Hidden Treasures in the Titles of the Psalms (Part 4)

The Lord's Prayer and the Psalms

This prayer is beautiful and powerful.  Jesus gave it to the disciples to pray, but we need to be careful how we use it.

Many people know this prayer by heart. Not only Christadelphians, but most church-attending Christians know this prayer by heart. The danger is that we may not always think about what we are saying to God because we know it so well. A Dutch family once invited me to stay for a meal. The father said Thanks for the meal by using the Lord’s Prayer. But he said it so fast it was over before I realized it. He never stopped to think if the way he said it would be acceptable to God. It shows that even the best prayer can become “vain repetitions.”

In all Jewish synagogues, there is a saying written over the front of the hall: Da lifney mi she ata omed (“Know before whom you stand”). This is good advice, for if we realize that when we pray, we present ourselves before the Almighty God, before whom nations are counted as a drop in a bucket, then we would be more careful how we address the Almighty Creator of heaven and earth.

The Scriptures instruct us how to approach God:

Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God, and be more ready to hear, than to give the sacrifice of fools: for they consider not that they do evil. (Ecclesiastes 5:1).

The Lord’s Prayer is beautiful if we meditate on its words and mean it with all our hearts. But still, in light of our studies, it raises the question of why Jesus didn’t point the disciples to the Psalms for their prayer book. It has been said that this prayer is a template on which we can form our own prayers. This thought is perhaps indicated by Jesus’s words when he introduced this prayer to his disciples: “After this manner therefore pray ye.”

This instruction brings us to consider what we are saying to God when we pray this prayer:

Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.” (Matthew 6:9-13).

The prayer starts with giving God the honor He deserves, followed by three petitions, which put God at the center as a Father, and not ourselves:

• Hallowed be thy name.
• Thy Kingdom come.
• Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.

Only then do we turn to our own present, past and future needs:

• Give us this day our daily bread [our present needs].
• And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors [our past sins].
• And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil [our future welfare]. Emphasis: us, us, us.

We ask for the food we need now, pray for the forgiveness of past sins, and ask for help in the future. We lay all our lives before God. Finally, we pray for the Kingdom to come. This prayer puts the glorious future of the saints and the world before us.

Let us examine, then, the ingredients of this prayer and see how the Psalms introduce these thoughts:

First of all, we address God as Our Father. The phrase “Our Father” is rarely used for God in the Old Testament, although God was, of course, a Father to Israel, and He often refers to Israel as His sons: Ye are the children of Yahweh your Elohim, which implies that God was a father to Israel (Deuteronomy 14:1). God plainly said He was Israel’s Father:

I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn. (Jeremiah 31:9). Here is a beautiful picture of God as a father to Israel.

When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt. (Hosea 11:1).

I taught Ephraim also to go, taking them by their arms. (Hosea 11:3).

God wanted to be a Father to Israel, but they were rebellious. Perhaps that is why Israel never addressed God as their Father. The Prophet Isaiah paints a beautiful picture of God as the Father of Israel:

For he said, Surely they are my people, children that will not lie: so he was their Saviour. In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them: in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; and he bare them, and carried them all the days of old. But they rebelled, and vexed his holy Spirit: therefore he was turned to be their enemy, and he fought against them. (Isaiah 63:8-10).

Isaiah indicates in the following verses that the Gentiles will call God their father:

Look down from heaven, and behold from the habitation of thy holiness and of thy glory: where is thy zeal and thy strength, the sounding of thy bowels and of thy mercies toward me? are they restrained? Doubtless thou art our father, though Abraham be ignorant of us, and Israel acknowledge us not: thou, O LORD, art our father, our redeemer; thy name is from everlasting. (Isaiah 63:15-16).

In the next chapter, we see Israel pleading for God to be their Father again:

But now, O Lord, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand. Be not wroth very sore, O Lord, neither remember iniquity for ever: behold, see, we beseech thee, we are all thy people. (Isaiah 64:8-9).

It was David who, for the first time, addressed God as “Our Father” in his lifetime:

Wherefore David blessed LORD before all the congregation: and David said, Blessed be thou, LORD God of Israel our father, for ever and ever. (1 Chronicles 29:10).

To vary the Lord’s Prayer, instead of saying “Our Father who art in heaven” we could say: “Our Father, our God, and the Rock of our salvation”.

Using the Psalms, we get a beautiful picture of God as a father:

A father of the fatherless, and a judge of the widows, is God in his holy habitation. God setteth the solitary in families: he bringeth out those which are bound with chains. (Psalm 68:5-6).

But it was Jesus who called his father Abba for the first time:

And he said, Abba, Father, all things are possible unto thee; take away this cup from me: nevertheless not what I will, but what thou wilt. (Mark 14:36).

When we lived in Israel, our children called me Abba, and my wife Kathleen, Ima. Abba simply means Daddy. I love it when my children call me Abba or Daddy!

They want to call me Daddy because they know I love them and will respond and help them where necessary. So it is with God. He wants to be our Daddy and wants us to treat him like that.

Another thing to consider is that the Prayer of the Lord does not begin with “My Father,” but “Our Father!” We are not lonely children; we have brethren and sisters, and it is good to pray together. Starting our prayer with “Our Father” makes us think about our relationship with God and our brothers and sisters.

