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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadPaul Kretzmann Commentary - Matthew 6:9 - 6:9
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A model prayer to show that an infinite variety of wants and requests can be compressed into a few humble petitions:
v. 9. After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name.
It does not detract from the value of the prayer that many of its words and thoughts are found in the Old Testament and in the formulas in use among the Jews at that time. The marvel of its beauty lies rather in this, that the Lord arranged the petitions with reference to the importance of human wants and imbued them with His spirit, thus making the brief formula the most perfect prayer in the world. Note how He brings out this point. Thus, after this manner, not after that of the heathen, shall be your habitual prayer, for you are people who stand in a different relation to the Deity, you know the one, true God, to whom all prayers should be addressed. Father, He calls Him, to bring out the sonship of the believers. Their confidence and trust in Him is that of children sure of the father's love. He is our Father, in the fullest sense, by His work of creation as well as by that of redemption. He is the almighty God and Lord, who reigns in heaven over all the universe and thus possesses the willing power to hear our prayer, Eph_3:14-15; Eph_4:6; Isa_66:1; Act_7:55-56. His name, the entire manifestation of His essence, the revelation of His being, which distinguishes Him and gives an idea of His greatness, Psa_48:11; Mal_1:11, shall be hallowed, praised, glorified. This is done not only by holding Him in all esteem and relevance, by yielding to Him the position which is His by eternal right, by making Him the one object of worship the world over, but by leading such lives that every desire, thought, word, and deed will redound to His glory, Mat_5:16.