Word of Salvation – Vol. 37 No. 20 – June 1992

 

Hallowed Be Your Name

 

Sermon by Rev. H. Berends on Lord’s Day 47

Reading: Psalm 79, Matthew 6:5-15

Singing: 79a, 483, 439

 

Brothers and sisters,

The Psalm we just read belongs to a small group of around six which are often called the ‘imprecatory psalms’ by Bible scholars.

And to many Christians this is a group of Psalms which poses quite a difficult problem.

Because when you look up the word ‘imprecatory’ in the dictionary you will find that it comes from the root word ‘imprecation”.

And an ‘imprecation’ is not a very Christian concept.

In fact quite the contrary – for an imprecation is ‘a prayer that a curse or calamity may fall down on certain people.”

When you utter an imprecatory prayer, then you are asking God to curse or to punish, certain people.

In the imprecatory psalms this is indeed what happens.

The psalmist is asking God to punish his enemies, those that have persecuted him, those that have deceived him or left him in the lurch, those who have been false to him or harmed him or have tried to harm him.  For example, we read:

‘Before our eyes make known among the nations that you avenge the outpoured blood of your servants”.

‘Pay back into the laps of our neighbours seven times the reproach they have hurled at you, O Lord..!”

These are rather mild examples.  Some of the other imprecatory psalms are far more explicit.

‘O Daughter of Babylon, doomed to destruction, happy is he who repays you for what you have done to us – he who seizes your infants and dashes them against a rock…!” cries the author of Psalm 137.

And Psalm 109 is even more disturbing:

‘Appoint an evil man to oppose him; let an accuser stand at his right hand.
When he is tried, let him be found guilty, and may his prayers condemn him.
May his days be few; may another take his place of leadership.
May his children be fatherless and his wife a widow.
May his children be wandering beggars; may they be driven from their ruined homes.
May a creditor seize all he has; may strangers plunder the fruits of his labour.
May no one extend kindness to him or take pity on his fatherless children.
May his descendants be cut off, their names blotted out from the next generation.
May the iniquity of his fathers be remembered before the LORD;
May the sin of his mother never be blotted out.
May their sins always remain before the LORD, that he may cut off the memory of them from the earth….!”

That is not very loving language.  And so people ask – and we may well ask – is that right?  Is that Christian?

In the light of the NT, when Jesus states that we are to love our enemies and do good to those that hate us, how can we agree with, how can we even condone what is said here by the composers of these imprecatory psalms?

Now let me say straightaway that it is not my intention to fully answer these kinds of questions this morning, though I believe that satisfactory answers can be given.

But that’s not my aim for today.  What I want to point out now is just one possible reason.  I want to focus on one motive which caused these psalmists to use this kind of imprecatory language.

And that is that these people were zealous for God’s honour; they were zealous for God’s reputation.

It is clear that these kinds of psalms were composed in very specific situations.

Here the psalmists had to do with wicked people, and these wicked people were apparently victorious.

They persecuted the good, they harassed the upright, they did wrong to the godly and they mistreated the righteous.

In some cases the psalmists themselves were badly treated and apparently these were getting away scot free with their wicked deeds.  So these psalmists are upset and they ask, ‘How can that happen?”

How can you allow that to happen, O Lord you are a holy God, you are a God who is righteous and just.  Surely these people must be punished.

For if they are not then it is not just that the innocent suffer.

No, it is also your holiness, it is also your righteousness, it is also your name which is being dragged through the mud.  These people are laughing at you, they are poking out their tongues at you when they mistreat your people.

For they know you are our God – and others too know you are our God, and they are waiting for you to act – and yet it seems that you don’t.  You apparently allow this to happen.

And so our psalmist cries out:

‘Help us, O God our Saviour, for the glory of your name;
 deliver us and forgive our sins for your name’s sake.
Why should the nations say, ‘Where is their God?’
Before our eyes, make known among the nations that you avenge the outpoured blood of your servants.
May the groans of the prisoners come before you….!”
‘Pay back into the laps of our neighbours seven times the reproach they have hurled at you, O Lord.’

I am not just concerned at the reproach, at the suffering of myself or my people.

No, I am concerned also, I am concerned first of all, at the insult to your holy name.

Are we zealous for the honour of God’s name, brothers and sisters?  That’s also the subject we are looking at this morning.

When you pray: ‘hallowed be your name’ – that is the Lord’s prayer’s first, and therefore also its most important, petition.

And then we may well ask: Do we pray that, and do we mean that too – are we indeed concerned about God’s name.

When we look at this world and we see people dishonouring God’s name – and there are so many ways in which they can do that – are we concerned?

When we see the oppression and the injustice and the cruelty and the wickedness in this world – are we upset, are we distressed, are we worried?

