The Pulpit Commentary — Matthew — Volume 1 — Section 250

\Ve mUBt hush our hearts into solemn reverence when we come before him in prayer. He is the great and awful God; the heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain him. But yet he is our Father; he is very near to us, listening to the words of humble prayer, ready to help and save. We come before him with mingled feelings-love, awe, humility, penitence, blending into one full utterance of adoration. 2. The first petition. " Hallowed be thy Name." As yot we ask nothing for ourselves; we think only of God. Prayer lift~ us out of self, out of the narrow range of selfish thoughts, feelings hopes into that communion with God which is the very life of the soul God will be'" all ~ all" in-the regeneration; the highest end of prayer is to raise us nearer and nearer to that blessed consummation, that he may becorue even now "all in all" to us. This petition, "Hallowed be thy Name," stands first in the Lord's Prayer, as if to teach us that we must come before God with reverence and godly fear. There can be no true prayer without reverence, without a deep sense of God's awful holiness and our uUer unworthiness. Therefore we begin by asking God to give us grace to feel the holiness of his great Name, that we may never fall into the sin of taking hill Name in vain but may always regard it as most sacred, and pronounce it.with solemn reverence; 'The Name of God in Scripture language means all that can be known of God-God as he has revealed. himself to us (comp. John :nil. 6, "I have manifested thy Name unto the men which thou gavest me"). We see him not yet face to face, e.s he is. No man bath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son bath declared all that we can know of him, all that we need to know for our snh·ation.. "Hallowed, be thy Name." The seraphim cry, "Holy, holy, holy I" The four living creatures in heaven rest not day and night, saying, "Holy, holy, holy I" Chrut bids his Church on earth to take up the angel;' song. In the striking words of Stier, "The.' Holy, holy, holy.I' of the highest heavens fills not yet all lands and all hearts." We pray that it may be so. We pray that his great Name may be hallowed in ourselves; that w.e may walk before him always in lowly obedience, that we may come before him in prayer with solemn, awful reverence, and yet with childlike love. We pray that it may be hallowed not in ourselves only, but in the hearts of others also. May all men feel the power of the holiness of the Lord God of hosts, and so be led to worship him in spirit and in truth I It ill only by sanctifying the Lord God in our hearts (1 Pet. iii 15) that we can pray that prayer aright, that we can learn that "Holy, holy, holy!" which we hope one day to chant in heaven. 3. The second petition. "Thy kingdom come." The kingdom of God is: (1) The Messianic kingdom, the Church of Christ, the net that was cast into. the sea, and gathered of every kind. The prayer is a missionary prayer. We pray that God may enlarge the borders of his Church; that the heathen may be gathered in; that the stone cut out without hands may, according to bis Word, speedily become a mountain and fill the whole earth. (2) The kingdom of grace in the heart. The kingdom of God is "righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost." We pray that our hearts may become the kingdom of God; that self may be dethroned ; that the Lord may reign within us; th&t all our thoughts, wishes, motives, may, by the blessed influence of his Holy Spirit, be brought into captivity to the obedience of Cbrist. (3) The kingdom of glory. "Lord, remember me when thou comest in thy kingdom." The kingdoms of this world must become the kingdoms of God and of his Christ, and he shall reign for ever and ever, King of kings, and Lord of lords. We pray (with awe, it must be; but yet, if we are his, with hope and trustfulness) that it may please him, of hill gracious goodness, shortly to accomplish the number of his elect, and to hasten his kingdom. That kingdom must come, we know; but oh I m~y it please him first to make our hearts wholly his, and to spread the knowledge of his blessed gospel through all the dark places of the earth! 4. The third petition. (1) "Thy will be done.'' This is indee.d the Lord's prayer-his prayer in a double sense; he taught it, and he prayed it. It ill the deepest, holiest prayer of all prayers; the hardest prayer to learn, bnt full of blellSed peace to those who by his grace have learned it. (a) "Thill ill the will of God, even your sanctification.'' We pray that God's will may be done within us; that we may have grace and power to work out our own salvation, by his Spirit working in us both to will and to do. God's will is that we should be holy, "De ye holy, for I am holy.'' We pray that that gracious will of God may have its full ra:ige, its perfect work; that our wills, rebellious and wayward 8JJ they are, may be suhdu~ and chastened into c••nfvrmity with the holy will of God. (b) May God'~ will be done en. vi.1-34.J THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MATTHEW. 243