Category: Articles

In Isaiah 54:17, we read

¹⁷ No weapon formed against you shall prosper,
And every tongue which rises against you in judgment
You shall condemn.
This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord,
And their righteousness is from Me,”
Says the Lord.

The following table provides the equivalent values of the words in the last two lines:

Hebrew	Value	English
וְצִדְקָתָ֛ם wə-ṣiḏ-qā-ṯām	640	and their righteousness [is]
מֵאִתִּ֖י mê-’it-tî	451	from Me
נְאֻם־ nə-’um-	91	says
יְהוָֽה׃ Yah-weh.	26	Yahweh
	1208

The sum 1208 has 8 divisors {1, 2, 4, 8, 151, 302, 604, 1208}. The sum of the divisors is 2208, so that the Arithmetic Mean is 2280/8=285. But 285 is the identifier of the Lord’s Prayer in the Gospel of Matthew.

Book#	Chapter#	Verse#	Sum
40	6	9	55
40	6	10	56
40	6	11	57
40	6	12	58
40	6	13	59
			285

CONCLUSION: When we pray the Lord’s Prayer, we receive our righteousness from Yahweh, the Lord our God.

In Psalm 19:12-14, we read:

¹² Who can understand his errors? cleanse thou me from secret faults.

¹³ Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me: then shall I be upright, and I shall be innocent from the great transgression.

¹⁴ Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength, and my redeemer.

The Book of Psalms is the 19th book of the Bible. So the identifier of Psalm 19:12-14 is 153.

Book#	Chapter#	Verse#	Sum
19	19	12	50
19	19	13	51
19	19	14	52
			153

CONCLUSION: When we pray the Lord’s Prayer, we petition our Father to forgive our secret and presumptuous sins, and to let the words of our mouth and the meditation of our heart be acceptable in His sight,

Two things in our religion have come to us directly from Jesus himself – the Lord’s Supper and the Lord’s Prayer. He bequeathed to them these two ordinances which they were to preserve just as they had come from his hands – the Supper which tells us what he did for us, and the Prayer which sums up what he taught us. These two acts of worship have a place by themselves in our religion, and are like the two poles of which it turns. A Christian service would be complete if it consisted only of an observance of the Supper and a repetition of the Lord’s Prayer. Between them they represent everything that we believe, and they are necessary to each other.  We cannot rightly say the Prayer without remembering the Cross, and we cannot celebrate the Supper unless we mean to follow the way of Jesus in our daily lives. In all times, men have been conscious that in these two gifts Jesus gave us everything, and the chief aim of Christian thought has been to discover the full significance of the Lord’s Supper and the Lord’s Prayer.

Ernest Findlay Scott (1868 – 1964) was “Professor Emeritus of Biblical Theology” of the Union Theological Seminary.

Hebrews 12:1-4 give us the reasons to persevere in our fight against sin:

¹ Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that weighs us down and the sins that so easily distract us and with perseverance run the race that lies ahead of us, ² with our eyes fixed on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith. For the sake of the joy that lay before him, he endured the cross, ignoring its shame, and is now seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

³ Reflect on how he endured such great hostility from sinners so that you may not grow weary and lose heart. ⁴ In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.

Verse 2 tells us how to persevere, and that is, by having our “eyes fixed on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith.” In the Greek version (Greek NT: Scrivener’s Textus Receptus 1894) the first 9 words correspond to “with our eyes fixed on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith.”

The total value is 7873, which is the 994th prime number. There are 167 prime numbers less than or equal to 994. The divisors of 167, which is also a prime number, are {1, 167}. Hence, the sum of divisors is 168, which is the identifier of the Lord’s Prayer in the Gospel of Luke.

SUMMARY: The Lord’s Prayer is a means to fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and the perfecter (finisher) of our faith.

	Hebrew	English	Value
1	קַוֵּ֗ה qaw-wêh,	Wait	111
2	אֶל־ ’el-	on	31
3	יְה֫וָ֥ה Yah-weh	Yahweh	26
4	חֲ֭זַק ḥă-zaq	Be of good courage	115
5	וְיַאֲמֵ֣ץ wə-ya-’ă-mêṣ	and He shall strengthen	147
6	לִבֶּ֑ךָ lib-be-ḵā;	your heart	52
7	וְ֝קַוֵּ֗ה wə-qaw-wêh,	and Wait I say	117
8	אֶל־ ’el-	on	31
9	יְהוָֽה׃ Yah-weh.	Yahweh	26

From Barnes Notes on the Bible, we read:

Wait on the Lord – This is the sum of all the instruction in the psalm; the main lesson which the psalm is designed to convey. The object is to induce others, from the experience of the psalmist, to trust in the Lord; to rely upon Him; to come to Him in trouble and danger; to wait for His interposition when all other resources fail. Compare Psalm 25:3.

Albert Barnes (1798-1870),  a Presbyterian minister who produced a number of valuable commentaries on the Bible. He wrote Old Testament commentaries on Job, Psalms, Isaiah, and Daniel, and a complete set on the New Testament.

The expression “Wait on Yahweh” gives the sum 111+21+26=168, which is the identifier of the Lord’s Prayer in the Gospel of Luke.

CONCLUSION: When we pray the Lord’s Prayer, we are placing our trust in the Lord, relying upon Him, coming to Him in trouble and danger, and waiting for His interposition when all other resources fail.

Discussions

The Lord’s Prayer and Psalm 27:14 share a profound spiritual connection through their emphasis on trust in God and the seeking of His guidance and strength.

1. Dependence on God: The Lord’s Prayer begins with “Our Father in heaven,” which immediately establishes a relationship of dependence and trust in God, similar to Psalm 25:14’s encouragement to “wait on the LORD” and rely on His timing and wisdom.
2. Seeking Guidance: In the Lord’s Prayer, we ask for God’s will to be done on earth as it is in heaven, reflecting a desire for divine guidance in our lives. This mirrors the sentiment in Psalm 27:14, where waiting on the Lord implies a trust in His guidance and decisions for our lives.
3. Courage and Strength: Psalm 27:14 mentions being of good courage and that the Lord shall strengthen the heart. This idea of seeking strength from God is inherent in the Lord’s Prayer, especially in the plea “lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil,” which acknowledges our need for God’s strength to face life’s challenges.
4. Patience and Faith: Both passages call for patience and faith in God’s timing and plan. The Lord’s Prayer, with its focus on daily sustenance and forgiveness, teaches us to live day by day under God’s care, while Psalm 27:14 emphasizes the importance of waiting for God’s intervention and support.
5. Spiritual Intimacy: The Lord’s Prayer is a model for intimate communication with God, and Psalm 27:14 also encourages a personal, trusting relationship with the Lord, highlighting the importance of a close, personal connection with God in the life of a believer.

In essence, both the Lord’s Prayer and Psalm 27:14 guide believers towards a life centered on trust in God, seeking His guidance, and relying on His strength and timing.