Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadJames Nisbet Commentary - Luke 11:2 - 11:2
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
‘And He said unto them, When ye pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy Name.’
Luk_11:2
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.” ’
WHAT IS THE LORD’S PRAYER?
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.’
‘Hallowed be Thy Name.’
Luk_11:2
I. A man does not hallow the Name of God who does not speak of Him most reverently.
II. The man who could hallow the Name of God should be very diligent in publicly worshipping Him; he who is diligent in attending on the public worship of God thereby honours God Himself.
III. Every man who would hallow the Name of God should so manage his whole walk in life, so conduct himself in business, in his work, in whatever he has to do, that it may be clear to all men that the honour of God is the rule of his actions.
Christ our Lord said that His disciples ought so to act that men should see their good works, and glorify their Father which is in heaven.
—
Bishop Harvey Goodwin.
Illustration‘The Name of God is spoken of in the Old Testament in a manner calculated to excite the very deepest awe, and the most intense fear of polluting it. As in the case of the Israelites so in all others, the honour of His own most Holy Name is the end of all the works of God. And as the glory of God is the guide of His own acts, so that same glory ought to be the end of all that His creatures do; whether they be angels or men, all who have the gift of an intelligent soul are bound to make the glory of God the end of all they do.’
‘Thy kingdom come.’
Luk_11:2
I. The reign of grace.—Let us look at it, first, in its particular, private sense. We have in it the aspiration of an awakened mind, feeling its disordered state, and its rebellion, conscious of great disobedience, painfully anxious after peace and holiness, ‘Thy kingdom come.’ What is the nature of that kingdom in the heart? See what it is not.
(a) It does not consist of the glory of this present life—‘My kingdom is not of this world.’
(b) It is not meat and drink nor the strictness of outward observances. That is nature’s kingdom of God.
(c) It cometh not with observation. It does not make its entrance as man generally expects it to make its entrance.
Now let us turn and try to see what ‘the Kingdom of God’ in the soul of a man really is.
(d) It is spiritual. The Holy Ghost broods over the soul; there is a breath, and that is the breathing of the Holy Ghost, and it awakens a new feeling in a man’s mind; it is a hope, it is a principle of action; it comes, and it exercises its deep influence over that man’s mind; and there is a ‘kingdom’ begun.
(e) It is free; no one knows liberty who does not know the kingdom.
(f) It is comprehensive. It includes a vast range, yet it gathers up the whole range into a system. Every affection, every desire, every action, every thought, fixes itself upon the Lord Jesus Christ.
(g) It is exclusive. The heart grows so full of God that it can hold nothing else. Whatever comports not with God must go.
II. The extension of the kingdom.—The Saviour also intended His words to refer to the setting up of His kingdom upon this earth. If you ask where that ‘kingdom’ is and when it was established, I answer, it is the Church; and it was set up when Christ, having ascended as a conqueror, took upon Himself the administration. Then did Christ form to Himself, out of this world, a distinct, especial province, which, under the present dispensation, is emphatically Christ’s ‘kingdom.’ In this province, the Church, we are to look for the present reign of God. True, after nineteen centuries it is still a very little kingdom, this spiritual Church, but it is a ‘kingdom.’ This kingdom is an ever-expanding kingdom, and it rests with us to further the extension of the reign of Christ. Hear the missionary call, ‘Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature.’ Only so will the kingdoms of this world become the kingdom of our God and of His Christ.
III. The coming in of eternal glory.—This prayer—‘Thy kingdom come’—has a prophetic sense. There pervades all Scripture—from Moses and Daniel to St. Paul and John—a universal expectation that Christ will Himself come again, and set up a glorious kingdom. Does not the whole of the New Testament lead the eye over the valley of death as a thing not much to be thought of, and fix it upon the Advent of Jesus Christ? And is not this a far happier focus of thought than death, seeing that it has all its solemnity and all its happiness, without any of its separation, without any of its gloom? But there is a state beyond and above the kingdom to be set up at the Second Advent; it is always mentioned after it in the Bible, as in the twenty-fifth chapter of Isaiah, or in the last two chapters of the Revelation—heaven, heaven properly so called, an eternal rest, final and complete, when there shall be no more conflict, no more sin, no more change. To that blessed state, the Church, with outstretched neck, reached on—‘Thy kingdom come.’
