After praying about temptation and deliverance from the Evil One, we delight in this grand finale ascribing to our Father the kingdom, the power, and the glory. This doxology cheers and emboldens the Father’s children. Worldly pomp and pretense to kingdom, power, and glory fall silent before our Father, all belonging to God alone. With awe and amazement we pray as the doxology answers our first three petitions: “Yours is the kingdom” (YOUR KINGDOM COME)…”and the power” (YOUR WILL BE DONE)…”and the glory” (HALLOWED BE YOUR NAME).
As noted in the Introduction, this closing doxology is not found in the oldest and best Greek manuscripts of the New Testament; therefore, it is omitted in newer Bible translations. We are probably correct to conclude that “for yours is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory” were not part of the prayer Jesus taught. But it is significant that we find these words added to the Lord’s Prayer in the Didache (“Teaching”) that reflects church life as early as the late first century. Purporting to be the “Teaching of the Twelve Apostles”, the Didache instructs:
“And do not pray as the hypocrites, but as the Lord commanded in His Gospel, pray thus: ‘Our Father, who art in Heaven, hallowed be thy Name, thy Kingdom come, thy will be done, as in Heaven so also upon earth; give us today our daily bread, and forgive us our debt as we forgive our debtors, and lead us not into trial, but deliver us from the Evil One, for thine is the power and the glory for ever.’”
The Didache then teaches: “Pray thus three times a day.”
Early Christians leave record of praying this doxology as it was likely their response to a worship leader praying the Lord’s Prayer. Jesus might have instructed praying this prayer knowing that His disciples, as devout Jews, would customarily add a doxology. We do see the apostle Paul bursting forth into doxologies (Romans 11:33-36; 16:27; 1 Timothy 1:17), as well as the saints in glory adding a doxology to prayer (Revelation 7:12). The first Christians, who were Jews, liked to conclude prayers with King David’s doxology: “Yours, O LORD, are the greatness, the power, the glory, the victory, and the majesty; for all that is in the heavens and on earth is yours; yours is the kingdom, O LORD, and you are exalted as head above all” (1 Chronicles 29:10-11).
Early Christians added the doxology to The Lord’s Prayer, knowing they were praying the very words of Scripture. Today, we pray this doxology as our own adoring response to the greatness and the glory of our Father. We rejoice in knowing that this will be our praise of Father “for ever and ever.”
PRAY THE LORD’S PRAYER (MORNING-NOON-NIGHT)
