Singing with Jesus: The Lord's Psalm

We shouldnt be too surprised if Jesus the Son of David was also a song writer. The Lords Prayer is a psalm and reading the prayer as a psalm opens up its meaning.To read the Lords Prayer as a psalm you have to be able to read a psalm as a psalm. So this book is first of all an adventure in reading the Bibles poetry--the psalms of course but also much of the prophets testimony. The Old Testaments poetry is rich in themes important to the Lords Prayer: heaven and earth kingship and covenant prophetic teaching and repentance priesthood and redemption.Jesus brilliantly brings these strands together in the prayer through which he taught his disciples to pray. Much richer than a laundry list of petitions the prayer beautifully affirms the counter-cultural kingdom of the only true God. It commits us to merciful behavior and full dependence upon--and contentment with--Gods provision. The prayer is a plea that the rift between Gods authority and this earth would be healed . . . all organized around images of Israels experiences in the Exodus.