The Baptist Catechism

    A Commentary on the Shorter Catechism (1883), Alexander Whyte

    Question 101

    Hallowed be thy name—We have already had this word hallow before us in the Fourth Commandment. And it bears the same meaning when it is applied to the name of God as when it is attached to the day of God. In this petition we pray that the name of God may be reverenced and sanctified, praised and glorified by all men, and especially by those who are His children in Christ. In his excellent little article on Sanctification, Cruden says that we may the better see what is meant by hallowing God’s name, by looking at what is opposite to it; by considering what irreverence and profanity, vain swearing and blasphemy are. We hallow God’s name when we feel a holy fear, reverence, and adoration toward Him, and toward it when we read it, or hear it, or ourselves speak it. “Holy and reverend is His name.” Cruden’s method of seeking a clearer sense of “hallowed” by considering its opposite is admirably illustrated in what Frederick Robertson says about France: “A nation may reach the state in which the Eternal Name can be used to point a sentence, or adorn a familiar conversation, and no longer shock the ear with the sound of blasphemy. . . . For example, in a foreign language, the language of a light and irreligious people, the Eternal Name can be used as a light expletive and conversational ejaculation, and not shock any religious sensibility. You could not do that in English. It would sound like blasphemy to say, in light talk, My God! or, Good God! Your flesh would creep at hearing it. . . . No marvel we are taught to pray, ‘Hallowed be Thy name.’”

    thy name . . . all that whereby he maketh himself known—See under the Third Commandment. A name is that word, that written sign or spoken sound, by which any person or thing is known. But from this elementary sense of the word, it rises to mean, as in the text, all whereby God maketh Himself known. As Calvin says: “God’s name is not made up of letters and syllables.” And indeed, our own names are more than a matter of letters and syllables, spoken sounds, or written signs. Our name is ourself, our fame, our worth, our character. We have a good or an evil name. And this principle of nomenclature applies not less but more to the name of God. His name is all that whereby He maketh Himself known. The name of God, accordingly, in this petition, embraces not His Bible names and attributes only, but also every person, providence, ordinance, institution, rite, observance,—everything in nature and in grace whereby God speaketh to us and manifesteth Himself. And in offering the petition, “Hallowed be Thy name,” the petitioner asks that the grace of reverence and godly fear should be implanted in all men’s hearts and his own. He asks to be protected from a profane and irreverent mind. For a profane mind is the mind of a man who sees God in nothing. It is a mind without reverence, without fear, without humility, without a sense of sin and guilt, and, consequently, without any sense of God’s existence or nearness either in grace or judgment. A profane mind is a hard, secular, indevout, irreligious mind; and in this prayer, he who offers it aright asks to be saved from the dominion of such an unblest state of mind.

    and that he would dispose all things to his own glory. “But though the universal cause made all things for the benefit of some creatures framed by Him, yet hath He made them ultimately for Himself, and God is as universally the final as the efficient cause of His own operations” (Pearson).

    “‘Hallowed be Thy name’ is the top petition in that gospel prayer which Christ taught us. . . . In ‘Hallowed be Thy name’ the soul desires that itself and all others may give glory to God for all that is due to His name every way, and principally for what His name is. . . . Some strains of these are attainable in this world” (Goodwin). (See under Question 1.)

    Uses

    1. “The necessity of presenting this first petition bespeaks our great disgrace” (Calvin). “It ought to be noted, that when we pray that God would enable us and others to glorify Him, we impliedly confess that we are unable to do it without His gracious assistance. The utter impotence of fallen man, if left to himself, for any good thought, word, or work, is a truth most clearly taught in the oracles of inspiration” (Green).
    2. When we pray that God’s name may be hallowed, we thereby promise that we shall, by God’s help, so hallow it ourselves. Let us with a purpose set this great duty before ourselves, especially in all acts of worship, public or private. Worship has been largely instituted to create and develop and discipline this grace among God’s children. Let us therefore educate ourselves into the habit of never hearing the Divine Name uttered in Scripture or psalm or prayer without lifting up our hearts to Him whose name it is. Let us set the Lord always before us.

    Question

    Explain Calvin’s words: The necessity of presenting this petition bespeaks our great disgrace.