It shows that only through Jesus can we address God as our Father, which is why Jesus introduced this prayer. It does not brush aside the use of the psalms but allows us to deepen our understanding of the Spirit of Christ in the “psalms, hymns and spiritual songs.” The disciples didn’t fully understand the psalms at that time, as Jesus hadn’t yet overcome sin and death. Jesus first had to fulfil all that was written in the Psalms. Only after his resurrection were the minds of those two disciples on the way to Emmaus opened to the Psalms:

And he said unto them, “These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me.” Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures, And said unto them, “Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day: And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And ye are witnesses of these things. And, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high.” (Luke 24:44-49).

Acts 2 shows us how freely the disciples started to use the psalms when Peter preached the Gospel using the Psalms (2 and 16). 

Our Father, Which Art in Heaven

This phrase “which art in heaven” focuses our minds on the dwelling place of God, who lives in heaven. It should regulate our behavior and what we can pray to God:

Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter any thing before God: for God is in heaven, and thou upon earth: therefore let thy words be few. (Ecclesiastes 5:2).

There are many beautiful expressions about God in heaven in the Psalms:

The Lord is in his holy temple, the LORD’s throne is in heaven: his eyes behold, his eyelids try, the children of men. The Lord trieth the righteous: but the wicked and him that loveth violence his soul hateth. (Psalm 11:4-5).

The LORD looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God. (Psalm 14:2).

I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from LORD, which made heaven and earth. (Psalm 121:1-2).

From heaven, God observes us and tests us, but He is also our Helper:

God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. (Psalm 46:1). [Again, this gives deeper meaning to the Lord’s Prayer.]

Hallowed Be Thy Name

What does “hallow” mean? It means to revere, to sanctify, to make holy. Does that mean that if we don’t pray the Lord’s Prayer, God’s name won’t be holy? Of course not. God’s name doesn’t change. What does it mean then? In Biblical times, names did have a meaning: Melchizedek = king of righteousness; David = beloved; Solomon = peace, etc. Names were once used to express the character of a person. It is the same with God. When He proclaimed His name before Moses, He said:

And the LORD descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD. And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth. (Exodus 34:5-6).

What is God’s name? “God” comes from “good,” but it isn’t His name. We call Him sometimes “LORD,” but that isn’t his name either. In London, there is a whole House full of Lords, so that is not helpful either. Moses asked what God’s name was:

And Moses said unto God, “Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they shall say to me, What is his name? what shall I say unto them?” And God said unto Moses, ”I AM THAT I AM [I WILL BE THAT I WILL BE]”: and he said, “Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM [I WILL BE] hath sent me unto you.” And God said moreover unto Moses, “Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, The LORD God [Yahweh Elohim] of your fathers, the God [Elohim] of Abraham, the God [Elohim] of Isaac, and the God [Elohim] of Jacob, hath sent me unto you: this is my name for ever, and this is my memorial unto all generations.” (Exodus 3:13-15).

His name then is Yahweh Elohim, which means: He will be mighty ones. God wants to have children and all those who have believed in the promises God made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob will have the opportunity to become the children of God.

So, if we say this prayer and say, “hallowed be thy name,” we promise to live lives that are pure in God’s sight. If we don’t, we are not His children, and we don’t hallow His name. In fact, the opposite will be true; we do blaspheme His name. Look what James says:

Hearken, my beloved brethren, Hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which he hath promised to them that love him? But ye have despised the poor. Do not rich men oppress you, and draw you before the judgment seats? Do not they blaspheme that worthy name by the which ye are called? If ye fulfil the royal law according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, ye do well: But if ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin, and are convinced of the law as transgressors. (James 2:5-9).

When we pray “hallowed be thy name,” we promise to be like God and His Son, Jesus Christ. The Psalms have the same message:

I will extol thee, my God, O king; and I will bless thy name for ever and ever. Every day will I bless thee; and I will praise thy name for ever and ever. Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised; and his greatness is unsearchable. (Psalm 145:1-3).

Thy Kingdom Come

We all want the Kingdom to come as soon as possible. It will be a glorious time when the earth will be filled with God’s glory, when all our troubles and diseases will be over, and our sins will be forgiven. The danger with this thought is that we may consider the Kingdom a glorified pension scheme.

Again, Psalm 145 paints a beautiful picture of the Kingdom:

They shall speak of the glory of thy kingdom, and talk of thy power; To make known to the sons of men his mighty acts, and the glorious majesty of his kingdom. Thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and thy dominion endureth throughout all generations. (Psalm 145:11-13).

However, Psalm 22 shows us Jesus knew that only through suffering can we enter the Kingdom. We have already looked at Psalm 22, which Jesus prayed on the cross. It was only after he was saved from the “lion’s mouth” that he could say:

I will declare thy name unto my brethren: in the midst of the congregation will I praise thee. (Psalm 22:22).

Jesus knew that only after he overcame sin and death could he look forward to the Kingdom: when (v. 23) the seed of Jacob (natural Jews) and the seed of Israel (spiritual Jews) will be united and all the “ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the LORD,” (Psalm 22:27) only then will the Kingdom be Yahweh’s.

The phrase “for ever” is often used in the Psalms. It usually means “to the Ohlam,” or “to the Age”—the hidden age of the Kingdom. When it says, “God’s mercy is for ever,” it actually is that God’s mercy is toward the Kingdom.

The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring for ever [le-Ohlam] (Psalm 19:9).

So, we need to cleanse ourselves if we want to enter the Kingdom. The Psalms contain many such instructions. Let’s look them up and use them in our prayers!

Leen Ritmeyer,
Cardiff Ecclesia, UK