Oh yes, I know, we get worried soon enough when we think that these things are threatening us.  When we read of dishonest politicians we get all hot under the collar because they having been living it up on our hard-earned money….!

When we see the economy go down the drain, then we are worried about our jobs.  When we read of the increase in crime then we wonder what is going to happen to us and our children….!

And I’m sure that is not wrong, but that’s not what I am talking about at the moment.

What I am saying is this: we should be worried also, we should be worried in the first place for quite another reason if we are Christians.  And that is: because these things also dishonour God; because they profane his name; because they are against his will; because people are breaking his commandments.

Not just us – not us in the first place even.

But God – we should be jealous for his name, we should be zealous for the honour of his reputation.

That should come first.  That’s what we are told to pray for first as Christians.

And only then also for our own good.  The Lord’s prayer, as you know, is divided into 6 petitions.  And the first three are to do with God – his name, his kingdom, his will -and only then do we come to our needs – for daily bread, for forgiveness, for deliverance from temptation.

And even in those last three it is still God who comes first.  Between the first three and the last three, there is a connection.

Did you know that there is a relation between the honouring of God’s name and our daily bread?  That even in the provision of our everyday needs God’s name should be honoured?

Listen to Proverbs 30:8 –
‘Keep falsehood and lies far from me;
give me neither poverty nor riches,
but give me only my daily bread.
Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you
and say, ‘Who is the LORD?’
Or I may become poor and steal,
and so dishonour the name of my God.”

God provides us with our daily needs, first of all to the honour of his name.  His honour comes first.

God’s honour comes first, it is the most important.

Do you know that?  Do you acknowledge that?  You must, if you are a Christian.

That of course, is one of the main things which should distinguish the Christian from the unbeliever.

The non-Christian puts himself first.  He looks for the good of himself and perhaps, in some cases, also of other people.

When he looks at the world situation he asks: how does this affect me – and perhaps my loved ones?  That’s all that matters.

But we should say something quite different.  We should say first of all: how does this relate to the glory of God – how can his name be honoured?

Because when we belong to Christ then his concerns become our concerns, then his values become our values.

And Christ’s first concern was the glory of his Father.

You know that this prayer we’re looking at is called the Lord’s Prayer but did you know that that is really a misnomer?

The real Lord’s Prayer is not to be found in Matthew 6 but in John 17.  The real Lord’s Prayer is that prayer which Jesus himself prayed just before his passion.

And this is how Jesus opens that prayer:

‘Father, the time has come.
Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you…!”

Jesus’ aim was to glorify his Father.

When his Father’s name was not glorified Jesus became sad, and at times he became angry.

Then he castigated the Pharisees and he threw the money changers out of the temple.

And John, when recording that particular incident adds, in chapter 2:17, ‘His disciples remembered that it is written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.“

Jesus was zealous for the honour of God’s house.  Why?

The temple was the place where God dwelt, where the name of the Lord was meant to be honoured.

To dishonour the temple was to dishonour God’s name.  To profane the temple was to treat God’s name as unholy.

And so, when we ask why Jesus threw the money changers out of the temple, then the answer is, in the first place, that he was hallowing God’s Name.

“Hallowed be your name”.  Are we concerned for the honour of God’s name, brothers and sisters?

When we look at injustice, at greed, at oppression, at sin, at poverty and the many other evils in this world, what is our reaction?

Do we shrug our shoulders and do we say: ‘Well, it doesn’t affect us, so who cares?  We cannot do that, we may not do that as Christians.  When we belong to Christ we will see these things with the eyes of Christ.  The well-known Christian sociologist and writer, Tony Campolo, in his book, ‘You Can Make a Difference’ writes about what it means to belong to Jesus.

And he mentions three things.  He states that if we really belong to him then we will know a joy the world doesn’t know, but also that if we truly belong to the Lord then, like Christ, we will have to suffer.

Then the things that make him suffer will affect us too.  The third effect on those who belong to Jesus: is that you will come to know his anger.

That’s right, anger.

Jesus gets angry.

There are all kinds of things that make him angry.

Poverty makes him angry; political oppression makes him angry; economic injustice makes him angry; racism and sexism make him angry.

All of these demonic social conditions make him angry.

It is time for you to realise that when you become a Christian, the things that are wrong with this world will make you angry too.

They will anger you so much that you will say, ‘Jesus, I am ready to join with you in trying to destroy the works of the devil.’

That’s what it says in 1John 3:8, we are called to “destroy the works of Satan.”

Campolo is right when he says that Jesus gets angry.

And we too should get angry because all these things dishonour the glory and the holiness of God’s name.  Do we get angry?

Or do we remain indifferent to the problems of this world?  We cannot remain indifferent and pray this prayer.  When we pray this petition then this is what we are saying:

‘Lord, we are concerned about these things.  Lord please do something about these things – not in the first place because they affect us, or worry us, or disadvantage us – but because in them your name is being dishonoured.

