ἁγιάζω (hä-ge-ä'-zo) “Hallowed”, Part I. “In the Heavens”: The Lord’s Prayer & Psalm 120-124

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ἁγιάζω (hä-ge-ä'-zo)

From ἅγιος (hä'-ge-os): Holy, sacred, that which is set apart due to its intrinsic relation to the Divine.

Further derived from ἄγος (hágos), of which there are no uses in the NT or LXX but from classical literature it can mean that which produces awe, reverence and fear, on the one hand, or that which is an abomination and cursed, on the other.

Taken together, the dictionary meaning of ἁγιάζω may mean something like “to make holy by setting something or someone apart” due to its nature of Holy Divinity or to its intrinsic relation to the Divine.

As we trace its meaning through the OT into the NT, however, it takes on more dynamic dimensions.  

28 occurrences in the NT

8x in the Gospels 

2x in Acts 

9x in the Pauline Epistles

7x in Hebrews

1x in I Peter and 1x in Revelations

We will confine ourselves in this first post only to its opening occurrences in the Lord’s Prayer.

Summary Synthesis (as understood within the background of Ps 120-124):

ἁγιάζω reveals the tension between the Eternal/created, the Divine/human, the Heavenly/earthly, and the Perfect/fallen realities that operate within This Fallen Age. Separated from JHWH by our ancestral sin with legions of the seed of the serpent arrayed against us, ἁγιάζω opens us back to God, ushering in New Creation.

And it does so by leading us to to truly pray, begging for the Eternal Perfection of Heavenly Light and Truth to break into our present moment, asking for the Spirit to bring the Kingdom of God within us (Lk 17:21) who we are surrounded by the darkness and deceit of the floods of chaos that rise over us. As God’s name is “hallowed”, Heaven and earth meet. And this point of contact, this meeting place, is in the Messianic King, Whose Body is the Temple where God fully meets man; where God redeems man; where God empowers man through His Eternal Spirit to live the New Creational life now in This Fallen Age.

Detailed Analysis:

The initial use comes in the opening petition of the Lord’s Prayer. “Our Father (Πάτερ ἡμῶν), Who are in the Heavens (ὁ ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς), may Your Name be hallowed (ἁγιασθήτω τὸ ὄνομά σου, Mt 6:9). In the Lucan version, it should be noted here, this petition is abbreviated to simply “Father, may your name by hallowed” (πατερ, αγιασθητω το ονομα σου). In the former case, the distinction between the Eternal/created, the Divine/human, the Heavenly/earthly, the Perfect/fallen is made explicit in the Father’s Position in the perfection of the Eternal Heavens. In the latter, this is assumed. 

Focusing on the phrase “in the Heavens”, we can trace its usage through the early Psalms of Ascents, where all of the above distinctions become progressively clearer—Eternal/created, the Divine/human, Heavenly/earthly, Perfect/fallen. 

The initial Psalm of Ascents opens with the cry of the Psalmist out of distress to the Eternal, Covenant God, JHWH. 

“In my distress I cried (קָרָא [qarah]) to the LORD, 

And He heard (עָנָה [anah]) me.

And what does he ask/pray/beg?

Deliver my soul, O Lord, from lying lips

And from a deceitful tongue (Ps 120:1-2). 

Trapped on all sides by the the deceit and violence of men of This Fallen Age, he focuses his plea on the call for Divine Judgment on the “false tongue” (v 3-4). In pleading for this, he makes his grievous position even clearer.

“Woe is me, that I dwell in Meshech,

That I dwell among the tents of Kedar!

My soul has dwelt too long

With one who hates peace.

I am for peace;

But when I speak, they are for war” (Ps 120:5-7). 

In analysis of their uses in the OT, Mesech, on the one hand, and Kedar, on the other, both reveal the horror of the satanic forces that are arrayed against God’s people. From the Table of Nations in Genesis 10, Mesech is first identified as a son of Jepheth, whose brothers are none other than Magog, Tubal, Tiras, Gomer, Madai, and Javan (more on this below). Kedar are the sons of Ishmael, whose “hand,” it was prophesied, would be “against every man, and every man’s hand against him” (Gen 16:12-> Gen 25:13). “War of all against all” (bellum omnium contra omnes). 

Regarding Mesech, their nature as the ancient line of the seed of the serpent is more fully revealed in Ezekiel. They are initially presented as slave-traders benefiting from the greed and wealth of Tyre (Ezek 27:13...Rev 18). “Javan, Tubal, and Meshech were your traders. They bartered human lives and vessels of bronze for your merchandise.” Later their name first becomes synonymous with uncircumcised pagans then with death and Hell itself. “There is Meshech, Tubal, and all her multitude: her graves are round about him: all of them uncircumcised, slain by the sword, though they caused their terror in the land of the living;” they are now “gone down to hell with their weapons of war” (Ezek 32:26-27). 