—
Rev. James Vaughan.
Illustration‘In using this prayer we declare our desire that the usurped power of Satan may speedily be cast down—that all mankind may acknowledge God as their lawful King, and that the kingdoms of this world may become in fact, as they are in promise, the kingdoms of our God and of His Christ. The final setting up of this kingdom has been long predicted, even from the day of Adam’s fall. The whole creation groans in expectation of it. The last prayer in the Bible points to it. The canon of Scripture almost closes with the words, “Come, Lord Jesus” (Rev_11:15; Gen_3:15; Rom_8:22; Rev_22:20).’
‘Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth.’
Luk_11:2
I. The subjection of the will.—That is one reason why Jesus Christ taught us to pray, as the will of God is done in heaven so may we do it here on earth. It is not easy. The very first step towards a Christian life is the surrender of the will to Christ by accepting Him as King. Then the struggle begins! The step we take in accepting Christ as King is the beginning of the spiritual life, but there is a long, slow, and hard process to be gone through afterwards—the yielding up of the will until it becomes one with the will of God, and then we are able to do the will of God on earth as it is done in heaven.
II. ‘As in heaven.’—We know very little about the angelic beings, but we are sure of this—
(a) That love is the motive of all that is done in accordance with the will of God. There is no servitude about the angels giving their will to God.
(b) That these beings do the will of God with full intelligence. Do we try enough to get an intelligent view of God’s plans and purposes for us? If we try to do the will of God, as it is done in heaven, we must do it not only because it is God’s will, but because by study and prayer we have come to see that it is wise and good.
(c) The angels obey in an atmosphere of joyful service. Work moved by joy becomes highest pleasure. God wants us to be fellow-workers with Him.
III. ‘So in earth.’—To do God’s will is easy enough sometimes, but to bear it, that is different. There is a good deal about burdens in the Bible. We speak now of the ‘burden’ that God lays upon us. ‘Cast thy burden upon the Lord.’ How a light breaks in upon that heavy burden which God has given us! That is the thing which in His infinite wisdom He thought was best for us. What, then, will you do with it? ‘Cast thy burden upon the Lord.’ He does not mean that He will come and lift it off. No, He has given it. He would not have given it unless He wished you to feel its weight. The weight will not crush you, because it is underpinned by His will.
—
Rev. E. Grose Hodge.
Illustration(1) ‘When I am sick and tired it is God’s will;
Also God’s will alone is sure and best;—
So in my weariness I find my rest,
And so in poverty I take my fill.
Therefore I see my good in midst of ill,
Therefore in loneliness I build my nest,
And through hot noon pant toward the shady west,
And hope in sickening disappointment still.’
(2) ‘To see the full beauty of this prayer, we should read the description of angels in Psa_103:20-21. Heaven is the only place now where God’s will is done perfectly, constantly, unhesitatingly, cheerfully, immediately, and without asking any questions.’
(3) ‘Thou layest Thy hand on the fluttering heart,
And sayest, “Be still!”
The silence and shadows are only a part
Of Thy sweet will.
Thy presence is with me, and where Thou art
I fear no ill.’
(4) ‘If we really desire to do God’s will He will enable us to do it. There is no situation in life in which we may not do His will; in the ordinary path of life, in that life of labour to which God has appointed us all, there are abundant opportunities of putting in practice this rule, of doing God’s will and not our own, except so far as our own agrees with His, and though it may be difficult to expel all selfish feelings and all rebellious wishes, yet constant efforts will be blessed, and we shall “grow in grace.” ’