And we want to see your name lifted up, we want to see your righteousness, your glory, your holiness exalted.

You are a God who is worthy of the praise of all of your creation.

You are the One who is highly lifted up, to whom all honour is due, but Lord, there are so many things which profane your name, and take away your honour.

Oh Lord, rise up, do not allow your name to be dragged through the dust any longer.

Perhaps you have seen the film Max Havelaar – based on the well- known Dutch classic by Multatuli.

In that film there is a very powerful scene.  Max Havelaar has been relieved of his post as the administrator of Lebak, a poverty stricken area in the then Dutch East Indies.

He has tried, but failed, to bring relief to the poor and oppressed native people.

He has been outmanoeuvred at every step by the local ruler.

And so, as a last resort, he goes to Batavia, as it was then, what is now called Jakarta.

To the residence of the Governor General of the Indies, to ask for justice.  And he is let into a waiting room there in that beautiful palace, and there he sits.  After a while it becomes painfully clear that no one is going to see him.

They don’t want to see him; they don’t want to listen to his complaint, to his plea on behalf of the poor.  As this dawns on him, Max Havelaar becomes very upset in his final disappointment.

And then he sees, hanging on the wall, a picture of the Dutch king and in his desperation he begins to address it.

And this is what he says, ‘Listen to me!  Listen to me!  Out there 30 million natives are being abused, exploited, starved and murdered.  And it’s done in your name!  In your name!  In your name!”

Yes, in your name – in a sense that is what we are saying also to God.  It is done in your name – these are your creatures – you made them, you rule them.

And yet they are sinning against you all the time and they are killing and oppressing and exploiting and abusing each other.  For your name’s sake, Lord, do something about it.

Don’t let this go on.  Don’t let evil continue to triumph.

Step in, O Lord.  How long, O Lord, before you will deal with the wicked?  Like the psalmist we are zealous for the glory, for the honour of your name.

‘Hallowed be your name”.  Are you zealous for the glory of God’s name, brothers and sisters?

Are you concerned for his honour?  Do you pray that his name may be hallowed, may be glorified?  Then I have good news for you – your prayer will be answered.

God will hallow his name – in fact he has already begun to answer our prayer.  He began to answer it right back there, in the One who taught us to pray this prayer; in Jesus.

No, perhaps not quite in the way it was expected by the psalmist.

The psalmist asked for judgment, for revenge, but the first way in which God answers this prayer is not by meting out revenge, but by granting his mercy.

The first way was by making his enemies his friends, by offering us reconciliation.

Paul in Romans speaks about that.  It seemed as if God had a problem, namely how to be merciful, and at the same time to be holy, to be righteous.

And God solved this problem by taking the punishment which we deserved for our sins, and putting it instead on his own Son.

I quoted just now from Christ’s high priestly prayer – ‘Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you’ – and yes, that prayer was answered.  Jesus was glorified, but first he was vilified.  First he was despised and rejected and nailed to a cross.  Why?  So that that other part of his prayer might be fulfilled – so that Jesus could first glorify the Father.

So that a holy God could, through Christ’s death, remain holy, and yet be reconciled to sinners.

So that God could at one and the same time, be just and the one who justifies the man, woman, boy or girl who has faith in Jesus.

So that God could be merciful to you and me, who do not deserve his mercy and yet at the same time protect the holiness of his name.

Yes, this prayer has already begun to be fulfilled for God’s name was hallowed and glorified first of all in our redemption in Jesus.

But then it also will be completely fulfilled in the future.

For the day will come when this same Jesus will return and this time in all his wonderful glory.

For God has given him a name which is above every name in earth and heaven.

And that time he will come as judge, and that time also the psalmists’ prayers will be literally answered.

For in that day all God’s enemies will be subdued and all injustice and oppression and sin and evil and wickedness will vanish.

And all God’s enemies will be put under the feet of Christ the King and every creature on that day will bow before him.

And every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

And to the glory of his holy name.

Yes, the day will come.  Are you looking forward to that day, brothers and sisters?

Can you say, with the Scriptures, ‘Oh come, Lord Jesus, come quickly?”  I guess that will depend very much on whether you are in agreement with our psalmist.  It depends whether you are truly concerned with the glory of the Lord – or whether you are mainly concerned with your own little problems with the things you want to do, with the happiness you want to achieve.

Never mind that, in so many ways, the name of the Lord is constantly being dishonoured.

I guess it very much depends on whether God’s concerns are your concerns, on whether Christ’s business is your business too on whether you really are a Christian.

I guess that ultimately depends on whether you can pray, and really mean it: ‘Hallowed be your name.”

AMEN