Sing The Lord’s Prayer
Pray then, in this way:
‘Our Father who is in heaven,
Hallowed be your name.
‘Your kingdom come.
Your will be done,
On earth as it is in heaven.
‘Give us this day our daily bread.
‘And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
‘And do not lead us into temptation,
But deliver us from the evil one.
[For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.’]
Matthew 6:9-13 (Legacy Standard Bible)
The Lord’s Prayer has been the central prayer of the Church since our Lord Jesus Christ taught us how to pray it during His incarnation (Matt. 6:9-13). This prayer is recorded in two of our Gospel accounts, both in Matthew and in Luke (11:2-4). The four Gospels being the first recognized books of the New Covenant[1], the early church recognized the importance of the Lord’s Prayer. As this article delves into the historical importance of the Lord’s Prayer and its importance to the Church now, may you be encouraged to learn and put into practice praying the Lord’s Prayer as an individual, a family, and as a church, but also encouraged to learn how to sing The Lord’s Prayer as an individual, a family, and as a church.
The Didache, an early writing on church order, says,
“You shall not pray like the hypocrites but like the Lord commanded in his gospel; in this manner you shall pray: Our Father, who is in heaven, your name shall be made holy, your kingdom shall come, your will shall come to be as in heaven and upon earth; you shall give to us our bread for our need today, and you shall forgive us our debt as also we are forgiving our debtors, and may you not bring us into a trial, but you shall rescue us from the wicked one, since it is your might and glory into the ages. You shall pray three times of the day in this manner.”[2] (Emphasis added).
Note the command at the end, “You shall pray three times of the day in this manner.” Saint Hippolytus gives a similar command to the church, not only praying the Lord’s Prayer three times a day (morning, afternoon and evening) but praying the Lord’s Prayer three times, three times a day, praying thus to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.[3] In the early church, most Christians did not have access to the Holy Scriptures; they would hear the Holy Scriptures read, sung, preached, and tasted on the Lord’s Day, the Day of the Lord, in the corporate gathering of God’s people for worship. There was no “quiet time” with the Bible during the week for most Christians. So what did devoted, Christian “quiet time” look like in the early church? It was prayer; more specifically, it was the Lord’s Prayer.
It is recorded that new converts in the early church, called catechumens, were to learn the Apostles’ Creed and the Lord’s Prayer before their Holy Baptism.
So important is the Lord’s Prayer in the life of the Church that most of the liturgies of the church–early, reformation and present–include it. Most protestant prayer books include the Lord’s prayer in their morning and evening prayers. The Lord’s Prayer is part of the daily office of the Christian.
If you were to stumble in during a Roman Catholic Mass, or the Divine Service of an Eastern Orthodox Church, Lutheran, Anglican churches, you would most likely hear or pray the Lord’s Prayer at some point in the service. Sadly, in most churches in America today, including Reformed churches, the Lord’s Prayer is rarely heard recited among the congregation on Sundays.
Praying the Lord’s Prayer has diminished as a practice in the evangelical world today. Many Christians today would say praying the Lord’s Prayer is rote and not heartfelt–cold, dead religion. Others would say it’s “too Catholic.” To be sure, there are probably other excuses, but these two are the most prominent, and they are extremely poor excuses.
Our Lord Jesus Christ gave us the Lord’s prayer, not only as a model for prayer, but a prayer in itself. The Church has recognized this, both in the early church and in the reformation period. It is high time we recover this practice in our churches today.
Why should we do this, you might ask?
Our Lord Jesus taught us this prayer and told us to pray it. Simple and enough in its own right.
The Church has recognized the Lord’s Prayer as central to the Christian Life. As Reformed Christians, we believe in tradition (just without that capital T) and hold to tradition insofar as it bows to the authority of Holy Scripture.
It is a tool for discipleship. Memorizing the Lord’s Prayer is memorizing Scripture. If you have children, teach them to memorize the Lord’s Prayer, they’ll be memorizing Scripture as well!
When you find yourself in seasons of dry prayers, when you don’t know how or what to pray, you can simply pray the Lord’s Prayer.
The Lord’s Prayer can and should be part of the liturgy of your church. If the Church is praying the Lord’s Prayer every Lord’s Day, on the Day of the Lord, that is a church that is transforming the world. “Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”
I could continue on as to why we should recover the art of praying the Lord’s Prayer, however, now I want to convince you to recover the art of singing the Lord’s Prayer in your homes and churches. Praying the Lord’s Prayer is one thing (and it’s a good one thing) but it is another to sing the Lord’s Prayer (and this is a very good another thing).
Our Lord sings over us (Zeph. 3:17), should we not sing back to Him in the exact way His Son taught us to pray? We are also commanded in Scripture to sing over one another (Eph. 5:19) and singing the Lord’s Prayer to and with one another each Day of the Lord would cause transformation to sprout in hearts and the Church as a whole. What a beautiful thing to hear even the smallest voices in the church singing out for the Lord’s will to be done!
Singing glorifies speech. [4] Singing glorifies prayer. Singing glorifies the Lord’s Prayer.
Singing glorifies your day. Picture this: Singing the Lord’s Prayer in your car on the way to work. Singing the Lord’s Prayer while you're doing the dishes, mopping the floor, folding the laundry. Sing the Lord’s Prayer while your homeschooling your children, showing them what it means to orient your life to God’s will and not your own. “Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”
If we learn to sing the Lord’s prayer as individuals, in our families, and in our churches, the Church is glorified, God is glorified. Below I’ve attached a version of the Lord’s Prayer that you can begin singing right away. I’ve also attached a video link of two lovely ladies from a church up in West Virginia, singing this version of the Lord’s Prayer.
Men. Sing the Lord’s Prayer.
Women. Sing the Lord’s Prayer.
Husbands and Wives. Sing the Lord’s Prayer.
Fathers, Mothers and Children. Sing the Lord’s Prayer.
Church. Sing the Lord’s Prayer.
[1] In Saint Ignatius’ writings, he recognizes the four Gospels as Scripture.
[2] The Didache.
[3] Hippolytus, “On Apostolic Tradition”.
[4] Jim Jordan