profaned God’s holy name? What a heart-searching consideration this! In most holy engagements, in most spiritual services, in most close communion, in most costly offerings—what need of vigilance, and self-examination, and prayer, lest we profane rather than hallow—insult rather than honor the Name of the Most High God!
Use 3. For exhortation. Let us hallow and sanctify God’s name. Could we but see a glimpse of God’s glory, as Moses did in the rock, it would draw adoration and praise from us. Could we “see God face to face,” as the angels in heaven do, could we behold him sitting on his throne like a jasper-stone, at the sight of his glory we should do as the twenty-four elders, who “worship him that lives for ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying, Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power” (Revelation 4:11). That we may be stirred up to this great duty of hallowing, adoring, and sanctifying God’s name, let us consider:
(1) It is the very end of our being. Why did God give us life, but that by living we may hallow his name? Why did he give us souls, but to admire him? and tongues, but to praise him? The excellence of a thing is the end for which it was made; as of a star to give light, and of a plant to be fruitful. So the excellence of a Christian is to answer the end of his creation, which is to hallow God’s name, and live to that God by whom he lives. He who lives, and of whom God has no honor, buries himself alive, and exposes himself to a curse. Christ cursed the barren fig-tree.
(2) God’s name is so excellent that it deserves to be hallowed. “How excellent is thy name in all the earth!” (Psalm 8:9). “Thou art clothed with honor and majesty” (Psalm 104:1). As the sun has its brightness, whether we admire it or not, so God’s name is illustrious and glorious, whether we hallow it or not. In him are all shining perfections, holiness, wisdom, and mercy. He is “worthy to be praised” (2 Samuel 22:4). God is worthy of honor, love, and adoration. We often bestow titles of honor upon those who do not deserve them; but God is worthy to be praised; his name deserves hallowing; he is above all the honor and praise which angels in heaven give him.
(3) We pray, “hallowed be thy name”; that is, let thy name be honored and magnified by us. If we do not magnify his name, we contradict our own prayers. To say, “hallowed be thy name,” yet not to bring honor to God’s name, is to take his name in vain.
(5) It will be no small comfort to us when we come to die, that we have hallowed and sanctified God’s name. Christ’s comfort a little before his death was, “I have glorified thee on the earth” (John 17:4). His redeeming mankind was hallowing and glorifying God’s name. Never was more honor brought to God’s name than by this great undertaking of Christ. Here was his comfort before death, that he had hallowed God’s name, and brought glory to him. So, what a cordial will it be to us at last, when our whole life has been a hallowing of God’s name! We have loved him with our hearts, praised him with our lips, honored him with our lives; we have been to the praise of his glory (Ephesians 1:6). At the hour of death, all your earthly comforts will vanish; to think how rich you have been, or what pleasures you have enjoyed upon earth, will not give one drop of comfort. What is one the better for an estate that is spent? But to have conscience witnessing that you have hallowed God’s name, that your whole life has been glorifying him, what sweet peace and satisfaction will this give! How sweet will death be when they who have spent their lives in honoring God, shall receive the recompense of reward! Oh, how terrible and meaningless our deathbed if we live for self and the world.
(6) There is nothing lost by what we do for God. If we bring honor to his name, he will honor us. So if we hallow and sanctify God’s name, is he not able to promote us to honor? He will honor us in our life. He will put honor upon our persons: he will number us among his jewels (Malachi 3:17). He will make us a royal diadem in his hand (Isaiah 62:3). He will lift us up in the eyes of others. “They shall be as the stones of a crown lifted up, as an ensign of glory” (Zechariah 9:17). He will esteem us as the cream and flower of the creation. “Since you were precious in my sight, you have been honorable” (Isaiah 43:4). God will put honor upon our names. “The memory of the just is blessed” (Proverbs 10:7). How renowned have the saints been in all ages, who have hallowed God’s name! How renowned was Abraham for his faith, Moses for his meekness, David for his zeal, Paul for his love to Christ! Their names as a precious ointment, send forth a sweet perfume in God’s church to this day. God will honor us at our death. He will send his angels to carry us up with triumph into heaven. “The beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom” (Luke 16:22). He will put glory upon our bodies. We shall be as the angels. God will put glory upon our souls. Oh, how glorious will that garland be which is made of the flowers of paradise! Who then would not hallow and glorify his name, and spread his renown in the world, who will put such immortal honor upon his people, “as eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has entered into the heart of man to conceive”?
(7) If men do not hallow, but profane and dishonor God’s name, he will pour contempt upon them. Though they be ever so great, and though clothed in purple and scarlet, they shall be abhorred of God, and their name shall rot. Though the name of Judas be in the Bible, and the name of Pontius Pilate be in the Creed, yet their names stand there for infamy, as traitors to the crown of heaven. “I will make thy grave, for thou art vile” (Nahum 1:14). It is said of Antiochus Epiphanes, though he was a king, and his name signifies illustrious, yet God esteemed him vile. To show how base the wicked are in God’s esteem, he compares them to things most vile, to chaff (Psalm 1:4); to dross (Psalm 119:119); to the filth that foams out of the sea (Isaiah 57:20). As God vilely esteems such as do not hallow his name, so he sends them to a vile place at last. What should we do to honor and sanctify God’s name?
Let us get: (1) A sound knowledge of God. Take a view of his superlative excellencies; his holiness, his incomprehensible goodness. The angels know God better than we, therefore they sanctify his name, and sing hallelujahs to him. Let us labor to know him to be our God. “This God is our God” (Psalm 48:14). We may dread him as a judge, but we cannot honor him as a father, until we know he is our God.
(2) Get a sincere love to God; a love of appreciation, and a love of complacency to delight in him. “Lord, you know I love you” (John 21:15). He can never honor his master who does not love him. The reason God’s name is no more hallowed, is because his name is no more loved.
Grace Reformed Baptist Church, Bangalore 