Matthew 6:9

Prayer to the Glory of God

Nestle-Aland Greek New Testament, 28th Edition Chapter 6

9 Οὕτως οὖν προσεύχεσθε ὑμεῖς·*

Πάτερ ἡμῶν ὁ ἐν ⸂τοῖς οὐρανοῖς⸃·

ἁγιασθήτω τὸ ὄνομά σου·

English Standard Version Chapter 6

9 Pray then like this:

“Our Father in heaven,

hallowed be your name.

This first line of what is referred to as the Lord’s prayer is known the world over, it is recited by millions of Christians daily as part of their devotional time. It’s a verse that even non believers are able to recite from memory such is it’s pervasiveness.

Many of you will have grown up reciting these words in school assemblies and religious ceremonies. Sometimes it’s mind-boggling to think that these words, spoken by a young Jewish teacher over 2000 years ago in a distant country, before the days of the printing press and the internet are known today by countless billions of people.

We know that this prayer, found in Matt 6:9-13 and in Luke 11:2-4 has had a special significance in the Church even from the earliest days. Whenever the church would gather to worship the Lord’s prayer was often prayed by all.

It is debated whether Jesus intended for this prayer to be literally repeated word for word by believers or whether He simply meant for it to be an example to us of how we ought to pray. Personally, I believe both usages of this prayer are of real benefit to us as a church. Reciting it together brings unity in purpose and oneness in prayer, but if we never let it be more to us than a liturgy then we have missed the point. Jesus certainly meant for this prayer to really encompass and influence all of our praying.

Matthew’s gospel contains the fuller version of the prayer while Luke’s gospel carries a pared down version. Did Luke copy it down wrong then? Or was Matthew’s version embellished? In Luke 11 Jesus is responding to one of His disciples who asks him ‘teach us to pray’ whereas in Matthew’s gospel this prayer forms part of His teaching in the sermon on the mount. It’s highly likely that just like any good teacher Jesus repeated some of His teachings as He travelled. This also lends weight to the theory that Jesus taught this prayer primarily as an example to be followed rather than something that needed to be recited word for word.

The Lord’s prayer, or perhaps more accurately called the Disciples’ prayer, consists of six petitions; the first three relating to God, His glory, His rule and His purposes, the latter 3 relate to us and our needs; material and spiritual. The order of these grouped petitions should not escape our notice; God first, us second.

Our tendency in prayer is to get straight to the matter at hand; Lord, please help me with… please heal so and so…i need such and such... This is to get things utterly back to front. We must acknowledge God for who He is, for what His purposes are and for His glory before we get to our temporal concerns. God before man, eternal before temporal, spiritual before natural. When we start with God in prayer it puts our needs, trials and concerns in the proper perspective, and puts Him in His rightful place.

Look at the prayer that Jeremiah prays in Jeremiah 32:16-25, he’s been imprisoned by his own king and now the city he’s in is under siege, things aren’t looking particularly rosy for him but look at his prayer!

“...I prayed to the LORD, saying: ‘Ah, Lord GOD! It is you who have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm! Nothing is too hard for you. You show steadfast love to thousands, but you repay the guilt of fathers to their children after them, O great and mighty God, whose name is the LORD of hosts, great in counsel and mighty in deed, whose eyes are open to all the ways of the children of man, rewarding each one according to his ways and according to the fruit of his deeds. You have shown signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, and to this day in Israel and among all mankind, and have made a name for yourself, as at this day. You brought your people Israel out of the land of Egypt with signs and wonders, with a strong hand and outstretched arm, and with great terror. And you gave them this land, which you swore to their fathers to give them, a land flowing with milk and honey. And they entered and took possession of it. But they did not obey your voice or walk in your law. They did nothing of all you commanded them to do. Therefore you have made all this disaster come upon them. Behold, the siege mounds have come up to the city to take it, and because of sword and famine and pestilence the city is given into the hands of the Chaldeans who are fighting against it. What you spoke has come to pass, and behold, you see it. Yet you, O Lord GOD, have said to me, “Buy the field for money and get witnesses”—though the city is given into the hands of the Chaldeans.’ ”

Jesus teaches us to pray like Jeremiah did, to begin with God and finish with ourselves and our needs. The Lord’s prayer is concise yet weighty, easy to memorise yet layered with meaning. Sometimes we’re so familiar with it we barely plumb it’s depths at all.

Our Father...

Q & A 120

Q. Why did Christ command us to call God “our Father”? A. To awaken in us at the very beginning of our prayer what should be basic to our prayer— a childlike reverence and trust that through Christ God has become our Father, and that just as our parents do not refuse us the things of this life, even less will God our Father refuse to give us what we ask in faith.

