“Hallowed Be Thy Name”

I am interrupting my series of posts titled “A Divine and Supernatural Light” to address an “important” breaking news story regarding that exalted and essential media venue of television entertainment.

There apparently has been much vitriol regarding a recent Jeopardy program in which this fill in the blank clue was given, “Our Father, who art in heaven __________ be your name”.  Not one of the three contestants even buzzed to attempt a response, which those of us in the know would have confidently responded with “what is hallowed?” Their failure to do so reportedly was met with an angry backlash on Twitter and Facebook from a number of those of the pharisaical sort, outraged at their inexcusable ignorance.  The question I would have for the outraged, is how many of them (and of us) truly live their lives hallowing God’s name?

Hallowed is not a term we use with any regularity today.  To hallow something means to hold it in the highest esteem – to value it above all else – to perceive it as worthy of our deepest admiration and respect – our deepest reverence and honor.

Many of us have prayed for God’s name to be hallowed in the context of what is referred to as the “Lord’s Prayer”, which comes from Jesus’ teaching on prayer in Matthew 6:5-13.  Most commentaries on this passage see Matthew 6:9-13 not as a prayer in itself, but as an outline or pattern for prayer, pointing to six (some see seven) important petitions we should regularly present to God our Father, who rules over the nations of earth and our lives from His throne in Heaven (Psalm 103:19).

Jesus begins by teaching that our first petition – our priority concern – our preeminent request should be that our heavenly Father’s name be hallowed – declared or treated as holy.

Our name signifies our individual identity – the fullness of all that we are in our unique person – our personal attributes that make us – us. This includes our physical appearance, our character and personality, our values, beliefs and behavior, our talents and achievements, our likes and dislikes, our loves and hates, our goals and motivations.

When your or my name is mentioned to someone, depending on how well a person knows us, it will bring to their mind certain thoughts and images, elicit certain emotions and affections, all depending on what that person knows or believes to be true about us.

God reveals Himself though a number of names throughout the Bible that are representative of differing and multiple aspects of His transcendent being and His relationship with man. The three most prominent words we translate as God or Lord from the Hebrew and Greek texts of the Bible are Elohim, Adonai and Yahweh.   Elohim is first translated God in Genesis 1:1, and emphasizes His infinite power and might, here specifically as creator of the heavens and the earth.

Adonai represents His infinite majesty, His lordship and sovereignty over all of His creation (Psalm 8:1). Yahweh in Hebrew and Jehovah in Greek is the principal name in which God revealed Himself to Moses at the burning bush (“I AM who I AM”) (Exodus 3:13-14).  This self-designation is of Him as the eternal, self-existent, self-sufficient, unchanging one, the covenant God who is close to His people.  In the New Testament it is translated as LORD.

Although none of these names exhaustively represents the totality of the infinite perfections of God’s being, there is one designation that does and that is Holy, translated from the Hebrew word, Qadash and the Greek word, Hagios.

Isaiah 57:17 For thus says the High and Lofty One Who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: “I dwell in the high and holy place, With him who has a contrite and humble spirit, To revive the spirit of the humble, And to revive the heart of the contrite ones (Psalm 111:9).

The God who is (Hebrews 11:6), reveals Himself to His people Israel (and to us) as Holy (Leviticus 10:3).  Holy or Holiness is the term given to us by God to represent the essential and infinite perfections of His being – all that set Him apart from and above His glorious creation as God, the one who alone is the eternal, self-existent self-sufficient, self-determining creator and sovereign ruler of the universe and all that is in it; a stunningly majestic, fearfully awesome, infinitely glorious being of infinite value, wonder, beauty, goodness, wisdom and power – a being of perfect righteousness and justice, the inexhaustible reservoir of all goodness, who is thus infinitely worthy of being both feared and loved, trusted and obeyed, worshiped and adored by both men and angels as the object of our deepest love and the source of our present and eternal joy.

The holiness of our triune God – God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, is most clearly and gloriously revealed to us and to all of creation in the person and redemptive work of the Son, Jesus Christ, who ironically was first identified as holy by demons (Revelation 4:8-11) (Mark 1:23-24).

Thus, hallowed be they name is  a prayer or petition in which we are asking God to act and work in our lives and in the lives of people throughout the nations of the earth, so that our and their thoughts, words and actions would honor and glorify the one who reveals Himself in Jesus Christ as being infinitely worthy, above all of His creation, of being known intimately, loved supremely, worshiped exclusively, trusted explicitly, obeyed perfectly, glorified unashamedly, pursued passionately and enjoyed eternally for all that He is as the thrice Holy God (Isaiah 6:1-6) (Habakkuk 2:14).

I pray that this would always be what we have in our mind and on our heart when we pray, hallowed be thy name.

Grace and Peace ×