November 23 - LD 47, Day 5: God’s Hallowed Name

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, Zion was the holy mountain because God had set it apart as the place where He would dwell with His people.

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)