Tuning The Harp

Reid Ferguson

Oct 8, 2024

Harps are mentioned over 30 times in the Bible, often associated with praise and worship. For many, the word "harp" conjures images of cherubic melodies or pastoral tones, perhaps similar to a lute or lyre. However, Don Carson suggests that Biblical harps should be thought of more like the banjos of their time—more suggestive of happy foot-tapping than ethereal strains. Regardless, harps are stringed instruments, and all stringed instruments require regular tuning. Think of a guitar or banjo; they need to be tuned each time you pick them up.

This need for constant tuning provides a fitting metaphor for the human soul and prayer. Like a stringed instrument, our hearts must be regularly tuned in order to produce the right melodies in our prayer lives. While many of us pray, there’s often a lingering discomfort or uncertainty about how to pray, how much to pray, or how often to pray. This discomfort can transform prayer into a duty clouded by mystery and routine.

Jesus’ teachings on prayer, particularly in Matthew 6, provide a framework for "tuning" our hearts properly in prayer. Prayer itself tunes the soul, aligning it with God's purposes, allowing us to face life with the right posture. Jesus introduces this concept in two key places: in Matthew 6, within the Sermon on the Mount, and in Luke 11, where the disciples, after observing Him pray, ask, "Lord, teach us to pray."

This raises two significant questions:

Before delving into the details, it's important to recognize that Jesus' approach to prayer was refreshingly straightforward. He didn’t promote high-sounding theological verbiage or elaborate techniques. Instead, His prayer was brief and to the point. Sometimes, the most eloquent prayer is simply “Help!” As Thomas Aquinas observed, prayer is not about persuading God to align with our will, but rather about aligning ourselves with His will. It’s about tuning our hearts and souls so that prayer becomes a joy and a place of refuge and renewal. If prayer feels burdensome, as it sometimes can, we’re likely doing something wrong.

Prayer is also the most supernatural activity we engage in. As such, it often encounters opposition, both from our fallen nature and from external forces. John Piper reminds us that joy is something worth fighting for, and the fight often takes place on our knees in prayer.

The Tuning Process: Aligning with Jesus' Heart

When it comes to prayer, my thesis is simple: Jesus didn’t just give us a rote prayer to repeat; He gave us a tool to align our hearts with God's mind, plans, and purposes. Just as a guitar must be tuned to an objective E note, our hearts must be tuned to God's purposes. Jesus’ prayer begins with the most important thing in the cosmos: the hallowing of the Father’s name. The first petition is an invitation to align our hearts with the ultimate purpose of all creation—that God’s name would be honored, revered, and loved.

In John 17, Jesus prays, "Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you," and, "I have manifested your name to the people." To glorify God is to reveal Him as He truly is—not greater, not lesser, but in His full beauty, majesty, and holiness. This is important because the obscuring of God’s glory was at the root of humanity's fall. Satan’s deception in the Garden led Adam and Eve to question God’s character, casting doubt on His goodness. To reverse the effects of the fall, God's name must be restored to its rightful place in our hearts and in the world.

Jesus' prayer invites us into His own desire: “O that all peoples everywhere would know My Father the way I know Him, that they would love Him as I love Him.” This alignment is essential to a flourishing prayer life. When our hearts are tuned to God's purposes, our prayers flow from a place of joy and freedom. Until we begin with the hallowing of God’s name, our prayers will lack the depth and richness they are meant to have.

Relevance and Cosmic Purpose

Going back to the 1960s, there were debates about how to make the Gospel relevant to people. However, the true goal of the Gospel is not to be relevant to us, but to bring us back into relevance to God. We were created for Him, not the other way around. The Gospel reconciles us to God, restoring His purposes in our lives, and that’s why the first petition in Jesus’ prayer is so crucial.

In Luke 2, we find a young Jesus, at age 12, staying behind in the Temple to engage with the teachers. When His parents finally locate Him, He responds, “Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” Even at 12, Jesus was about His Father’s business, focused on His plans and purposes. When Jesus teaches us to pray, He is calling us into that same space—to step outside of ourselves and into the cosmic importance of God's purposes.

The phrase “hallowed be your name” can be understood in several ways, but at its core, it is a call for God's glory to be restored in the hearts of His people. The first dimension of this is personal: “Father, let Your glory and wonder be restored to me, in me, and through me.” When we lose sight of God's goodness and love, when we suspect that He might be withholding something from us, we need a fresh sense of His perfection.

Peter, writing to suffering Christians, exhorts them to “honor Christ the Lord as holy” in their hearts, even in the midst of trials. The key to enduring suffering is to remember that Christ is both sovereign over our circumstances and holy in His intentions toward us. We must begin there in our own prayers—asking God to help us hallow His name in our hearts so that we might live in that reality and proclaim it to the world.

The Prayer That Transforms

When we don’t know what to pray for, Jesus gives us the answer: we should pray for the hallowing of God’s name, starting with ourselves. This transforms our entire perspective. As Charles Spurgeon wrote, “The essence of true divinity is greatening God, magnifying him, and enlarging our conceptions of his majesty and his glory to the utmost degree.” By beginning with a desire for God’s name to be hallowed, we position ourselves in the place where all true prayer flows—from a heart overwhelmed by His glory.

So, take time today, even five minutes, to get alone with God and ask for His name to be hallowed in your life. This prayer, simple yet profound, opens the door to a deeper, richer prayer life. It brings us back into alignment with God’s purposes and reminds us of the privilege we have in prayer: to commune directly with our Father in heaven.

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This article was a summary of three blog posts written by Reid Ferguson. You can read the series as presented at ResponsiveReiding.com