Week 5 – Give Us this Day our Daily Bread
Psalms of Supplication
5, 28, 36, 42, 43, 54, 61, 63, 86, 123
This week and the next we get a break as we prepare for the grand finale of Lent, Holy Week. We only have ten psalms to focus on this week and next week, but rich ones. Having recognized God as Father, praised our God in heaven, and prayed for God’s will and kingdom, we now turn to our own needs.
Jesus instructs us to pray: give us this day our daily bread. We are to pray every day for that which we need, not just our bread, but everything. We are to turn to God in prayer, seeking that which we desire. The psalms are plaintive as the writers cried to God to hear their prayers. We are to pray to our Father for all of our needs, trusting that our God who provided bread, manna, in the desert to the Israelites, will provide for our needs as well. It is a reminder that we can depend on our God, as Jesus tells us: “Therefore, I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat, or drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds in the sky; they do not sow or reap, they gather nothing into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are not you more important than they?” (Mt. 6:25-26)
Notable to me in this selection of psalms are the prayers of desire for God: ”As a deer longs for streams of water, so my soul longs for you, O God. My being thirsts for God, the living God. When can I go and see the face of God?” (42:1) “O God, you are my God—for you I long! For you my body yearns; for you my soul thirsts, like a land parched, lifeless and without water.” (63:2) It is a reminder to me that we do not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God and by the bread of life, Jesus.
As our Lenten journey continues, let us recognize our dependence on God for everything. Let us recognize our own deep need and thirst for our God.
Do you have any insight on the use of day twice.....I'm sure there is some higher meaning....this day and then ... daily bread? I'm always looking for the fuller depth to enrich my prayers.
ReplyDeleteAccording to Jerome Biblical commentary: Matthew version word translated as daily has uncertain meaning. Has an eschatological (future oriented) context linking it to prayers for the kingdom and the Messianic banquet. Luke daily may be translated day after day, eschatological interpretation gives way to more pressing problem of each day - to have food. Also has a Eucharistic connotation. So has multi-layers of meaning.
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