Notice Jesus, doesn’t just invite us to pray to The Father, or to His Father but to Our Father.

Prayer is something that only a child of God can do. The desire to pray is something peculiar to those who have been born again, who are His children. To those who know they have a heavenly Father, who loves them, who calls them by name, who carefully knit them together in their mothers womb, who treats them always with patience and loving kindness, who does not count their sins against them, and gives them Christ, prayer isn’t a chore, it’s a delight.

So you struggle with prayer? Instead of beating yourself up about it, and trying endless new methods to improve your prayer life stop and meditate on this fact; God is my Father.

Moreover there is the use of the 1st person plural posessive pronoun; our. This little word tells us two things;

That we not only have a Father but we also have brothers and sisters. We’re not alone in this world.

Secondly, the importance of sharing our Christian lives with our brothers and sisters. We’re to pray together! If the lockdowns have taught us anything, it should be our absolute need of one another. Prayer can be solitary but it must never be only solitary.

That He is Our Father should give us such boldness in prayer, such a freedom of conscience to know that whenever we pray, He is pleased to hear from us.

In Heaven...

What is meant by the words ‘who is in heaven’? Well as much as the truth that He is our Father should give us boldness to go before Him, the truth that He is in heaven ought to remind us of who our Father is.

It’s not a mere statement of spatial location, since we know that He can’t be contained by heaven. 2 Chr 6:18 - “But will God indeed dwell with man on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you, how much less this house that I have built!

Rather, when the Bible speaks of God being in the heavens it is reference to His sovereign power and reign over all things that exist; Isaiah 66:1 - Thus says the LORD: “Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool; what is the house that you would build for me, and what is the place of my rest?

Psalm 2 - Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD and against his Anointed, saying, “Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.” He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision.

Psalm 115 - Not to us, O LORD, not to us, but to your name give glory, for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness! Why should the nations say, “Where is their God?” Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases.

Ecc 5:2 - Be not rash with your mouth, nor let your heart be hasty to utter a word before God, for God is in heaven and you are on earth. Therefore let your words be few.

So in prayer we acknowlegde both our intimacy with God as our Father through our union with His son Jesus Christ, but also that God is absolutely sovereign over all things.

Romans 11:36 - For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.

Ephesians 1:11 - In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will,

I once heard a preacher say in reference to prayer that ‘God can’t do anything without our permission’. As if prayer were the act of mankind sovereignly decreeing what shall and shall not come to pass. Jesus teaches us quite the reverse; the first thing you acknowledge in prayer is that it is God who reigns, it is He who does all that He pleases in the heavens and on the earth, not us. Even our prayers are part of His sovereign decree; He leads us to pray for whatever is in His purposes for us to pray for at the precise time that He ordains that we should pray. We are not changing God’s mind through our prayers, rather He is changing us.

Hallowed be Your Name...

What does it mean for God’s name to be hallowed? The root of this word in the Greek is the same as the word for holy. But isn’t God’s name already holy? Why are we praying for something that already is? We’re not praying that God might make His name holy in and of itself, but that He might make His name holy in the sight of men, that He would be thought of as the Holy one, that His name might not be profaned but instead be reckoned holy by us.

We fix our end, and it is the right end to be aimed at, and ought to be our chief and ultimate end in all our petitions, that God may be glorified; all our other requests must be in subordination to this, and in pursuance of it. - Henry

Whatever our lot in life, whatever we are living through in this present season of life above all our other requests in prayer we seek the glory of God in everything. God, whether I am healed or not, may your name be glorified, whether I get that job or not, may you be glorified. God, all my successes, they are to the glory of your name, all of my failures, may they be to the glory of your name.

God is seeking His own glory. It is His prerogative, it is His pleasure and so it must be ours to. God is God, it’s not arrogant, pretentious or vain for Him to seek His glory, He is owed all the glory. And in prayer, before all else, our heart is for His name to be hallowed, in and through our lives and in our church and in the nations. “Father in heaven, may others glorify Your name today because of the work you are doing in my life.”

The glory of God as the Westminster Shorter Catechism rightly put it is the chief end of your life. The glory of God is the ultimate end of all of this. He has chosen to glorify His name through saving sinners, who the Bible says were literally His enemies, through sending His only begotten Son Jesus Christ to die in their place.

Only children of God pray like Jesus’s teaches us to here. Are you a child of God? Do you know your heavenly Father? Though in a sense we are all His offspring, not all are truly His children. Only those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ can truly be called children of God. Do you believe? Have you made your peace with God? Are your sins dealt with or are you still carrying them? Come to Jesus today and pray this prayer together with Him, to the Father, who has made a way for you to know Him.