What does "hallowed be thy name" in the Lord's Prayer mean?

Each of these sections has three subjects; first, "Our Father." indicating the dignity of His prime place, get at the same time His tender care. "Who art in heaven" shows His supremacy, high above all creation. "Hallowed be thy name" is the reminder of His sublime holiness, as set apart from all others.

The first petition is, Hallowed be Thy name — one which we can ever utter, if indeed we understand its solemn purport. "Name" in Scripture is always the expression of what God is as revealed, and hence, in connection with the Father, it is the truth of what God is in that relationship. If, then, we desire that His name should be hallowed, it is that it should be sanctified in us, by us, and by all who have the privilege of calling upon God by this precious title, that there should be in us an answering response to His holiness in this relationship. Surely we have often uttered the petition with but little thought of what it involved, and even while we, as His children, were dishonouring His name as our Father, by our unholy ways and associations! To present this prayer means that we should be holy because He is holy, that His name should be sanctified in and by us in all that we are and do.

Our Lord then directs the disciples to their Father. This is the first and very significant word of the prayer. When believers in addressing God now use the titles of Jehovah or Almighty God, do they not forget that they are Christians? When God was intelligently addressed as Almighty, it was in the days of Abraham and the patriarchs. They were the days of promise. Afterwards, when the nation of Israel was called out and put under law, it was as Jehovah-God that He was known. Now it is as Father that the Christian knows Him. (2 Cor. 6:18.) Luke says simply, "Father" (not "Our Father which art in heaven," as Matthew has it).281

The first petition is, "Hallowed be thy name." The desire is that in every case the heart might make God its object; as we hear in James, "the wisdom that comes down from above is first pure, then peaceable." (James 3:17.) It first judges by God, and seeks the glory of God. "Hallowed be thy name." Such is, and ought to be, the prime desire of the renewed mind, that the Father's name should be sanctified in everything. All else must yield to this. "Hallowed be thy name."

The next petition is that His kingdom should come. It is not the kingdom of the Son of man, the kingdom of Christ, that is spoken of here, but the Father's kingdom. It is not "my kingdom come," but "thy kingdom come." The Father's kingdom is distinguished from the Son of man's kingdom. It is the sphere in which the heavenly saints will shine as the sun. The Son of man's kingdom is the sphere in which all people, nations, and languages shall serve Him, and out of which the angels of His power shall cast all things that offend. (Matt. 13:41.) Heaven and earth will both be put under the Lord Jesus when He comes, and both will constitute the kingdom of God. But the Father's kingdom is the upper department, and the Son of man's kingdom is the lower one. (Compare John 3:3, 12.) The Lord teaches them to pray for the Father's kingdom. This is blessed and perfect. The Son would teach the children of the Father to wait with reverence and delight for the Father's glory. This was the animating spring of every thought and feeling of His own heart. But the Father's kingdom is not all the scene of glory.

Verse 1. At the beginning of this chapter we have another instance of our Lord praying, the expression of dependence. And there the disciples ask Him to teach them to pray. They had not learnt the simple confidence in the Father that would go up naturally to Him and tell Him all. There may not always be wisdom in asking, but there should be confidence of communion by the Holy Ghost. Even Paul had not always intelligence of God's mind, or he would not have asked to have the thorn in the flesh taken away; but he was not afraid to make his request. The disciples had not this simple-hearted confidence. They understood not their place as children of the Father. He condescends to teach them when in this condition and gives them this prayer. The Lord teaches them to pray for things about which His own heart was occupied. "Father, glorify thy name," was expressive of the grand desire of His heart. "Hallowed be thy name." He first tells them of Him with whom they are brought into relationship. Not that they had the present power of the Holy Ghost, giving them the consciousness of their relationship - this they did not get till the day of Pentecost; but He teaches them to say, "Father, hallowed be thy name." There we have perfection. It is the desire for Him to be glorified, though I cannot tell what it may involve me in. There will be the desire not to sin, etc. This was the expression of the perfect desire that was in Christ Himself - "Hallowed be thy name."

How far all this had been entered into by the disciples as yet, is another question. That it was what was in the Lord's mind we know, and what He was leading them into, ― what therefore underlies the teaching of the prayer. This Father in heaven; known for what He is, becomes thus rooted in the affections, supreme in the heart that has learned the cry of children. Of this, at least, the prayer is the expression. The first petition is one that shows how jealous for this Name revealed to it is the soul that has truly entered into the revelation: "Father, hallowed be Thy Name." May no thought come in to profane this wondrous intimacy now existing; may grace not be abused to license; may all thy people worship with unshod feet in this place of nearness. Such surely will be the first cry of the heart that has felt ― and in proportion as it has felt ― the ecstatic joy of God so made known to us.

"Hallowed be Thy name." Grace must not be presumed upon. He who has brought us wondrously near to Himself is our Creator and God. The deepest reverence becomes us in our every thought of Him, and with unshod feet we should draw near into His presence.

And how right, even our hearts feel, is the opening petition, Sanctified be thy name! It is the foremost desire of the renewed, however young in faith. Without this made good, there can be nothing good.

"Hallowed be thy name" is the great foundation of all, the first and strongest feeling of a renewed mind. Flowing from the sense of the holiness due to the Father's name, and obligatory on every soul that has to do with Him, as well as on His house for ever, there is also in the following clause the desire of the glory in which all shall answer to the Father's heart and character.

How often we put ourselves and our interests first in our prayers. It was not thus that the Lord taught His disciples. He taught them to put God first. To pray that His name might be hallowed, and then to stretch out in their desires to the utmost bounds of the earth, to plead that every evil imagination might be overthrown and every evil work might be judged, and every will might be subdued to God's will, and that the whole earth might be filled with the glory of God. Then, when the heart has reached up to the sacred glory of God's name and broadened out to include every habitation of man, we may ask for our daily needs. And then we shall not ask selfishly but confidently, joyfully, adoringly, with a sense in our souls of the greatness of our Father's name and of the blessedness of His will, subject to which we ourselves have determined to live, for otherwise our prayer that that will might be done on earth would be glaring hypocrisy.

James gives us the other reason too. We ask and receive not, because we ask amiss that we may consume it upon our own lusts; selfishness. Do you notice the secret of all prayer? Look at what the Lord has given us. Not a model to say like parrots, but to show us the true spirit of prayer, "Our Father, hallowed be Thy name; Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done." It is all God's glory, all God's interests; self is left behind, put in a secondary place. Whenever we are thinking more of the glory of God than of our own selfish interests, we are in a true attitude of prayer. Would it were ever thus: Thy will, Thy kingdom, Thy glory. Whenever God is glorified we may rest assured that His beloved people will not fall short of their blessing.