November 23 - LD 47, Day 5: God’s Hallowed Name
by Rev. Andrew Lanning
Read: Psalm 20
Do you know what it means
to hallow something? It is one of those words that we might have a hard
time with, because although we use it every time we pray the Lord’s Prayer, we
do not use it very much in our daily speech. One way to remember its meaning is
to see that hallow sounds kind of like holy. That is exactly
what it means! To hallow something means to set it apart from other things as
holy. For example, the Bible is the Holy Bible because it is set apart
from all other books as the only book written by God Himself. In the Old
Testament,
When we pray, “Hallowed
be thy name,” we are asking God to set apart His name from all other names as
holy. We are asking God to exalt His name as something to be revered and
worshiped. To be sure, we are asking that we might be given grace to treat His
name with reverence; but we are first of all asking that God would honor and
glorify His own name.
God does indeed hallow
His name. He does so by making the first petition of the Lord’s Prayer, the
hallowing of His name. His name is more important than our daily bread or
anything else that we need. Therefore His name comes first in the prayer.
God also hallows His name
by making it the object of our faith and trust. Psa
20 especially brings this out. Psa 20 describes the
salvation of God’s people, especially when they are threatened by enemies. But Psa 20 describes the Savior as God’s name! “The name of the God of Jacob defend thee.” (v1) Because we are
saved by God’s name, we set up our banners in God’s name (v5) and remember
God’s name (v7). Remember, God is His name. He is God; He is Jehovah.
Therefore, when God says His name saves us, that means
God Himself saves us. But God describes Himself according to His name in order
that His name might be hallowed and exalted.
The fruit of this
hallowing of God’s name is that “we will remember the name of the LORD our
God.” (Psa 20:7)