THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW - Chapter 6 - Verse 11
Verse 11. Give us this day, etc. The word bread here denotes,
doubtless, everything necessary to sustain life, Mt 4:4; De 8:3.
This petition implies our dependence on God for the supply of our
wants. As we are dependent on him one day as much as another, it
was evidently the intention of our Saviour that prayer should be
offered every day. This is, moreover, expressed in the plural number—
give us. It is evidently, therefore, intended to be used by more than
one, or by some community of people. No community or congregation can
meet every day for worship but families. It is therefore evident that
this prayer is a strong implied command for daily family prayer. It can
nowhere else be used so as fully to come up to the meaning of the
original intention; and nowhere else can it be breathed forth with so
much propriety and beauty as from the lips of a father, the venerable
priest of his household, and the pleader with God for those rich
blessings which a parental bosom desires on his beloved offspring.
{z} "daily bread" Pr 30:8; Is 33:16
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