Later in the prophecy, there is the call for Judgment upon this land of Gog and Magog, who truly “hate peace” and are “for war.” 

“Son of man, set your face against Gog, the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him, and say, ‘Thus says the Lord God: “Behold, I am against you, O Gog, the prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal” (Ezek 38:2-3). 

This pronouncement of judgment forms the background for the Last Battle and Final Judgment in Revelation 20. When Satan is “released from his prison”, he immediately goes out “to deceive (πλανῆσαι) the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle (συναγαγεῖν [sunagogein...the satanic synogogue, we might say]), whose number is as the sand of the sea” (Rev 20:7-8). These massive satanic forces then surround the “camp of the saints” (παρεμβολὴν τῶν ἁγίων) and the “beloved city” (τὴν πόλιν τὴν ἠγαπημένην) with a view of total destruction. 

Just then, before even a sword is drawn, “fire comes down from God out of heaven and devours (κατέφαγεν) them” (20:9). With such a view of the great war between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent followed through the History of Israel into the age of the Church and culminating in this Final Battle, we look from it back to the suffering Psalmist, still in the midst of the battle, surrounded on all sides by men of deceit and war. 

From this position, all the Psalmist can do is cry out to the Eternal God—JHWH, the One Who made an Eternal Covenant with His people. And this God “hears” (Ps 120:1). 

In the words of Edwards on this great impetus to pray, God “sits on a throne of grace; and there is no veil to hide this throne, and keep us from it. The veil is rent from the top to the bottom; the way is open at all times, and we may go to God as often as we please. Although God be infinitely above us, yet we may come with boldness” where we “obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need” (Heb 4:14).

Even more, Scripture declares that the “voice of the saints in prayer is sweet unto Christ; He delights to hear it. He allows them to be earnest and importunate; yea, to the degree as to take no denial, and as it were to give him no rest, and even encouraging them so to do:

‘I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, which shall never hold their peace day nor night: ye that make mention of the LORD, keep not silence, And give him no rest, till he establish, and till he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth’ (Is 62:6-7).

With such a call to perseverance in prayer, in this way “Christ encourages us, in the parable of the importunate widow and the unjust judge (Lk 18:1-8). So, in the parable of the man who went to his friend at midnight (Luke 11:5-8). Thus God allowed Jacob to wrestle with him, yea, to be resolute in it; I will not let thee go, except thou bless me (Gen 32:26). It is noticed with approbation, when men are violent for the kingdom of heaven (ἡ βασιλεία τῶν οὐρανῶν βιάζεται) and take it by force” (καὶ βιασταὶ ἁρπάζουσιν αὐτήν, Mt 11:12). 

“Thus Christ suffered the blind man to be most importunate and unceasing in his cries to him (Lk 18:38-43). The freedom of access that God gives, appears also in allowing us to come to him by prayer for every thing we need, both temporal and spiritual; whatever evil we need to be delivered from, or good we would obtain: “Be anxious for nothing (μηδὲν μεριμνᾶτε, Lit. “Be not divided and split into parts (μερίζω]) but in every thing by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God” (Phil 4:6).”

With this background of Psalm 120 that draws us into the tension of man’s distress as he cries out from his embattled position on earth, looking up to heaven, we then move to the phrase “in the heavens.” With Psalm 120 closing in this bitter tension of the earthly/heavenly divide that calls forth earnest prayer, the opening verses of Psalm 121 respond, first with the phrase:

“I will lift up my eyes to the hills...”

Embattled, suffering, surrounded, the Psalmist declares “I will look up...” Yet where is he looking? “To the hills.” And what does that mean? especially as in the narrative of the OT, specifically as it moves into the Prophets, frames this look “to the hills” (הַר [har]) not as a plea to the Covenant God of Israel, but rather the pathway of the surrounding, pagan nations to access the divine realm: 

Jer 3

23Truly in vain is salvation hoped for from the hills, and from the multitude of mountains: truly in the LORD our God is the salvation of Israel. (See also Jer 13:27, 17:1-3, etc.) 

Immediately after making this statement, it is as if the Psalmist interrupts himself and, in so doing, returns to JHWH from the “altars and groves by the green trees upon the high hills” (Jer 17:2). No longer is he restlessly looking upwards to what he thinks are sources of power outside of God. Rather, he comes to the Lord Himself. And he does so by asking himself a question, 

“From where does my help come?” (Ps 121:1b

Then he gives us the answer, 

“My help comes from the LORD,

Who made heaven and earth” (Ps 121:2). 

