Looking now at the six petitions, we observe at once tliat the first three have a Godward, the second three a manward reference. Because of this the prayer has often been compared to the Decalogue with its summation of human duty first to God and then to man (cf. Mt ^-i^", Mk' \2^^). But beneath this resemblance there lies a gi-eat ditt'erence Ijetween the Ten Words and the Lord's Prayer, the familiar difierence between law and gTace, between the Old Testament and the New. For while in tlie one case otir debt to God and to man is laid u[)on us from alx)ve as a commandment that must be obeyed, in the other we look up to God, crying like Augiistine, ' Da quod jubes, et jube quod \-is' {Coj)/. x. 60).
When we examine the prayer more closely, a beautiful continuity and symmetry of thought becomes apparent. " In the invocation God is ad- dressed by His new name of ' Father ' ; and it is with a petition for the hallowing of this name that the prayer proper begins. If we take the three peti-
tions of the first group, God appears to be ad- dressed : (1) as the Father whose name must be hallowed, (2) as the King whose Kingdom is to come, (3) as the Lord of heaven and earth whose will must be fulfilled. And when we pass to the three petitions of the second group, the same three- fold view of God may be traced, coming, too, in the same order, so that tiie successive clauses of this gioup correspond respectively to those of the first. For the prayer for bread natm-ally sug- gests the request of the child to the Father, the prayer for forgiveness the petition of the subject to the King, and the prayer for deliverance from the Tempter the cry of one who feels in the pre- sence of the worlds evil his utter dependence upon the strong and holy will of his Master and Lord.
3. Contents. — Without entering here into the questions raised by the twofold text (see preceding art.), we shall for convenience follow ilt.'s version as the one which has p;vssed into general use in the Christian Church.
{a) The Invocation -. 'Our Father which art in heaven.' These words mark a new eix>ch not only in the history of prayer, but in the history of revelation. In the OT, God is occasionally spoken of as the Father of the Jewish people (Dt 32^, Is 63'*etc. ). but indiAiduals do not venture to address Him by this name (Ps 103^^ is only a comparison). And though in some of the extra-canonical writings there appears a dawning consciousness of a per- sonal relation to God as a Father (Wis 2^*, Sir 23'- ■* etc.), it was Jesus Christ who fii-st turned the dim hope of pious hearts into the a.s.sured certainty of faith. ' Father ' is the distinctive Christian name of God, the name which Christ taught us, and which, apart from Him, Ave have no proper right to use (cf. Jn P-, Gal 4^). The Fatherhood here appealed to is not the general Fatherhootl of CreatorshiiJ, but the special Fatherhood of grace. It is for those who are the children of God by Christian faith that this ]irayer is meant, those who turn to Him with filial hearts, prepared to say : ' Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done.'
But God is called not ' Father ' only, but ■ Our Father,' and thus the invocation acknowledges the brotherhood of man as Avell as the Fatheriiood of God. There is a human brotherhood which rests on the DiA-ine Cre;\torship (cf. Mai 2^"). But just as there is a special sonship, the sonship of be- lievers, so there is a distinctive brotherhood, the brotherhood of saints ; and it is this brotherhood that finds immediate expression in the invocation of the Lords Prayer.
Our Father is ' in heaven.' The phrase speaks to us of His greatness .and holiness, of the rever- ence we owe Him, of His power to bless. But it also reminds us that if we are the cliildren of the heavenly Father, His home is the true home of our souls, and that, as always, so especially when we bow before His throne with otir requests, we must set our mind on the things that are al>ove.
[b] First Petition : ' Hallowed be thy name.' In the OT the 'name' of Gtxl is a constant expres- sion for His revealed character (cf. Ps 9''' 20', Pr 18'^^). Without doubt it is in this sense that the word is tised by Jesus. But His immediate refer- ence here must be to that character of Fatherhood under which He had just presented God to His disciples. It is our Father in heaven whose name is to be hallowed. To hallow that name is to set great store by it, to exalt it and revere it and glory in it. To pray that it may be hallowed is to pray that God as revealed to us by Christ may be accepted and honoured by ourselves and others — that we may turn to Him as our Father Avith loAing, trustful hearts, and giA'e Him the honour that is due.
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LORD'S PRAYER
LORD'S PRAYER
(c) Second Petition: ' Thy kingdom come." The Kingdom of God was the hope of Israel before Christ's advent, and -when He came it formed the constant and central theme of His teaching. When Ave examine tlie Sj'noptic Gospels to learn what His teaching upon the subject was, we hnd Him speaking of the Kingdom of God in two ways. (1) It was a present reality set up on earth (^It 12-^, Mk V\ Lk \7-% gathering round His own person (Mt 13^i 16-^ •2y^- ^ etc.), the coming of whicii meant its entrance (which is really His own entrance, Mt S'^^f- lP«-3" etc.) into the individual heart (Lk IT-'o- 21, Mt 18=* i', Jn S-"*), its steady growth (Mk 4-"-^-'), and its gradual spread like leaven througdi society (Mt 13*'-= Lk 13-»'-). (2) But again it was a hope of the future, a Kingtlom not realized as yet, but one day to be revealetlin power by the Parousia of the Son of Man Himself (;Mt 134H. 49f. 2213 2530). ,^nd so, when we pray for the coming of God's Kingdom, we are praying that Christ tlie King may enter into our hearts, that He may take full possession of them, that the gospel of tlie Kingdom may spread throughout the world, and that its principles may work m human society with sul)duing power. But we are praying also for the hour of the final consuinraation wheU the Lord Himself shall appear in His glory, when the kingdom of this world shall become the King- dom of our Lord and of His Christ, when out of that Kingdom there shall be cast all things that offend, and God shall be all in all.