The Lords' Prayer (Pt. 7)

 

[Jesus said] “Pray then like this: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” (Matthew 6:9-13 ESV).

 

You’ll notice that our reading does not contain the last phrase so often included in some of the older translations: “For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, forever.” The New King James Version includes it in Matthew, but it was not part of the earliest Greek manuscripts of the New Testament. It was likely added because historically this doxology had become part of the Catholic liturgy, and it came closely after the “Our Father,” known to most Protestants as the Lord’s Prayer. Even though it isn’t included in the earliest Greek manuscripts of the Scriptures, Protestant Christians have included this line as part of the Lord’s Prayer since the 1600s. This beautiful doxology points us to the truth of who God is once again and gives God praise.

 

The Lord’s Prayer ends like it begins, with praise to God. In the first line of the prayer, we named God (our Father) and praised God (hallowed be your name). At the end of the Lord’s Prayer, we praise God again. We name God’s greatness by stating that all things belong to God. This final line of the Lord’s Prayer is a doxology, which means something that gives praise or adoration to God. By declaring that the kingdom, the power, and the glory belong to God, we are naming specifically that God is the creator of all things. We recognize that God is sovereign and rules over all things, and that nothing can happen without God’s knowledge. And we attribute all glory and honor to God alone. This is no small thing, since, as people, we often want to be the ones who create, who hold power, and who receive the glory, the accolades, the praise.

 

We acknowledge that God holds the power to do everything we just prayed about in the preceding lines of the Lord’s Prayer: bring God’s kingdom to earth, provide for our daily needs, forgive our sins, and deliver us from evil. This ancient hymn the church continues to sing proclaims, “as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be.” We are adding our voice to that refrain when we say “now and forever.” God is faithful and constant. The characteristics of God have not and will not change. So we can trust that the God who provided for Abraham and Isaac, the God who sent Jesus into the world and raised him from the dead, and the God we are praying to today, is one and the same God, and will be the same for all time. Pray like that!