Our daily bread
Question 104 answers that in the fourth petition we pray that of God's free gift we may receive a competent portion of the good things of this life, and enjoy his blessing with them. Every meal is received as grace, ‘enough’ is met with thanks, and our neighbour's bread is asked for with our own.
This week's questions
What do we pray for in the fourth petition? In the fourth petition, which is, Give us this day our daily bread, we pray that of God's free gift we may receive a competent portion of the good things of this life, and enjoy his blessing with them.
Question 104
Having asked for God's name, kingdom and will up to last week, the prayer now comes down to our needs. Chrysostom, bishop of Constantinople, notes that because the Lord spoke to people in the flesh, not to angels without appetite, "He now descends to the needs of our bodies" Chrysostom. God wants even our hunger in our prayers.
Free gift, competent portion
The answer's first key is "free gift". Even the meal we worked hard for is a gift: "Every good and perfect gift is from above" (James 1:17), and it is the LORD "who gives you the power to gain wealth" (Deuteronomy 8:18). Matthew Henry, the English minister, puts it simply: "We beg of God to give it us; not sell it us, nor lend it us, but give it" Matthew Henry.
The second is "a competent portion": enough. Its proof text in Proverbs asks for neither too little nor too much, and its word is the catechism's own:
Keep falsehood and deceitful words far from me. Give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the bread that is my portion. Otherwise, I may have too much and deny You, saying, ‘Who is the LORD?’ Or I may become poor and steal, profaning the name of my God.
Proverbs 30:8-9
Jacob at Bethel asked only that God would provide him "with food to eat and clothes to wear" (Genesis 28:20). In the wilderness the people were to "gather enough for that day" (Exodus 16:4), and manna kept overnight bred maggots (Exodus 16:18-21). "This day" is a prayer of daily dependence. It is not a reason to stop working: Paul tells those who will not work to work quietly and earn their own living (2 Thessalonians 3:10-12), and Jesus promises, "seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you" (Matthew 6:33).
The third is "enjoy his blessing with them". The last proof text tells what thanks at table does:
For every creation of God is good, and nothing that is received with thanksgiving should be rejected, because it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer.
1 Timothy 4:4-5
The Heidelberg Catechism prays that God would provide for all our bodily need, "that we may thereby know that thou art the only fountain of all good, and that without thy blessing neither our care and labor nor thy gifts can profit us" Heidelberg Catechism, Q. 125.
Daily, and ours
The Greek word for "daily", , is almost unknown outside this prayer, and its meaning is uncertain: "for today", "needful", or "for the coming day". Jerome, the translator of the Bible who lived in Bethlehem, reports that the Gospel according to the Hebrews gave it as tomorrow's bread Jerome. Some Fathers read the petition of our bodily bread and also of Christ, the bread of life, and of the Eucharist. Cyprian, bishop of Carthage, writes: "For Christ is the bread of life, and this bread belongs not to all men, but to us" Cyprian. Catholic and Orthodox worship has kept that sense beside the bodily one. The Reformed catechisms read the petition of what the body needs Larger Catechism, Q. 193, and Martin Luther's Small Catechism, taught in the Lutheran churches, calls daily bread "Everything that belongs to the support and wants of the body", from food, clothing and house to "good government, good weather, peace, health" Small Catechism, the fourth petition.
"Give us" sets our neighbour's table beside our own. James asks what good it is to wish a hungry brother or sister well and give them nothing (James 2:15-16). An old commentator who wrote under Chrysostom's name says that "all things that God gives us He gives through us to others, that of what we receive of Him we may impart to the helpless" Pseudo-Chrysostom. See also How should I think about money?, How can I overcome anxiety? and, on work, Vocation: every sphere of life.
To ponder this week
Do you give thanks for "enough" this week, and whose daily bread does your "us" include? Give thanks, however briefly, each time you sit down to eat. And once this week, pray for a neighbour who struggles to put food on the table, and share something, however small.
Practice
- Practice 1 of 6
According to Question 104, what do we pray for in the fourth petition?
- Practice 2 of 6
Why does the writer of Proverbs 30:8-9 ask for neither poverty nor riches?
- Practice 3 of 6
Which proof text of Question 104 says that food received with thanksgiving is sanctified by the word of God and prayer?
- Practice 4 of 6
Which is true of the Greek word epiousios, translated "daily"?
- Practice 5 of 6
What does the Heidelberg Catechism (Q. 125) ask that the fourth petition teach us?
- Practice 6 of 6
Which pairing of a witness with his reading of "daily bread" is accurate?
Reading to the end marks it read; tap to switch it.
Related topics
Lessons from the Bible, the church's creeds, the Westminster Shorter Catechism and the Reformed confessions, the Fathers and classic commentary. They teach the Catechism as the Reformed churches' own, a week at a time, and present both sides where the Reformed differ, and other traditions' views, fairly. Scripture quotations: BSB.