James Nisbet's Church Pulpit Commentary
Luke 11:2
THE LORD’S PRAYER
‘And He said unto them, When ye pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy Name.’
There are some most interesting facts, and thoughts, and lessons that emerge from a general survey of this most beautiful prayer. The Lord would have us understand the meaning of the words and of the teaching of the different petitions that we might not only use the prayer as it stands, rightly and to our benefit, but that we might found all our prayers, our private prayers, upon the teaching, structure, and meaning of the Lord’s Prayer.
I. The spirit of the prayer.—We shall only understand the Lord’s Prayer, only be able truly to make it our own, to drink in its meaning and to get all the comfort and help from it, as we come in a spirit of humility and a spirit of prayer, and ask: ‘Lord, teach us to pray.’ If we are to have a spirit of prayer, a desire to learn, we shall never get it by looking within ourselves. We shall never find it, gain it, by searching for it down here below. You will only get a true spirit of prayer by watching Jesus, by noting His beautiful example, and with your eyes fixed upon the Master, with your thoughts there on Jesus, the spirit of Jesus and the spirit of prayer will rise up in your heart and in your mind.
II. The brevity of the prayer.—And then, looking at the prayer as a whole, notice how very short it is. Is it, do you think, that the Lord’s Prayer is not so much a prayer as a summary? I do not think so. I take it that it is not a summary, but a prayer as it stands. Each clause is a petition, not a head. What is the meaning of it? Does it not mean that our Heavenly Father does not delight in long prayers, that He loves short and definite petitions? Does it not mean that He would have His children pray less, that we may pray the oftener? The message to you and to me is, Do not try to carry a burden, a grief, all day long, waiting for the long-set evening petition. Pray all day long when you want a special word; go to the Father above, and take the trial, or the sorrow, or the difficulty, whatever it may be, take it at once to Him in a short, definite prayer from your heart, and that will please the Father above.
III. The Lord’s example.—And then, glancing at the prayer as a whole, is it not very beautiful, is it not very helpful to notice how the Lord Jesus Christ not only gave us the prayer to use ourselves, but how He seemed to say: ‘I give you this prayer, to you My disciples, to you My people, after I have used every petition of it Myself’? Here is a prayer that He gives to you and to me, and He gives it to us sanctified and hallowed by His own use. Have you ever taken it clause by clause and noticed how Jesus made this prayer His own? It is our prayer, and He enters into every petition, every word, in this prayer. Notice it, that this prayer may mean more to you in the future than it has ever done in the past. He tells His first disciples, He tells all disciples, to pray, ‘Our Father.’ Do you remember that all of the prayers Jesus offered here on earth, every one of them, with the exception of one (if that one may be called strictly a prayer), begin with ‘Father.’ He told us to pray, ‘Hallowed be Thy Name.’ He Himself prayed, ‘Father, glorify Thy Name.’ The Lord’s Prayer is divided into two parts, which really correspond to the two tables of stone. The first half consists of petitions, which are all concerned with God, and the will of God, and the Kingdom of God; and the second half consists of petitions all about ourselves, our bodily needs, our temptations, and our sins. And then in these two parts we have a contrast. The first part, the part dealing with God, His will and Kingdom, begins, as we should have expected it to begin, at the very highest point, at the glory, ‘Hallowed be Thy Name.’
Rev. A. G. Welchman.
Illustration
‘Our prayers, perhaps, are distracted, broken, we hardly know how, by wandering thoughts and blank vacancies of thought. In such a case an act of godly reverence, in which we set before our minds the present and unspeakable majesty of God, as our Maker and Judge, Who cannot but know, remember, try all—repeated, if need be, by an instantaneous thought as often as the attention flags—will assist us to realise that conscious communion with the Unseen which is the essence of prayer. We must not rest till we feel that we are in the presence of a King. So the experience of the Psalmist will be our own: “ I have set God always before me, therefore I shall not fall.” ’
(SECOND OUTLINE)
WHAT IS THE LORD’S PRAYER?
We have often been struck by the most beautiful simplicity of the Lord’s Prayer. I suppose if a saint of God were asked now to write a prayer he would hardly like to write one so simple; and yet what a wonderful fullness, and richness, and depth of meaning there are in the Lord’s Prayer. What is the Lord’s Prayer?
I. It is a theology.—Not a poor, weak theology such as men would create, but a true theology. We have set forth a true God in all His beauty, in all His loveliness, in all His blessedness, His glory and power. That is a theology.
II. It is a religion.—Not a man-made religion, but a religion that comes from above, that puts God in His right place, and that puts man in his right place—a religion that will not only do for the sunshine but for the dark. It is a religion that will do to live by, and to die by, at every hour and moment of our lives on to the end. The man who truly says the Lord’s Prayer with all his heart has learned something of his own heart, something of his own sin, something of the nature of pardon, something of the infinite mercy and tenderness and love of God.
III. It is the basis of brotherhood.—The Lord’s Prayer binds all Christian people together into one loving family—the only true brotherhood of love and charity and helpfulness. Here is the basis of brotherhood. Here we shall learn how we should treat one another.
IV. It is a guide for life.—Take the Lord’s Prayer as your guide during life, and you will make, with God’s grace, few mistakes. You will learn what are the first things, and that they should be put in the first place, and what are the second things, and that they should be put in the second place.
V. It is a prophecy, the grandest, mightiest prophecy in the whole Book of God, a prophecy that pierces the sky, a prophecy that takes us on to the time, that glad, triumphant time, when there will be no more sin and no more sorrow, when all shall be light, and brightness, and glory.
—Rev. A. G. Welchman.
Illustration
‘The form of address, “Our Father,” is remarkable, because it was not the ordinary form of address before Christ came. The idea of a Father is not put forward in the Old Testament as the great all-comprehending idea of God, as it is in the New Testament. For I consider that this is emphatically the character under which God is revealed to us through Christ, namely, that of a Father.’