It was commented here that “the inspired writer, whoever he was, seems, in the opening of the Psalm, to speak in the person of an unbelieving man”, especially when “disquieted by dangers” and “assailed with sore temptations.” And we, like him, are “so inclined to the earth” and its “enticements” that we must “put a bridle” on ourselves “and turn back to God.” The remainder of the Psalm demonstrates why the Psalmist can and should look to God alone. He is our Help (עֵ֫זֶר [Ezer], v 2a), that is, the One Whose union with us secures our salvation from the enemies surrounding us (cf. Deut 33:7). He is our Keeper (x 3, v 3-6) and our Preserver (x 3, v 7-8) with both being English translations of the same Hebrew word, שָׁמַר (shamar) , which occurs 6x in these verses. Our help, salvation, security, preservation all comes from the LORD (יְהֹוָה [JHWH, Jehovah]), which is repeated 4x in these closing verses. The content of this look is nothing less than God with us.  

With the Psalmist’s movement, then, from the tense, embattled position of Psalm 120 to a place of security and rest in JHWH in the ensuing Psalm, we come to Psalm 122. And here, the Psalmist moves from the knowledge of this security to the outworking of its reality. 

“I was glad when they said to me, ‘Let us go into the House of the Lord’” (בֵּ֖ית יְהוָ֣ה [Beryith JHWH] Ps 122:1). The House of the Lord forms an inclusio with verse 9, literally enclosing the Psalmist together with all the family of God within its embrace. 

Making the journey up towards Mount Zion, the Psalmist’s feet now “stand” “within your gates, O Jerusalem!” (Ps 122:2). He moves through the city towards the Temple (122:3) and finally into the Holy of Holies, coming to the Ark of the Covenant within which is the “Testimony of Israel” (עֵד֣וּת לְיִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל [Eduwth Yisra’el, 122:4a, cf. Ex 25:16, 21-22). This is where Heaven and earth meet. 

This movement into the Presence of the Eternal God produces a glorious response (122:5-9). Beginning with thanksgiving (122:4b) for the establishment of the Eternal Kingdom of God in the Messianic Line of David (122:5), the Psalmist is opened up to prayers of peace (שְׁלֹ֣ום [Shalowm] x 3), prosperity (שַׁ֝לְוָ֗ה [Shalvah] x 2) and their outworking in and through love (אָהַב [ä·hav'], 122:6-8). Brought into this New Creational Community through the Messiah, the Psalm closes with the entrance back into the Edenic Goodness (טוֹב [Tove], cf. Gen 1:4, 10, 12, 18, 21) of the LORD, eternally situated in the garden Temple (122:9). 

Now, finally, we come to an antecedent to the opening petition of the Lord’s Prayer. We have passed with the Psalmist through the earthly warfare in this Fallen Age into the security of JHWH realized in the Temple, which stands as the meeting place between earth and heaven. Now we look no longer “to the hills” but to God Himself. “Unto You I lift up my eyes, O You who dwell in the heavens (הַ֝יֹּשְׁבִ֗י בַּשָּׁמָֽיִם (yashav shamayim), 123:1). 

Now in the very Presence of the Eternal Triune God, we see our true position:

“Behold, as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their masters, 

As the eyes of a maid to the hand of her mistress, 

So our eyes look to the Lord our

God, Until He has mercy (חָנַן [chanan]) upon us (123:2). 

For it is only God’s Covenant Mercies brought to us in the Temple, the Body of Christ (Jn 2:21), that we are freed from the contempt (בּוּז [buwz] of the pride (גֵּאֶה [ga·eh]) that marks fallen man (123:3-4). 

Now it is the LORD Himself who is “on our side” (x 2, 124:1-2a). When the forces of darkness in this Fallen Age rise up against us and would have “swallowed us alive” in their fury (124:3) with the “waters” of chaos “going over our soul” (x 2, 123:4-5), the Lord God of our salvation protects us (123:6-7). Dwelling in the reality of His Covenantal Blessings upon us, we can “bless” (בָּרַךְ [barak]) His Name (cf. Gen 1:28, 5:2, 9:1-> 12:2-3), therefore, and rest in the security of His Presence because 

“Our Help (עֵזֶר (Ezer) is in the Name of the LORD

Who made heaven and earth” (123:8). 

This is the God to Whom we pray—Who dwells in the heavens; Who has “established His Throne in the Heaven;” and Whose “Kingdom rules over all” (Ps 103:19) because He it is “Who made heaven and earth.” And as His Name is hallowed, we fallen, distorted, suffering creatures are drawn out of the vanity of This Fallen Age into the Eternal Life (αἰώνιος ζωή) of the Godhead.